Keep your energy for Madison!

After about 15minutes, the chef hands you a meaty sub and demands your review when you inevitably come back for more. He's clearly confident in his skills and if your breakfast is anything to go by, you don't see any reason to doubt him.

After grabbing the offering you decide to actually go back to your office and start reviewing security protocols and the situation as a whole. The time passes by quickly as you start to see the bigger picture and surprisingly some holes in security.

After looking at who was in charge before you, those holes started to make sense. The previous head of security was a retired navy admiral, he left about 2 months ago and since then mister Reaves had been filling in. Reaves had only changed a very few things and although it allowed for a quicker reaction time in case of crisis it also left the entertaining areas more ****.

Reaves revisions don't surprise you at all, it's how he was trained. He identified the priority of protecting the House's employees and geared security to be optimal in case of an all-out invasion by potential enemies. However, you suspected the holes had more to do with the numbers rather than expertise. The admiral setup also had holes although in what you would consider more sensible areas, it became apparent to you that it was a question of covering what you could with what you got without forgetting that response time was also important.

The problem was that the House was only hiring highly competent and thoroughly vetted people, an **** case of quality over quantity type of hiring. You understood why but saw that they missed a very important fact about military operations in general. They were a shadowy organization and very rich, hiring the top of the crop seemed only like a smart move for them but in truth, it only left them understaffed.

Almost every member of the security crew could probably lead a security team for any important organization or famous person out there. Vetting was obviously paramount but hiring some less well-rounded while still capable soldiers was a very easy fix. They overestimated the value of competence when it comes to building an effective defense, the most important quality was loyalty.

You knew all too well that a soldier didn't need overwhelming competence to save someone life, it was nice but willingness was by far the most important factor for the vast majority of the unit. In your experience, competence was the most needed at the top. That's what leadership is all about, making average soldiers better and function efficiently.

You firmly believe that what makes a good leader has nothing to do with giving orders, that's easy. What is harder is to take a unit and make sure everyone has their roles and knows what's expected of them. To know a soldier's shortcomings and either work around them or use another soldier to cover the gaps. When a soldier knows what his leader expects and that those expectations are within his limits, he can act on his strengths and trust his weaknesses will be covered. That soldier can make decisions because he knows those decisions are what his leader will expect coming from him.

So although only hiring super-competent people looks good on papers, in practice, you shot yourself in the foot. Now you have a bunch of soldiers who only manage what's expected of them personally and not of the unit as a whole. That doesn't affect the competence of the unit but it does affect cohesion and the sense of belonging you find so often in the military. A soldier who feels like he belongs will fight 10 times harder to protect his own. And that's what The House is sourly lacking, those military guys are loyal to the House but not necessarily to each other.

The question was if it was a good idea to be asking to change their philosophy before you even officially took your position here, you were almost sure Madison would at least ear you out but you suspected changing the hiring process, even only for your own department, could lead to some friction.

Looking up from the data pad, you see that you'll have the opportunity to find out now apparently.