The Foreign Service Journal, September 2016

30 SEPTEMBER 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL African-American U.S. consul general. I am told that my assign- ment prompted some Catalans to ask, “What have we done? Have we angered the U.S. government?” In the best of circum- stances, Barcelona was a very closed society, but I was deter- mined to gain entry and respect—and I did just that. When I departed three years later, the Catalans hosted a farewell dinner for about 300 guests for me at the king’s palace, got a taped message from President Ronald Reagan complimenting my work and brought my parents over to attend the festivities as a surprise. Lastly, I remain in touch with Catalan friends and contacts. I still work with the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce on women’s empowerment issues and joined with them and the Manhattan and New Delhi Chambers of Commerce as a found- ing member of the International Women’s Entrepreneurial Chal- lenge, an organization I chair that is designed to create a global network of successful international businesswomen. FSJ: What was your least favorite posting and why? RAD: On account of language difficulties, Tokyo was my most challenging post. I did not occupy one of the few language- designated positions in the embassy and, consequently, arrived without language training. I had to rely on our locally employed (LE) staff to translate in visa interviews and other business that required local contacts, which was frustrating. Later, as director of the Office of Training and Liaison, as director of FSI and as DG, I pressed for more language-designated positions and more and improved language training. FSJ: What life lessons did you learn as a consular officer? What did you like most and least about consular work? RAD: The nature and volume of consular work gave me the opportunity, from the beginning of my career, to manage resources and people, especially LE staff. So early on I learned to manage a diverse workforce, while developing an apprecia- tion for the work of our LE staff. In fact, it is consular work that piqued my ongoing interest in leadership and management. Working daily with the public, both foreigners and American citizens, gave me the opportunity to hone my customer service skills; and starting out in African countries where there were significant numbers of American missionaries, I also learned the relevance of religion to U.S. diplomacy and development objectives. Having studied social welfare, I was especially attracted to American Citizen Services. I was most frustrated by work- ing with officers who refused to see the value in serving in a consular tour. I believe consular work offers a unique learning experience, but that it is problematic to assign non-consular- coned officers to a second consular tour—as has been the case for far too many FSOs who want to get experience in their chosen career track as soon as possible. This is why I am a proponent of the Consular Fellows Program, which should be expanded to free up personnel to pursue their assigned cones. FSJ: You were very involved in planning for U.S. participa- tion in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and in helping Atlanta win the bid to host the 1996 Olympics. Do you have any lessons on “Olympics diplomacy” to share? RAD: While serving as CG in Barcelona, I was the consular corps’ liaison to the Barcelona Olympic Organizing Commit- tee. That positioned me to not only work on the 1992 Olympic concerns of the countries represented in Barcelona, but to be an informal liaison for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, which was bidding on the 1996 games. It was a special privilege to travel to Tokyo with the ACOG for the announce- ment awarding my hometown the 1996 games, knowing that I had an active role in making the bid process successful. Working with the 1992 and 1996 Olympics, the latter as principal deputy assistant secretary for consular affairs, gave me a fine appreciation of the value of sports diplomacy in strength- ening relations between the United States and other nations, and of the important role the United States plays in making the Olympic Games successful—the Bureau of Consular Affairs for its information sharing and protection of American citizens, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and, most signifi- cantly, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security that works with host- country counterparts to help ensure safe and secure games. FSJ: During your tenure as director of the Foreign Service Institute from 1997 to 2001, you focused on moving the institu- tional culture from being training-averse to training-committed. “ It is not enough to be the first. That achievement must be followed by a concerted effort to ensure that I am not the last. ”