My Toughest Journey... (Three leadership lessons I use to this day.)

It is time for some fun now that I have gotten thru the boring stuff, & I have developed a small following. For those of you who have been watching me and supporting my witting, THANK YOU! The support is more than overwhelming. It is fueling me to write more to tell my story. I am not always correct in my opinions, but I promise you I am always growing. True beauty in life is growing... right?

This segment I would like to tell you about three out of hundreds of  life memories that made me the leader I am today. Since this is a part of the series "My Toughest Journey", I will keep this portion strictly military specific. I just feel it compliments well with the rest of this particular period of my life. If I feel the love off of this, then I will do more leadership lessons at a different time.  I hope you all enjoy this piece for it is special to me. If you have not read the other two segments of this series, I encourage you to take a look. The only thing I ask is that if you know someone who is close to you & this would resonate with , then please pass it along.

You can get more accomplished if you know how to listen more than speak...

This was more of an indirect lesson I picked up off of my first Air Force Commander. At first glance she seemed extremely introverted. For a young Airman coming out of a strict learning environment I would have expected the yelling to continue. That is the military right? She was always in ear shot of a crowd & understood the reality of any situation.

What she taught us was a dual piece gem of information that really set me on course for greatness. Her leadership style allowed for others to work through the static. You know those really deep prickly differences between your department managers? What she was able to do with this approach is trust the ones who have been appointed under her command. By stepping in she would detrimentally stunt their professional growth. Even though she didn't always speak first or often didn't mean she hadn't been listening to everything.

When she did have something to say it was powerful. She was able silence a room & create an ambiance of curiosity. Think of a time that you were in a meeting and someone spoke and you genuinely were able to shut out the world and truly listen. If you haven't had this particular experience you need to go have one. Her theory was "as a great leader, all of your obvious errors in judgement swirl in your mind as you make critical decisions." If you aspire to be a leader, then your voice is your sole value. The ones you serve will appoint you as a leader and they will also be the ones to determine your legacy in the seat.

My first commander ate last (all of them did), and was the last one off of the aircraft every time we landed (a couple of them did). She was last when it came to receiving everything always looking out for others. She was often the last one to have anything to say, but she was always listening.

Her leadership style allowed for others to work through the static. 

Please feel free come to me with your issues, but not without a suggestion towards a solid solution...

A more direct lesson that I cherish to this day. I once worked under the indirect leadership of a particular Colonel who had a leadership style that was a little against the grain. It was two degrees offset from the normal path. To this day I think about this leader and still learn from his teachings.

We just completed our annual "climate assessment" campaign. For those of you who do not understand this, it means everyone is strongly encouraged to rate/comment on their current work climate and its culture. After the results have been analyzed by leadership, we huddle in masses & smaller groups to discuss the outcomes. This allows our mighty force to address issues and look for possible solutions to increase the quality of the environment.

I do not know another leader who loved this time of year. His perspective was that you have a dedicated period of time to really work on innovation. He said "By studying surveys of the people you lead, you are able to hear what issues may need immediate attention". It seems like a pretty mundane concept, but he was really passionate about this. His direct order was for all of us to attempt to take it just as serious, & what happened next was pure leadership magic...

We went into our 1:1 meetings with the colonel. He wanted all of us to know that we can come to him anytime with any issues or just complaints. He figured you needed to get shit off of your chest before picking up and moving forward productively. The caveat to this opportunity was that immediately after the vent session, you needed to have a recommendation, further clarifying questions to the complaint, or an all out solution on a better way to do business with.

This allowed him to better understand the issue deeper than just a "checked box". He connected with us in a way that made us innovators to the process. Some of you notice that a lot of veterans are HR folks, project managers, & logistical experts these days. My opinion on this is due leaders like the Good Colonel. We were brought up to not look at life's problems, rather see them as opportunities to grow and innovate. If you had a remedy that wasn't going to work it would be explained why. If you had a great idea with an even better proposal... Then congratulations on your new special project! You would then be tasked with heading the project and seeing it thru. Is there a better way to have an opportunity to grow in your workplace?

He connected with us in a way that made us innovators to the process.

The best way to fail...

We just finished a large scale military exercise. Its contents are still classified, so I will spare the details. What I can tell you though was that it wasn't our units best performance. When the US Military conducts exercises (not to be confused with inspections), it has a goal to fail the masses. Now this comment is going to ruffle feathers, but try & follow me on this one. It is intended to expose weakness, evaluate all outcomes, strengthen your weak points, and come up with a solid plan to execute a better strategy. There is nothing wrong with failure as long as you find a way to grow.

I was in charge of mobilization operations of around 500 people. Anyone who has ever been a part of a troop movement would understand the precision required. The one moment you forget about the clock, you've destroyed your window of being successful. We were in day three of this particular exercise. A few things happened to me at this point of the exercise that I could have avoided.

• I stayed at work for over 81 hours before my group commander forced me to go home. She also ensured that I was not allowed to drive for safety reasons.
• At the 48 hour mark or so I ran out of gas in my car. Reason being is that I had to run some information across the base & was so tired I forgot to turn off my ignition when I got back. Who would have thought six hours later the tank would be dry.
• I was caught in numerous areas of the building sneaking cat like naps so that we could complete the mission.

This was extremely embarrassing & I do not recommend anyone try working a week straight without getting proper rest. We ended up failing this exercise tremendously. We missed complete movements that caused the entire operation to become unbalanced. We lost control of the clock. Now I had a great team around me with an even stronger leadership. We were also running 24 hour "real world" deployment operations, dealing with short staffing and extreme Air Force restructuring. This exercise had been postponed due to the fact that we just lost one of our own to a senseless motorcycle accident. Rest in peace Randy... So the odds were not in our favor to begin with. It wasn't just me overworked in this situation. The entire unit was in the same gear. It was the passion to see the mission to completion that drove us. We didn't stop to look at each other and make sure we were good. A simple element we did well just seemed to be overlooked. I was the time-keeper and I lost the clock. I let my team down, I disappointed my leadership, & I felt absolutely defeated. It is not easy to be the point man on so many larger scale operations, and defeat yourself.

What happened next was something that I can't wrap my mind around. I got my ass handed to me for the next 6 weeks. Panels of leadership from all over had something to say to me. I was clearly informed by certain superiors on how I was unfit for the project to begin with because of how "young" and "inexperienced" I was. I had one superintendent tell me he KNEW we were going to fail prior to me losing sight of the clock. This infuriated me! At the time I saw that as the weakest thing any leader can do to someone with all that was at stake. We ended up having a long conversation and for those of you who know me, I will let you imagine how that went down. What I was not prepared for was a huge lesson in leadership that isn't exercised enough in todays workplace.

This superintendent & I clearly didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things, but this man became one of the most influential people I have ever had the pleasure to serve under. He reminded me that there wasn't in fact anything much at stake. The entire event was just a practice for the real thing. I had lost myself in my own mind with a mentality to accomplish the goal at ANY cost. Once again not my best moment whatsoever. He assured me that he nor the rest of my leadership would allow me to give up and run from this experience. I was forced to keep moving forward and work on the mistakes that were made during the exercise. Every level was working on these areas so we could all grow. His lesson was that I needed to fail to see what it fails like. I was no longer being judged on my previous performance. Now I was being watched by every one of my leaders and peers to create a solution.

I was clearly informed by certain superiors on how I was unfit for the project to begin with because of how "young" and "inexperienced" I was.

Six months later we performed the actual exercise where the overall Air Force would be grading our capabilities. With the support of my team and leadership who allowed us to fail and would refuse to allow me to quit. The results were astonishing! We not only passed the exercise, but we got the best rating for the entire US Air Force. We went from being the embarrassment to the example. Leadership allowed us to teach best practices to all other 57 organizations that also played in the event. This was a time where I learned that it isn't about how you act in a situation as much as how you react to the outcome. For this I am forever grateful!