Anniversaries can evoke lots of feelings and not necessarily good

ones! I recently crossed the 34 year threshold of military service and it

has caused me to reflect on how the Air Force has changed over the last

3+ decades.

 

As a young ROTC cadet in the mid-70’s, I clearly remember my

instructors warning me that one of the greatest dangers to the military is

careerism. At the time I was only vaguely familiar, let alone concerned,

with the concept. Sadly, I now am all too familiar with the process but

happily, I think the Reserve has managed to avoid the path that our

active duty brethren have staggered down. I think it’s worth discussing

what careerism is and how to walk the fine line between promoting

oneself and supporting the mission by promoting the best person.

 

Unlike active duty, we have the ability to promote someone to his

highest level of competence (and, hopefully, job satisfaction) and let him

serve a long career becoming an expert in that field. We can also

encourage and facilitate a truly gifted leader to reach as high as he wants

or can. Our greatest challenge is in communicating the possibilities and

limitations to individuals along the way. Here is where it’s critical for

supervisors to, for lack of a better word, mentor their people. I almost hate the

word because it compartmentalizes a concept that is, and should be,

flexible and situational, not rigid and programmatic.

 

If I’ve learned anything, I’ve learned that folks are motivated by

different things. It sounds incredibly obvious, but I’ve seen way too many

leaders with a monolithic style of dealing with every situation and every

person. An effective leader gets to know what motivates his people and

the only way to do that is to get to know them. The most effective

mentoring happens while you’re talking about tractors, or football, or

music, or kids or whatever THEY get excited about. That’s when you

learn about hopes and dreams and goals and frustrations and doubts and

fears and limitations. That’s when we can encourage and discourage career

decisions based on where they are and who they are.

 

Promotion for promotion sake is what we need to, no MUST, avoid.

When you ask someone why they want to move to a different position and

their first reason is; “so I can get a stripe,” warning bells should go off!

We all know someone, probably lots of someones, who left a job they love

for a promotion and then lived in misery but couldn’t go back.

 

We also need to recognize and respect special circumstances. Pressuring

someone to take a job that, although it’s the perfect opportunity, would result

in unmanageable family stress is irresponsible.  Again, nearly all potentially

disastrous situations can be avoided by getting to know people on a deeper level

than “How are you?” while passing in the hall.

 

We also need to let members know how important it is to participate in

their own career progress. What I mean is; they can help us to position them for

 

opportunities by letting us know what good things they’re doing. For example, I

have an “I love me” wall in my office at home. My graduation certificates,

diplomas, awards, and a plethora of other artifacts, worthless to anyone but me.

It all hangs on the wall by my desk, a future curse to my wife and kids after I’m

gone. If everyone kept a folder of “I love me” stuff in their desk it would

be much easier for your supervisor to write your OPR/EPR/Appraisal at the end of

the rating period and it would REALLY reflect what you’ve done.

 

Finally, and here’s the touchy one, outliving everyone else in the section

doesn’t mean you’re the next in line.  We can only succeed if we objectively pick

the right person for the job.  There is no right of entitlement in the military

and if the new guy is the right guy then he’s “the guy”!  The best choice I ever

made in selecting a squadron commander was picking someone from outside the wing

who had the right leadership style and skill set for the organization.  It

ruffled feathers, but in the end the squadron emerged better, faster, stronger.

 

(My hat’s off to Col Bly!)

 

Our greatest asset is our people and the only way to fully exploit that

asset is to encourage it, nurture it, and even occasionally cajole it.

In these times of tight budgets and economic uncertainty we need to make sure we

put the right people in the right place at the right level.