Many years ago I was asked to speak at a ROTC Dining In.  If you know me well, you know that my preferred speaking style is best described as “informal”.  I don’t enjoy giving rousing, flowery talks that end up being scripted.  I’d rather speak extemporaneously about a subject I’m passionately interested in and then answer questions off the cuff.  I find it exhilarating.  So when I was asked to speak in this formal setting it took me awhile to wrap my arms around it.  In the end I came up with a talk which I’ve given many times since.  It’s evolved as I’ve fine tuned the message, but it’s the really the same speech.  It’s all about what I’ve learned about leadership from the best commanders I’ve served under.

You already heard part of the speech several weeks ago when I wrote about the integrity and consistency of leaders who feel strongly about what they believe in and demonstrate that by their actions.  Today you get part two.

I remember being a lieutenant.  In many ways those were the best years of my career.  Everything was new and challenging and I approached everything as an opportunity to be the best I could be.  No plans for the next job, just do today’s job the best you could.  When you’re a Lt your view goes out about as far as your next flight and as high as your squadron commander and anything beyond that really doesn’t matter.  I knew that there was a wing commander but all I really cared about was whether he’d make me wear a scarf or a dickie and whether he was really hard-over about it.  Someday I’ll explain dickies to you youngun’s.

It wasn’t until I was a Captain and an ART that I really took an interest in what kind of guy the Wing king was.  I actually got to interface with him on a regular basis and his policies directly affected my everyday work so it really mattered to me what his priorities were.  So there I found myself in 1990, or so, a senior captain, getting a new wing commander, wondering what the new guy was like.

Col Chris Joniec came to us from the strat world.  He had been a 141 guy forever and this was his first foray into TAC airlift and that made us all a little nervous.  However, it took about 5 minutes for us to realize that we had no reason to worry.

Self knowledge is very important in determining your leadership style and in identifying your shortcomings.  Some skills you can work on, develop and improve, but there are some abilities that I believe are gifts and if you don’t have it, you don’t have it.  Col Joniec has one of those gifts and try as I might, I just can’t get any better at it.

When he arrived on base we were in the process of gearing up for a dreaded ORI.  If you’re not familiar with the Operational Readiness Inspection process, suffice it to say that it’s an event that takes up way more time, money, manpower, and effort than the outcome can possibly justify.  It is the quintessential “practice bleeding”.  We were going to perform the ORI with another wing, which shall go unnamed, and we had planned our first get together which meant that they would fly over to Pittsburgh with all of their functional area experts and we would sit down with our counterparts and begin hashing out how we would tackle this thing.  The other wing arrived midday with about 70 folks and we gathered in the aircrew briefing room with our 70 people, pretty much broken up like high school cliques.  The two wing commanders rose to speak to the crowd and set the tone for the whole six month process we were about to embark on.  Col Joniec had been on base all of about 6 weeks but since he was the host he spoke first.  He gave the perfunctory greetings and then began to demonstrate his near miraculous skill.  He proceeded to introduce every one of his 70 or so folks not just by name but by job title, where they worked and even threw in a funny tidbit about them when appropriate.  Flawlessly, without pausing, without notes.  When he finished, he turned to his counterpart, who had been the wing commander at his base for several years, and gave him the floor.  Well, after what seemed like an eternity of silence, he looked around the room and said, “I’m going to let my folks introduce themselves”.  A truly brilliant response considering the position he found himself in.

I’ve always been jealous of the skill to remember names.  If everyone had a number I think I’d be OK, but I sometimes forget my own family member names.  It’s one of those skills that can really endear you to your people, but it’s not just remembering the names.  It really boils down to really being interested in their lives.  In their struggles, their ambitions, their shortcomings, their challenges, their families.  And not just paying it lip service, but really honestly caring.  Don’t kid yourself, people know if you really care.  And the proof is in how often people come to you with real problems.  As hard as it sometimes is, you have to be willing to listen to financial problems, marital problems, parenting problems, medical problems, spiritual problems and, yes, even dating problems.  The reward comes when they also share their victories and you see them flourish and mature.  If no one is asking you for advice then maybe you need to spend a little more time and effort investing in what really makes what we do possible, our people.