Tag Archives: Leadership

Chapter 90, Following

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I have been a very bad blogger.  I got caught up in the craziness of the holiday season and then I became totally obsessed with a remodeling project which I finally finished last week and now I’m months behind communicating with ya’ll.  One of you even emailed to ask if I was still alive and, other than a few work related scars from a basement that is way too short for normal humans, I am fine.  Thanks for caring!

One of the biggest challenges most folks face is dealing with a new boss.  No two leaders are the same and there are always preconceptions on both sides that need to be either confirmed or dissolved.  It’s something we all go through and not dealing with can destroy careers.  Here’s my philosophy.

1) Give him the benefit of the doubt.  Rarely does someone come to a new organization with the express purpose of destroying it or making your life miserable.  Their leadership style might be different than the one you prefer but, many times, it’s because the organization they came from had different needs.  It takes awhile to learn the dynamics of a new situation.

2) Listen.  The new guy wants to get up to speed as quickly as possible and will be, or should be, trying to pry as much background information out of you to come up with a strategy to move forward.   You, however,  need to know his history and perspectives and that knowledge will help you understand the source of his decisions.

3) Make his goals your goals.  If the guy is a metrics maniac then give him metrics.  If he wants kept up to date on every bit of minutiae then give him every last crumb.  If he just wants broad strokes then give him the big picture.  It makes no sense to butt heads over the simple stuff.

4) Don’t try to become him.  Just because he might like to run marathons or like hockey or love the Grateful Dead doesn’t mean you have do the same things.  He doesn’t need your nose planted firmly in his behind and if he does then he won’t last long anyway.

There is one great truth when it comes to any organization.  Given enough time it will take on the attributes of its’ leader.  I have seen this go very well and I have seen this go very badly.  If a leader is, let’s say, lacking in the integrity department he will gradually surround himself with like-minded people.  Eventually the organization will become infected to the point that the unspoken core values will be that of the leader.  It can take generations of leadership changes at all levels to purge the effects of one bad commander.

There have been an increasing number of incidents in the Air Force, and in the military as a whole, of a lack of integrity.  Cheating on tests.  Lying to the public and Congress.  Failing nuclear surety inspections.  Falsifying records.  You can try to assess blame at the lowest levels but when an attitude and policy of lawlessness is demonstrated at the highest level, it gradually works its way down through the ranks.  When the Commander-in-Chief is flagrantly breaking the law, almost daily, it sends an unspoken message that permeates through the military.  It’s up to you, who are still in, to keep the bar high.  The means are just as important as the ends.  What constitutes an illegal order?  What does the constitution, that you have sworn to uphold and defend, really say?  Unless we change direction I’m afraid many of you will have to make some career ending decisions when faced with the reality of those questions.

Be a good leader and a better follower. Don’t be sheep.

Chapter 86, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”

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Another week missed!  I think I was trying to catch up on sleep after two busy weekends of Cotton Patch.  Time to buckle down and type.

I like to think there are three different kinds of leaders.  I call this the Clint Eastwood theorem.  They are the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Named after the 1966 spaghetti western of the same name.  The “Good” is pretty self-explanatory as is the “Bad”.  The interesting ones are the “Ugly”.  These are the ones that actually get things done but it’s never on the straightest or most logical path.  It’s a pretty broad category but it’s also the most entertaining.

I’ve written several blogs about guys I’ve worked for.  Mostly commanders, but I’ve also worked for a variety of folks who were what we call “section chiefs”.  These are guys who are in charge of specific squadron functions like Current Operations or Scheduling, to name a few, but aren’t commanders.  They’re guys who are ambitious enough to take on a bigger job and hope to, someday, be given the opportunity to be actual commanders.  In other words, they’re getting to learn by making mistakes in a area  that won’t screw things up to badly for the whole squadron.

As a young Air Reserve Technician (full time reservist/civil servants for those unfamiliar with the program) you often find yourself the sole full-timer in a section trying to do what, on active duty, would be accomplished by a staff of five or six.  It’s one of the things that makes the reserves so efficient but it can mean a lot of pressure to manage the daily flying program.  There might be another four or five reservists in the shop, but they may only be there two days per month leaving you to do the lion’s share of the work.  On top of that, the section chief is usually a reservist and unless he fully grasps the reality of the workload, you can find yourself working for someone with, shall we say, unrealistic expectations.

I once had a reserve supervisor who had a highly successful civilian job but he had absolutely no management experience.  He would come in for the UTA (drill weekend) and decide that the entire program needed to be revamped.  He would brief the squadron commander of the new direction and promptly disappear for 28 days.  He couldn’t be reached, because he was too busy, and I was left fend for myself.  He would reappear on the next UTA and complain that his new program had not yet been implemented.  Because of him, I identified a new subset of the “Ugly” category.  I call it “I think, therefore it is”.

I’m sure, if you think about it, you can come up with someone that fits into this category and maybe we all do a little.  We can have all of the best intentions of doing or changing something but unless we actually DO something it won’t happen.  I see all of these programs to “raise awareness” about every disease or social ill but being aware is not “doing”.  You might feel good about how compassionate and caring you are but feelings accomplish nothing.  Leaders don’t throw out ideas and assume things will get done just because they’re in charge.  Leaders coach, mentor, manage, follow up and clarify when necessary.  These are skills that are learned through years of experience.  Years of observing those who have already figured it out and years of making mistakes along the way.  You just can’t take someone who has never managed anything but himself and put him in charge.

Thankfully, my ” I think, therefore it is” guy never became a commander.  Sadly, our nation is not so lucky.  The current healthcare debacle is a direct result of putting an “I think, therefore it is” guy in the White House.  Someone who has never run anything but his own life is trying to take charge of our lives.  His failure to take any interest in a process that will negatively impact the lives of millions demonstrates a complete lack of leadership.  He claims to be a visionary but the only vision he offers is a backwards look to the failed socialist policies of the last 100 years.

There’s no substitute for rolling up your sleeves and doing the hard work.  Managing without micromanaging.  Surrounding yourself with people who will tell you the truth not what they think you want to hear.  I pray it’s not to late.

Chapter 82 – “At the Core”

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First of all, I apologize for not posting last week.  I ended up catching a nasty cold from little Charlotte which I have now passed on to Peg.  So much for excuses, let’s move on.

One of the advantages of being retired is that you have a lot more time to reflect.  Of course you get to think about the future and the past but more importantly you have the time to reflect on a more philosophic level.  When you’re working that 40-60 hour work week, just trying to keep all of the balls in the air, you rarely have time to ask the hard questions of yourself and the organizations of which you’re a part.  Here’s an example.

I was thinking about the Air Force core values last week.  Those of you who have served, or are still serving, can rattle them off without thinking but for those who aren’t familiar, here they are.  Integrity first, Service before self, and Excellence in all we do.  For those not familiar with the concept of core values it’s pretty straight forward.  Members of the Air Force are expected to apply these precepts to everything they do.  They’re not difficult to understand concepts.  They’re intentionally short and to the point.  But, like most things, it’s the execution that can be difficult.

In my experience an organization, whether large or small, begins to crumble not when it’s members lose sight of its values and vision but when the leadership does.  As leaders we can say that we have a set of values that we expect everyone to follow but when it becomes obvious that we aren’t willing to follow them ourselves the organization will fail.  The best place to be, or maybe the worst, to see the results of that kind of failure is middle management.  There is the pressure from above to solve the problems and the demands from below asking for direction so if you want to get a real sense of an organization you need to ask the leaders in the middle.  That’s where I get most of my feedback and, sadly, I’m not very confident about the future of our Air Force.  Let’s apply those values.

Integrity first.  The military, of course, serves the executive branch.  And as much as you think the military should reflect higher values than its civilian leadership, the “style” of the executive branch does trickle down to the military.  If the executive branch has little regard for the rule of law, that attitude will eventually be reflected.  Since the force structure announcement of 2012 the Air Force has continually violated multiple laws by ignoring scores of FOIA requests and attempting to violate 10 USC 2687 just to name a few.  And, like most people, if an organization gets away with something once it makes it all too easy to try it again.  It’s a slippery slope of lost morality and integrity and sliding always starts at the top.

Service before self.  The Air Force has created a system that is diametrically opposed to the concept as a whole.  The officer corps, and increasingly the NCO corps, is organized under the structure of filling squares to position oneself for the next promotion, not to meet the increasing demands of the nation.  A system that encourages change for change sake.  Not to improve, but to make a name for oneself, to chase the rank, to move up or be moved out.  The Air Force can’t afford to drive out the brightest and best and keep the bloviators and bootlickers but it has created a system that does exactly that.

Excellence in all we do.  I’m not sure where to begin.  The Air Force has an amazing number of hard working individuals who have made it their sole purpose in life to be excellent and cost effective.  People are creative and resourceful and they truly are our best asset but they get frustrated when  decisions at the top don’t take full advantage of their efforts or make decisions that are counter-productive.  I’ll use the 911th Airlift Wing as an example.  Without a doubt, the 911th is the most cost effective facility in the entire Air Force.  We’ve all seen the numbers.  It’s strategically placed upwind of the entire eastern seaboard, it is located on the largest airport (land owned by the airport authority) in the US, it enjoys enormous community support, it has no encroachment issues, it has the best manning in AFRC, it has massive expansion potential, it has no airspace issues, it has a major port and rail yard within 5 miles, it enjoys a low cost of living for its members, there are huge medical facilities in the local area, both strategically and tactically it is the perfect location for an Air Force base yet it is perpetually being targeted for closure.  Is that “excellence” from our Air Force leadership?

Sadly, Air Force leadership has been co-opted by the pervasive, corrupting,  inside the beltway politics. They have proven time and again that they will do the politically expedient thing before they will do the right thing.  But what we  expect of our military leadership is for them to do the thing that best honors their oath to protect and defend the constitution. To follow the laws of the land regardless of the lawlessness of the administration.  For them to simply follow the core values that they claim to cherish.

Chapter 57 – “From the back of the room”

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Over the years I’ve seen a lot of squadron commanders come and go.  Their styles and personalities run the full spectrum.  At the one end you have guys who want to continue being “one of the guys” when they become the guy in charge.  It usually doesn’t end well.  Then you have the guys who become the “my way or the highway” guys and they usually reach similar ends.  But I’ve been most entertained by the guys who started out as the “guy in the back of the room”.  Let me explain.

Every organization has a person, sometimes more than one, who likes to sit in the back of the room and, regardless of who’s up front speaking or making decisions, makes snide remarks.  Sometimes the remarks are just audible to those in close proximity but sometimes they’re meant for everyone to hear.  Often times he’s the “life of the party” kind of guy who’s just looking for a quick laugh but sometimes it’s just someone who likes to stir the pot.  Either way, they take pride in the fact that they’re, obviously, much smarter and cleverer than the people up front and everyone needs to know it.  The fun happens when one of those guys becomes the guy in charge.  It doesn’t happen often, but when it does it a thing to behold.

I remember one commander in particular who, after years of making smart remarks from the back himself, threatened to take disciplinary action against anyone who did it when he was in charge.  He was nearly laughed out of the room.  You can learn a lot about people by where they sit in a room.  When a person is new to an organization they’ll usually sit in the back, getting the lay of the land, and then they’ll slowly migrate closer to the front as they become more invested and want to be in a position to make positive inputs.  But the folks who stay in the back, even after years of participation, often fall into the “whine for whining’s sake” black hole.

I’ve actually met people who have told me that their “gift” is the gift of dissention.  In other words, they feel it’s their obligation to disagree with everything those in charge try to do.  I don’t know if it’s the union mentality of “the man’s trying to keep me down” or if it’s just some strange personality disorder.  I’ve looked and looked but I can’t find any scriptural reference to that gift.  I just keep coming across crazy things like love, and peace, and joy, and hope, and gentleness, and kindness, and patience, and goodness, and self-control.  I just don’t see whining, and complaining, and being negative listed as godly attributes.  But maybe I’m missing something.

Now don’t get me wrong, there is always room for disagreement, but there is a right and a wrong way to communicate that.  Undermining the organization is not the way.  Creating your own agenda without knowing all of the facts, or making assumptions, is not the way.   In fact, I’ve always felt that there’s a special place reserved in hell for those that won’t take a leadership role, in anything, but perpetually criticize those who do.  I think it would be a room,  single exit, with a fire raging just outside.  There would be an unlimited supply and variety of fire extinguishers available but everyone would have a different opinion about which kind to use and no one would make a decision because no one wanted to be responsible if they were wrong.  All of this happening, for eternity, as the fire made the room hotter and hotter.  Maybe I’ve put too much thought into this!  Or maybe I’ve just seen it happen too often.

Following isn’t always easy but, I can promise you, leading is much harder.  You just have to remember that it’s never leaderships goal for an organization to fail.  To viciously, either publicly or privately, undermine leadership is telling your audience that those in charge don’t care about the future and are actively seeking failure.  Do you really believe that to be true?

Thomas Paine had it right, “Lead , follow, or get out of the way”

You can’t lead from the back of the room.

 

Chapter 40, “A New Chapter Begins”

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It has finally arrived.  Effective today, I have been permanently promoted to “civilian”.  We don’t often put it that way, but it is the constitutionally correct description of what I am today.  As a result, I now have constitutional rights which I abrogated on 7 May 1978, and I intend on exercising them, especially the most important, starting today!

It’s not really accurate to say I left the air Force today because, in fact, my air force left me a long time ago.  It wasn’t a sudden thing, like being thrown from a moving truck, but a slow insidious almost methodical breakup.  Like buying a new car and as the years go by, and the rattles start, and the suspension begins to creak, and the radio cuts out, eventually you realize it’s not that fun to drive it any more.

No organization is perfect, but when I went on active duty, I felt like I was a part of something so much bigger than I could comprehend. It had a clear mission, an obvious mission and, at least from my perspective at the bottom, leadership with direction.  Maybe I’ve just been in too long, but I’ve seen the air force take on a personality more like an inside the beltway politician than an organization sworn to “uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States”.  For example, this years’ FSA (Force Structure Announcement).  You didn’t have to be a genius to see that the only decision-making filter used was “What can we do to circumvent congress?”  You can have as many folks sign non-disclosure agreements as you want, but the truth always gets outs.  Not using any sort of cost benefit analysis to make informed decisions was the first mistake, but then to continue to stonewall the public by not responding to FOIA requests and giving inaccurate data to congressmen and staffers moves it into Saul Alinsky, “Rules for Radicals” territory.  Just repeat the lies often enough and they will become the truth.

It is the responsibility of the military to rise above the political fray and tell the truth.  If we’re asked to find ways to cut costs and make us more efficient, integrity demands that we set aside parochial arguments and execute our oath to “well and faithfully discharge the duties” of the office to which we have been appointed.  And that’s just the beginning.

Political correctness has infected the air force.  We are not airmen and airwomen, we are airmen.  Let’s stop driving wedges between people by feeling the need to he/she, him/her everything the we put in print.  Grow up, get over it.  We need to be blind to gender, race, religion, shoe size, and whatever else the left comes up with to Balkanize us.  We can’t afford to waste the time and manpower.  We need everyone who is willing to commit themselves to defending this country and we need to put to good use all of their talents.  My first assignment was in SAC (Strategic Air Command) flying the venerable B-52 and I eventually was in TAC, MAC, AMC, ACC, and AFRC.  But looking back, SAC was the command where I learned how to take care of families.  Every commander I had back then knew that the mission was tough and that families were an integral part of making it work.  There was no formal organization to send families to Disney world, but commanders were, well, commanders.  When you deployed, someone from the squadron would just show up at your house to mow the lawn, or shovel the snow because they knew your wife was home with a new baby or just had surgery.  It’s what commanders did and taught us to do.  Programs, especially government programs, can’t and shouldn’t replace people who really care.  I could go on, and in the future I will, but I want to close with something that happened yesterday as we all waited for Frankenstorm to smash the east coast.

We got a call from TACC with an interesting request.  They asked if they could start sending C-130s and C-17s to The 911th to begin a 24 hour airlift staging operation to support the impending relief efforts on the east coast.  The answer was, of course, yes and we would be able to begin receiving aircraft immediately.  Then we asked the question to which we already knew the answer: “Why did you pick Pittsburgh?”.  They answered: “We were sitting around trying to figure out what would be a strategic location within easy reach of the east coast with access to recovery assets, open 24 hours, and near other transportation hubs and Pittsburgh and the 911th was the obvious choice”  Shazzam!  A room full of Majors and LtCols took five minutes to figure out what a Pentagon full of generals couldn’t.

 

To Tina, Aazita, Diane, and Tracey;

I miss you all already!

Chapter 39.5

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Here’s a first for Hovering Over Send!  Guest blogger Mark Ables weighs in…….

 

Cultural change is a confounding challenge.  Let’s look at how far we’ve come in one area which I see no turning back on now.  I don’t know which CSAF (Chief of Staff of the Air Force)  decided that unmasking education in officer PRF/OPR’s  would promote airmen to continue pursuing higher education which nobody can argue isn’t good.  But when that happened, officers could no longer assume they’d make rank without PME or higher degrees.  Continuing education is essential, no dispute.   However, for our junior officers, when did outside education become more important than their Primary AFSC?  How many of you commanders have witnessed a young Lieutenant or junior Captain forging off getting higher degrees at the expense of their primary job?  Can you honestly say that today’s Air Force pilots (I can’t speak for other career fields) are as proficient, skilled or as immersed in their craft as we were 20 years ago?  Good or bad, I don’t know but it’s quite clear that command leadership has set in motion a trend which I think will pay dividends however we are experiencing some unintended consequences.  The Air Force isn’t a private corporation and our challenges are different than GE, Ford or Verizon.  Can someone answer this question;

Who is our customer?  and I don’t mean the military’s customer; the American people, I mean you the plodders, the AF workforce, who is your customer?? And for gosh sakes, not everyone is destined to be a commander.  There is honor in being the very best cook, civil engineer,  wrench turner or pilot!

Today’s  Junior Officers know that  in order to remain competitive for retention, being the best at whatever their AFSC won’t be enough, they’ll need to complete not only PME (Professioanl Military Education) but higher educational degrees.  Problem is, they’re off and running getting useless masters degrees before they are good at the jobs they were originally trained  to do and the reasons they joined the AF to begin with in many cases was to do that job.  General Welsh made a comment about this topic in a recent forum and I wonder what kind of detour the cultural shift will experience under his leadership, should be interesting.

Thanks Mark!

Chapter 36, The Trials of Tall

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I was asked one question of last weeks’ chapter and I appreciate Shawn’s query.  It was: “What happened to the hot girl your were dating?”  Peg didn’t appreciate the implication of the question, but the answer is simple.  I’ve been married to her for 33 years.

I am a freak of nature.  Combine my 6’5” frame with my oversized noggin and you get someone capable of frightening small animals and children without uttering a word.  Oddly, I’ve never really considered myself tall.  In fact, I grew up thinking I was average.  My dad was 6’3”, my mother 5’9” and as they pumped out progeny we kept getting taller.  My little brother Tim is 6’7” and my sister Kelly is 6’0”.  It’s really all about perspective, but I have come to the opinion over the years that being tall can be a blessing or a curse.  I never wanted to be shorter or taller, but oftentimes those that are “differently statured” wish they were taller. Be careful what you wish for.  Let’s look at the facts.

Clothes – Good luck!  I don’t wear shorts, as often as I do, to show off my not so attractive legs.  It’s nearly impossible, or cost prohibitive, to find pants long enough for my 38” inseam.  When I try most pants on they look like Capris, or, as I call them, Manpris. Shirts are even more difficult.  I’ve never owned a long sleeve Air Force blue shirt because I’ve never been able to find one with a 38” sleeve.  Most of the time I feel like Lurch from the Adam’s Family or, with a few bolts in the right spot, Frankenstein.  For most people, if your shirt or pants are too long, you can always cut some off.  But If they’re too short, you’re out of luck.  I finally solved my flight suit problem by getting oversized ones that droop down to give the appearance of longer legs but the crotch hangs halfway to my knees.

Cars – I know I get odd looks climbing out of my Jetta, but I fit because Germans tend be tall and they design their cars accordingly.  Otherwise, there are cars that I can’t actually physically drive.  Dave Mitchell once asked me to take his Mazda RX-7 in for service while he was TDY and I had to drive it with the door open because there wasn’t enough room between the steering wheel and the door for my knee.  I’ve actually had to pay for size upgrades on rentals (mostly GM products) because I couldn’t get my legs under the steering wheel.

Fitting – I have hit my head on door frames, store displays, automatic door closers, ceilings in one and a half story houses (like the one I grew up in), overhead bins in airplanes, and ceiling fans, just to name a few.  Flying commercial is torture.  I just have to pray the person in front of me doesn’t recline their seat.

Longevity – There are over 40 studies that show a direct correlation between height and life expectancy and the results don’t favor me!

Don’t get me wrong, there are some advantages.  If you’re trying to make your way through a large crowd it’s extremely helpful.  My daughter Erin revealed to me several years ago that at a very young age she learned that just tucking in close behind me was the easiest way to get through a crowd.  But, on the other hand, you stick out like a sore thumb and there’s nowhere to hide.  If you really do want to intimidate someone, standing tall and getting close does the trick.  But, for some mysterious reason, drunks like to pick fights with the biggest guy in the room.  Another reason to stay out of bars!

So where am I going with this discussion?  I have, very intentionally, over my career attempted to mitigate the effects of my size on my coworkers.  I don’t believe in leadership by intimidation so I usually sit in a chair, or on the corner of a table, or lean against something so that I can look folks in the eye.  I make fun of myself and look for something funny to say so I don’t come off as Godzilla when I enter a conversation.  And luckily, everyone looks like a giant to children so I don’t actually look so large to them.  And I love getting down on all fours to see the world through their eyes and picking them up to give them a view through mine.

The most important thing (there it is!) is to be approachable, not intimidating, to make people feel comfortable and willing to speak freely. Tall or short, big head or little head, male or female, thin or fat, it doesn’t matter what you look like.  Wait, strike the “fat”, this is the Air Force, only thin people can be great leaders. Thin or less thin, we need the talents that everyone brings to the table to get the job done. Physically, we are what we are and we can do very little to change that.  But we can consciously change who we are emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.

When I was going into the ninth grade I decided to try out for basketball.  I was 5’9”, which for an 8th grader was pretty tall, but I knew nothing about basketball.  I couldn’t dribble or shoot or, for that matter, “walk and chew gum” at the same time but I tried and was immediately cut on the first day.  So I went out for track.  When I came back to school the next year, and was going into tenth grade, I was 6’4”.  Needless to say there were lots of leg cramps and new clothes that summer.  The basketball coach walked up to me on the first day of class and with a big smile on his face looked up at me and asked “Can I count on you for basketball this year?” to which I replied, “I wasn’t good enough last year and I’m no better this year”.

I ran track for three more years.