Learn About Gaston Strategies

About the Author

John Gaston’s work ethic started as a 3rd grader, chopping, and picking cotton on a Mississippi Delta plantation near Sidon, MS. Throughout high school he worked in a men’s clothing store. During his studies at Mississippi State University, he worked in the cafeteria, YMCA, and the USDA crop research lab. He worked in bridge construction during his summers.

Within one year of graduating and being commissioned in the U.S. Air Force, he directed combat aircraft in Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta, during and after the ’68 Tet Offensive.

John Gaston brings forty-plus years of lessons learned from leading and managing a number of nationally recognized organizations within government and industry to the reader. He has led multiple diversely populated intelligence teams—including scientists, engineers, psychologists, physicists, chemists, and human- factors analysts—in assessing strategic foreign aerospace research, development, and test capabilities. He worked with CIA and DIA analysts and decision-makers in elevating national focus on foreign chemical and biological warfare capabilities, Soviet space activities, and advanced aerospace platform designs while orchestrating several successful information collection activities.

In Japan and Korea, he supervised teams in operational- intelligence, battle- management, and command- and- control functions.

He directed government and industry teams protecting some of the nation’s most sensitive, classified research, development, and operational programs, involving thousands of people, hundreds of suppliers, and billions of dollars.

During these years, he coached and mentored numerous young officers, civil-service SMEs (subject matter experts), and industrial security specialists in developing their technical, managerial, and leadership skills. Over time, many of these individuals received assignments involving much greater responsibility and authority.

He has lectured at national and international security conferences regarding the need to protect US trade secrets and proprietary information from foreign cyber-attacks and internal espionage activities.

His awards include Outstanding Civilian Career Service Award, USAF; Special Programs Security Specialist of the Year, USAF/AFMC; C- 17 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, Planning Team Member; James S. Cogswell Award, Team Leader, DOD/DIS; Security Education Activity of the Year, Team Leader, SAF/AQ; the Bronze Star medal; three Meritorious Service medals; four Air Force Commendation medals; Viet Nam Honor Medal, 1st Class; multiple USAF organizational awards with “V”; YMCA Golden Triangle Award; and the CYO Eagle of the Cross Award.

"My Goal..

To give all those men and women who have been selected for their first supervisory / management position a “go to” book for advice based on 40 plus years of doing things that worked and others that did not. Very few non-government organizations have programs in place that provide management and leadership training to “up and coming” organizational stars. Many large organizations will reimburse employee costs associated with college or professional courses taken outside business hours and may offer periodic seminars by recognized experts /consultants. Within government, only DOD will spend millions of dollars yearly to enhance the leadership, management and technical skill sets of its officer and non-commissioned officer corps."

Our Team

The one thing that separates us from so many other advisors and consultants is that we have over 40 years of hands-on, hard-core experiences within government and industry making decisions and doing things that worked and others that did not. We have had the honor to work for some truly outstanding leaders and managers and some that really feel short on the competence scale. From both we learned what worked and what did not.

John Gaston

Primary Advisor, Senior Partner and Author

Led and managed over 15 multidisciplined teams during 40 years in accomplishing very dissimilar functions and missions. Upon retirement, he authored "Twenty-Five Strategies for Organizational Success" from his 40 plus year collection of notes, lessons learned, papers and lectures.

Jean Gaston

Partner, Editor and Quality Assurance Officer

Over 15 years of experience in government and industry writing and editing technical proposals, instructional manuals and various government instructions for which she received special recognition from several organizations including the US Navy.

Gaston Strategies

Customer Review

Gaston's book provides great insight into managerial strategies and coping with the inevitable challenges that managing people brings. This should be considered a must-read - especially for people new to management. Book is a quick and succinct read as most content is bullet-pointed and easy to read. No drawn out paragraphs of repetitive information! Wish this book had been available years ago when I started managing people!

Michele Peed

Verified Purchase

Gaston Strategies

Review from Kirkus Reviews

See Review

Twenty Five Strategies for Organizational Success Book

About the Book

Mission Statement

provide the best advice and support possible to position individuals to achieve their personal, professional, and organizational goals in minimum time.

Website Excerpt “Strategy 6: Be a Leader”

Whether you are chosen by a committee or promoted from within to assume control of the organization, take charge. Do not assume. Ask those who selected you about their expectations and any specific goals, timelines, or restrictions.

When assuming a new position, let your leadership team know that you are there to lead and work with them in moving the organization to the next level. Let them know that you will challenge all their energies and creative thinking to provide customers with the highest quality products and services possible. Communicate the vision of making the organization the world standard for similar businesses.

Rules:

Lead by example.

Do walkabouts.

Talk with your people, listen, and answer questions.

Set the tone for establishing a positive work environment.

Set the standard for ethical and professional behavior.

Communicate the vision, mission, goals, and performance expectations of the organization.

Never let personal attacks on your integrity or credibility go unanswered.

Key Points:

Set the tone

Lead.

Set an example.

Be a visionary.

Be the number-one communicator.

Be a recruiter.

Reassign poorly performing managers.

Nurture the organization’s subject matter experts (SMEs).

Make continuous improvement (CI) a way of life.

Establish a network of advanced concept groups (ACG).

Being chosen to lead is a great opportunity. We put everything we have learned into play to make the organization more successful. What makes you a better leader is never allowing yourself to think that you know everything. You must expect to make mistakes and learn from them, as well as mistakes of others. Never be afraid of making decisions based on all available information. You must also be willing to modify or change a bad decision based on new information or a change in the original situation. Making no decision at all is much worse.

Successful leaders are in a constant learning mode, always learning from the best as well as the worst. Never forgetting who you are, where you came from, and the people who got you where you are enables you to put challenges in perspective, thus allowing better decisions and focus. Good leaders always take care of their people and they, in turn, take care of their leader.