Editor's Note: The following story highlights a veteran at Verizon committed to including talented members of the military community in its workplace. Verizon is a client of Hirepurpose, a Task & Purpose sister company. Learn More.

While he has a desk at Verizon's Global Network Management Center in Cary, North Carolina, you'll rarely find Aaron Francis seated on the job. Despite the injuries he sustained during his years in the Army, Francis says he prefers to spend his days "on the floor," building rapport and resolving network issues alongside his team. As the network operations and engineering supervisor, Francis spends every day putting the leadership skills he developed in the Army into practice with his diverse team of engineers, many of whom are reservists or veterans themselves.

"I've had to deal with people from different walks of life who were under extremely stressful situations, including those who were facing death," Francis says. "[This] has definitely honed my ability to be a calming and steadying influence, and to actually lead – not to be a boss, but to be a leader."