Dusty Wince traveled a long and winding road to get to where he is today. On this new phase of his journey, he is giving back to individuals on a leadership quest of their own.
As founder of the leadership consulting firm Aligned2, Wince is leveraging his personal and professional experience to help those in the GovCon space deliver their best work.
Through a collaborative executive coaching process that develops abilities to listen, anticipate and respond, “we’re helping to make sure that these organizations are running optimally, and that the leadership is strong,” he said.
Wince describes himself as the product of an “unstable” childhood: 12 schools in 12 years starting at age 5 helps to prove the point. He was 15 when his mother remarried, and that’s when things started to change.
His Air Force stepfather was transferred to Edwards Air Force Base in California, “and that’s where I spent the next four years, as a sophomore up through my first year of college,” Wince said. “What I didn’t realize is that I was learning the GovCon space at that time.”
He learned by watching how the military operates, discovering how to navigate that complex environment. Soon after college he landed his first GovCon job with Ross Perot-owned EDS, where he learned the ropes before going on to co-found Business Impact Systems.
“That was where I learned how to build a company, and we did it successfully,” he said. “In five years, we went from two people to 150 people and ended up selling that company to a public company in 2019.”
He went on to found Knowledge Consulting Group, where he learned to ride the ups and downs of the GovCon landscape before selling to ManTech International in 2015. He navigated the 2008 recession, as well as the 2011 sequestration and government shutdowns.
Post-acquisition, he stayed on for one year, enhancing his understanding of how GovCon works in the intelligence community. Then Wince struck out on his own again.
“I knew I wanted to do something else, but it wasn’t starting another GovCon company,” he said. “I wanted to serve other entrepreneurs. I wanted a platform that could help entrepreneurs — or help private equity companies and venture capital companies that invest in GovCons — make sure that those leadership teams were working properly.”
With this in mind, he got as certified as an executive leadership coach at Columbia University. Now, he brings a combination of coaching skills, along with his expansive experience, to benefit the professional journey of others.
At Aligned2, he and a partner focus their efforts on private equity and venture capital companies invested in the GovCon space. He is helping those investors to maximize their return by ensuring those GovCons runs well.
The ups and downs of 2008 and 2011 helped tailor his approach.
“Failures are going to happen, but they are really times for learning. We learn more from the things that don’t go right. I experienced that myself,” he said.
He also knows quite a bit about the importance of interpersonal dynamics in building an effective team.
“Relationships mean a lot, from the CEO down on,” he said. “Relationships drive leadership, and I had seen a lot of bad leadership and how it ruins organizations.”
In the GovCon arena, leaders face multiple challenges. In particular, they struggle with hiring, retaining and developing the best people.
To help executives address those challenges, Wince takes them on a journey of self-discovery.
“I want to make them more self-aware,” he said. “I make them aware of where their weaknesses are, using diagnostics to do that. They also get feedback from their peers, their direct reports and their bosses. It opens their eyes.”
For executives to improve, he said, they need to address personal growth with complete openness.
“They have to have an open mind about themselves,” Wince said. “They have to understand that they may not show up to their people in the manner they think. That’s what we are going to unearth, what we are going to discover.”
This kind of coaching has a direct business impact. Wince describes working with the leaders of a firm that had sold to a private equity partner for half a billion dollars.
“After three years of coaching, they sold for over $2 billion,” he said. “That wasn’t all me: They were really good people. But the coaching helped the team to be more like a team.”
This work is deeply personal to Wince, who has seen the big-picture economic impact a successful GovCon can have.
“If I can improve a leader, if I can improve a C-level group in a company, that’s going to improve many more people’s lives,” he said.
Outside of Aligned2, Wince takes special satisfaction in offering free coaching to young entrepreneurs.
“They come to the room ready to talk. They’re open, they’re honest, they’re eager,” he said. “I get a lot of joy out of that.”