Leadership
From the cockpit to the boardroom
The weekend I graduated from Duke University with an AB in English, I took my oath of office and was commissioned as a 2LT in Army Aviation. In the next eight years, I became one of the first women to fly Apache helicopters, serving on three continents and leading two flight platoons and a line company.
I transitioned out of the Army by earning my MBA at the Tuck School at Dartmouth, then led outstanding teams in the corporate world, first in the medical device industry and then at Microsoft.
Community
Leadership in every area of our lives
One thing I believe: the world needs us to contribute our absolute best to the world. I was honored to found and lead the board and the $6.5M capital campaign to envision, capitalize and build a new library in our rural community. This is one of the things I’m most proud of in my life.
That experience in leadership and courage now shapes all my work: speaking, research and writing, online and facilitated leadership training at The Grit Institute, and teaching as faculty in the Tuck School of Business Leadership and Strategic Impact program.
What’s next? Finding a way to fund these programs for veterans and their families transitioning into the civilian sector, and to support continued leadership development for youth.
Writing
My writing wrestles with life by way of words to explore possibility.
After a family tragedy, I left the corporate world to write my first book North of Hope: A Daughter's Arctic Journey, and with that return to story, I never looked back. The Grit Factor: Courage, Resilience and Leadership in the Most Male Dominated Organization in the World was published by Harvard Business Review Press in September 2020.
Current published and pending work is primarily in non-fiction, both journalistic and creative, as well as poetry.
Life
Choirs, mountains and a year in France
In the midst of school and flying came skydiving, scuba diving, big-mountain climbing and long-course triathlons (also choirs and volunteering and writing).
I continue to work with our local library, and sometimes teach at our local schools as an artist-in-residence with Methow Arts. My husband and I are co-founders of Methow Episcopal, and our kids keep us busy, too. During the 2022-23 school year, our family undertook a grand adventure, moving to France to work and go to school (which would take more grit than we could have imagined). Our community in the alps of France will always be in our hearts, and our travel plans.
Favorite ways to procrastinate or wind down: Ted Lasso, failing to keep up with house cleaning, or giving in to other loves of reading, painting, singing, piano, and heading out in the mountains with the greatest adventure of my life, my husband Peter and two young boys (sometimes our dog Bonnie comes, too). Vices: good wine, good chocolate.
Next steps
Work with Shannon.
The Grit Institute
Lead Like Lives Depend On It.
One of the first women to fly the Apache helicopter, Shannon Huffman Polson is a keynote speaker on courage, resilience and purpose. She teaches leaders to thrive under pressure, build high performing teams in a culture of accountability, and lead with grit when it counts.