In the spring of 2021, Raymond (Ray) Jefferson applied for a job in President Joseph Biden's administration. Ten years earlier, false allegations were used to force him to resign from his prior U.S. government position as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans' Employment and Training (VETS) in the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Two employees had accused him of ethical violations in hiring and procurement decisions, including pressuring subordinates into extending contracts to his alleged personal associates. The DOL Office of the Inspector General (OIG), headed by an interim inspector general, supported their claims. The Deputy Secretary of Labor gave Jefferson four hours to resign or be terminated. Jefferson filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. government to clear his name, which he pursued for eight years at the expense of his entire life savings. Why, after such a traumatic and debilitating experience, would Jefferson want to pursue a career in public service again? The case explores Jefferson's personal and professional journey from upstate New York to West Point to the Obama administration, and how he faced and addressed adversity at several junctures in his life. The case allows instructors to discuss resilience, career pathways and derailment, leadership style, and the pursuit of passion.

Rosalind Fox, the factory manager at John Deere's Des Moines, Iowa plant, has improved the financial standing of the factory in the three years she's been at its helm. But employee engagement scores-which measured employees' satisfaction with working conditions and enthusiasm about their work- have remained lackluster. As the first Black female factory manager to lead the plant, Fox considers how to build stronger bonds with her staff, who are mostly white men. The case describes how Fox took charge and established her credibility while building and nurturing a diverse leadership team. In addition to discussing Fox's current role, this leadership case chronicles Fox's career trajectory from her college years in Missouri through her time at Ford Motor Company and later, rising up the ranks at Deere & Company. The case discusses the pressure Fox has felt to assimilate into the dominant white male cultures and figure out how much of her authentic self to bring to work.

In this fictional case, an associate director of business development at a gaming company is selected for a prestigious cross-functional innovation group. When one of her peers in the work group isn't able to meet his deadlines because of his heavy workload, she picks up his slack. But at the end of the project, she needs to give him a rating in the company's new peer-feedback system, and she's worried that if she's honest, it will hurt his career and cause trouble for her. Should she give him the low rating she thinks he deserves? Or should she give him a pass this one time? This fictional case study by Anthony J. Mayo, Joshua D. Margolis, and Amy Gallo features expert commentary by Dan Goldenberg and Aiko Bethea.