This story is part of a series on the members of the Brookfield Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame Class of 2025.
When people think of the military, they might think of guns and boats and planes and long deployments to far-off-places.
But, the military needs people with all kinds of skills. Wardell Jefferson learned that when he transitioned from being army combat engineer – a job that he said does not translate to civilian employment – to human relations specialist.
“That’s one of the things that I would like the students to know and understand – regardless of what you want to do, there’s probably a job for it in the armed services,” said the Brookfield High School Class of 1988 graduate. “You can go there, receive the training that you need in order to perform the job and get on-the-job training as you’re serving in the military. That’s what happened to me. When I retired, I had skills and experience from all the time I served in the military.”
Wardell Jefferson
In the military, you don’t see the HR specialization that is typical in private industry, Jefferson said.
“HR in the military is crazy because, if you’re an HR professional in the military, you’re responsible to know all aspects of HR,” he said. “In the army, it revolves around promotions, individuals getting promoted, you process their paperwork. Assigning people from one location to another. Awards, for when people do a great job. Moving individuals from one organization to another, you’ll cut the orders. It’s employee relations, they come to you with their problems. If they have a pay problem or a pay issue, it starts with an HR professional trying to figure out why it happened and what we need to do to get it fixed.”
Jefferson acknowledged that he did not have the discipline and drive that is associated with a military career when he came out of high school.
“I was one of them people that kind of went through the motions,” Jefferson said. “I was a little bit timid. I did what I had to do just to get by. When it came graduation day, I didn’t know what I was gonna do. I knew I loved football. I wanted to play football, but my grades didn’t support that dream of mine. I had an opportunity to go to a junior college, Potomac State in West Virginia, and my dad wanted me to go there, but I knew, or I felt in my heart, that I couldn’t be the student I needed to be to play college football.”
After a visit to an army recruiter, seeing videos of combat engineering and deciding that was cool, he enlisted. His plan was to do four years and then go to college. But, at the end of the four years, he wasn’t ready to leave, just to change his career path. A visit to the army retention center exposed him to human relations and he decided that was something he could do.
“My four-year journey in the army to figure out life turned into a 32-year career,” said Jefferson, who retired in 2021.
He went to college while in the army, earning associates, bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
After those 32 years, he wanted to get away from the army, so he took a job with the major spice company, McCormick and Co. Then, he formed his own company, Jefferson Group, and became a business consultant, often focusing on leadership.
“One of the really big things I like to hit the emerging leaders on is how to be an engaged leader, how to sit down and have a conversation with your people,” he said. “In this day and age of social media and technology, a lot of people want to communicate through email or text message, instead of sitting down and looking a person in the eye. That’s how you really get to the heart of what the issue is or you find out if they understand the task that you’re giving them.”
He added that it is up to a leader to reach someone where they live, not to make them come to you.
“Everyone wants to blame it on Gen Z,” he said of changes in society. “It’s not Gen Z. It’s us. We have to learn how to make them click and how to deal with them. A lot of people just don’t take the time to do that.”
