Security leadership profile: Dave Komendat takes a broader perspective
As Dave Komendat, Vice President and Chief Security Officer at Boeing, prepares to retire this year, he reflects on formative moments that affected him and the lessons he’ll take with him into the next chapter of his career.
A little more than halfway through his career, Dave Komendat, Vice President and Chief Security Officer (CSO) at The Boeing Company (Boeing), had an interaction with a senior company leader that, in his words, set him back in his career.
“I did not realize at the time the implication of this interaction. It was a situation where you had two frustrated people talking at each other and neither one listening. In my case, as the junior person, I should have been in listening mode, but instead, I was focused on trying to win,” he reflects. The situation, he says, pushed him to look at himself and evaluate what kind of leader he wanted to be. “It was a huge negative at the time,” he says, “but ultimately it turned out to be a huge positive because it forced me to be introspective, and I learned that sometimes you need to stop talking and just listen.”