Tom Seamands
Meet Tom
Tom Seamands is a Senior Principal at McChrystal Group, dedicated to empowering people, teams, and organizations to unlock their full potential. By fostering trust, adaptability, and growth, Tom helps individuals and teams become the best versions of themselves while always upholding the responsibility to deliver exceptional results for both the team and clients. Guiding clients from where they are to where they should be is not only a challenge but a deeply rewarding experience that drives real, lasting transformation.
What did you do before joining McChrystal Group?
Before joining McChrystal Group, I was in the Army for over three decades, serving around the globe in assignments ranging from the tactical to the operational to the strategic levels. I spent the last 11 years as a general officer in and out of the Pentagon, leading the Army's HR enterprise, culminating as the Chief of People (G1) for the Army.
Why did you join McChrystal Group?
For the people, purpose, and mission. I missed it when I left the uniform and found it in abundance at McChrystal Group. The people are amazing and live by the ideal: Ship, Shipmate, and Self. The purpose is to help others be better. The mission is to make a difference in impacting people, teams, and organizations.
What has been your proudest moment at McChrystal Group?
There are so many of them, from seeing the McChrystal Group Team come together for a common purpose to seeing clients have an "aha" moment when they truly see and appreciate their potential.
Why are you passionate about leaders & teams?
Because I have seen the impact great leaders and teams can have, I saw it in uniform and in clients that range from sectors from gold mining to pharmaceuticals, public service, profit and non-profit, and large companies who want to retain their competitive advantage and smaller companies who want to be large companies. In the end, if you have the right leaders and the right teams, almost everything you can imagine is possible.
BS University of Dayton
MS Webster University
Postgraduate at Kennedy School, Harvard, and MIT
Written Articles/ Materials
Case Study
Building the Future of Emergency Management: FEMA Vanguard Executive Leadership Program
Today’s leaders in emergency management (EM) face a level of complexity, interconnectivity, uncertainty, and volatility far beyond anything seen before. Leading in this environment—where events have far-reaching impacts—requires integrative thinking, advanced problem-solving, predictive analysis, and coordinated communication across a range of organizations and teams. So, with such a daunting problem set, what's to be done? The FEMA Vanguard program was born out of the new reality facing emergency management to provide purposeful connections, enhance role awareness across all facets of EM, introduce new leadership frameworks focused on innovation, inclusion, and adaptability, and address pressing and emerging issues and solutions.
Insights
Tech Solutions for the Public Sector Talent Crisis
Modernizing talent management requires aligning workforce strategies with mission objectives, leveraging automation to enable AI success, and ensuring collaboration across silos to enhance the employee experience. Centralized data governance and continuous upskilling are essential for creating an agile, future-ready workforce.
How to Engage Your Team and Stave Off Burnout Amid Crisis
Burnout is heightened during crisis response, as energy and bandwidth are stretched thin. Research shows that once employees are burnt out, there's no quick fix. And many organizations' efforts to reverse burnout are unsuccessful. It’s paramount that leaders build resilience among their teams in periods of calm so they are prepared in times of crisis.
