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Teamwork on Life's Road

Posted: 08/27/2008

Taking a humorous approach, Linda and Mark Washington shared stories of their profession, their marriage and their lives.

Taking a humorous approach, Linda and Mark Washington shared stories of their profession, their marriage and their lives.

Linda Washington is Assistant Secretary for Administration in the Department of Transportation, and Mark Washington, a former National Football League player, is President of the Washington DC Chapter of the National Football League Retired Players Association. In addition to respecting each other, Mark and Linda respect each other’s space and allow room for personal and career growth.

After 37 years of marriage, they appear comfortable describing what has helped them succeed. For Mrs. Washington, success came by developing people skills, and through adequate planning, sacrifice and perseverance. “For your goals, for your life, you have to have strategic plans,” she said. Her work in helping evacuate people during 9-11 reinforced her strategic planning skills. Just as she has applied planning throughout her career, her husband has applied it during game time.

Mark Washington described goals and the need for them to be “…reasonable, measurable, timely.” The Washingtons connected the need for goals and planning in the workplace to those needed as a member of a team. Mr. Washington explained: “First of all, you need to play as an individual and then you can play as a team. Some players have trouble when they try to play two parts at once.”

Excellence in playing as an individual is crucial to the team’s performance, he continued, noting that in a team, cohesiveness is essential as well as adequate preparation and trust in one another.

The Washingtons agree that another component of teamwork is perseverance. They both exemplify that: Mr. Washington’s Dallas Cowboys team persevered by practicing and analyzing until they mastered the play. Mrs. Washington persevered to acquire her job at the Library of Congress,