Porcelain on Steel

Donna McAleer | Porcelain On Steel

On Leadership

Fifteen years of writing on leadership, character, and country.

Donna McAleer

We can choose to become a leader others want to follow. Leadership is a transformational journey, one of refinement and distillation. Donna McAleer understands this journey – a leader’s burning desire to take charge, accept responsibility, inspire others, influence outcomes, be decisive, innovate, and function successfully.

Her eclectic background ignites and informs her compelling exploration of all facets of leadership.

All Posts

  • Watching the World Wake up from History — The Fall of the Berlin Wall

    Twenty years ago on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War ended. The echoes of the fall of the wall were heard around the world that night and…

  • Honored Role Series (Part 2): Becky Kanis – Armed Service and Social Service

    This is the second installment in the weekly Honored Role Series. As a junior high student in Franklin, Tennessee, Becky Kanis remembers the excitement and awe of fellow parishioners when they learned…

  • Honored Role: A weekly series about role models

    Between 1980 and 2008, 3,245 women graduated from West Point and have served selflessly in the Nation’s armed forces. Most of them, whether or not they still wear the uniform, are ordinary…

  • Honored Role Series (Part 1): Odessa Maxwell — An inner journey looking outward

    This is the first installment in the weekly Honored Role Series. Odessa Maxwell is the story of a soldier turned poet. A study of complexities and contrasts, Odessa Maxwell describes herself as…

  • Be careful what you wish for

    How often have we heard the saying, “be careful what you wish for, it just might come true”? Earlier this month when I learned that John Quinones, co-anchor of ABC News “Primetime”…

  • Leadership and mentoring in the news

    Akin to many women, I wear a myriad of “hats and coats”, including mom, wife, daughter, friend, writer, volunteer, and outdoor enthusiast. I am inspired often by the actions, involvement, excitement and…

  • We Can Handle the Truth

    Lt. Dan Choi and I co-authored an article published in The Daily Beast and Global Grind that gender and orientation are not relevant to the military mission. A soldier is a soldier.…

  • Isn’t Porcelain Fragile?

    It’s an epic battle of biblical proportions in writing. A title is the first impression a writer makes. The few words of a title are as important as the work itself. If…