Successful federal leaders find their way through trying times and keep a sense of perspective. For Jim Short of the Defense Department, the early 1990s was a trying time.

He had served as chairman of the 1989 International Detonation Symposium, a public meeting where experts from around the world swap resea

“So many of our managers in the technical world are people who have been technically successful but not trained in people skills.” — Jim Short

rch on the characteristics of explosives. Three Iraqi scientists had registered to attend the meeting in Portland, Ore. Although their participation made Short “a little queasy,” Iraq was still on friendly terms with the United States at that time, so Short said it was OK.

Two years later, news media reports suggested the symposium had aided the Iraq weapons program, and, as Short put it, “all kind of crazy things happened, and I ended up having my security clearance suspended. ... It just doesn’t happen in my world. It was scary.”

An investigation by the Navy cleared up “a big misunderstanding, and ultimately I got my security clearance back,” Short said.

These days, he puts his scary experience to good use on behalf of the department.

Each quarter, he teaches a class of Defense criminal investigators “what it is like to deal with a scientist” and how world-class research depends on the open exchange of information and peer review. “Who would have ever dreamed, out of that negative interaction I had with investigators, would come this very positive thing. It helps them, and it helps me,” he said.

Today, Short serves as the director of Defense laboratory management, helping oversee and coordinate the department’s research and science labs. He is, once again, involved in tricky topics, such as how far the department should go to protect its technical information and how decades-old law applies to export control policy in an increasingly competitive global economy.

Short moved into lab management after spending more than 25 years in the labs as a research engineer, developing an expertise in explosives and warheads for missiles and torpedoes.

In a Pentagon conference room, he recounted the zigs and zags of his career. As a member of the Sputnik generation, Short’s career choice was swayed by the 1957 launch of the Russian satellite. He went to college to become an engineer, and later, in graduate school in California, joined the Army National Guard. He became a company clerk and “ended up literally being Radar O’Reilly,” he said, referring to the “M*A*S*H” television character.

After graduate school, he took a job in the private sector, but his heart wasn’t in it. His mother had made a career at the Social Security Administration as a claims representative, and Short said he soon learned that public service, not business, was his calling.

He went to the Navy’s White Oak Navy Ordnance Laboratory in 1978, working on warheads, and later serving as the head of an explosive-systems branch. During the early 1990s, he got involved in a program to improve the operation of Defense labs and helped with the initial efforts to ask Congress for leeway in undertaking small construction projects and revamping personnel rules.

Those experiences, combined with a stint in a personnel pilot project with the Naval Sea Systems Command, gives him hope that the new National Security Personnel System—which rolls out this year and will eventually cover all Defense civilians—will make it easier to manage scientists and engineers and meet their workplace needs, he said.

In particular, NSPS will focus managers on how they manage people. “So many of our managers in the technical world are people who have been technically successful but not trained in people skills,” he said.

The challenge in coming years for Defense leaders will be to find more effective ways of attracting scientists and engineers to replace the Sputnik generation, Short said. “What we need to do through leadership is create an environment to stimulate scientists and engineers to come into the public service,” he said.

The government can offer young scientists more responsibility earlier in their careers than the private sector can, and the Defense Department can appeal to young people who want “stimulating work” tied to national security, Short said.

“It is important to take advantage of the strong technical flavor of work that we can provide,” he said. “As we provide for the wants of the warfighter, we can also have a vision of what he will need out in the distant future. For a scientist or engineer, that is a very satisfying experience and influence to have.”

Stephen Barr writes the Federal Diary column for The Washington Post and hosts an online discussion each week at washingtonpost.com.