Leadership Reflections (Richard Johnson)

List the name and title of three leaders in your organization. Please give a brief explanation as
to why your organization would consider him or her a leader.
Senior Master Sergeant
SMSgt is innovative and cares about his people. Just this past Friday SMSgt supported a
fundraiser for a good cause by purchasing a few dozen donuts and then turned around and
handed those out to his Airmen. Not only did he hand them out, but he invited me, the First
Sergeant, whose job is to gauge the pulse of the unit. We spent a couple hours out of the office
finding out what our warriors were planning for the weekend and if there was anything we
could do for anyone. This is the mark of a great leader.
Colonel
Col has vision and is willing to ask what and why to challenge the status quo. He has
come in recently and taken command of a pretty high functioning unit. However, he has the
audacity to share his vision and get all of us excited about the future of our organization. You
want to follow a man who enable a futuristic paradigm because you too can start being
creative.
Chief Master Sergeant
Chief is also an innovative leader with a focus on developing or force. He paints a great
image of pulling our Airmen toward development and growing future leaders. He has even
created a professional development course called Airpower Leadership Academy which has
gained Secretary of the Air Force attention at the Pentagon. He displays great vision and
integrity.

List the name and position for three managers in your organization. (Please note that these
should be people NOT listed also as leaders from question #1). Please give a brief explanation
for each one as to why you think your organization would consider him or her as a manager.
Chief Master Sergeant
Chief is a solid leader in my opinion, but her managerial skills are more prominent. She
is great at the execution of tasks. She also is more comfortable with the status quo. Our new
Colonels vision is not as appealing to her as it is me. I believe thats because she is comfortable
executing and doing things right, but changing in order to do the right thing is a bit
uncomfortable for her.
Master Sergeant
MSgt lacks the vision and forward thinking of a great leader. He seems pretty
concerned with his reputation rather than just his character. Hes a very good Senior Non
Commissioned Officer and does have good leadership traits, but his efforts to ensure his work is
complete and done right before efforts to make sure his people are getting what they need are
to me an obvious sign of a manager.
Staff Sergeant
SSgt has a great attitude and is a solid NCO. However, he is very hard to get to change.
He isnt comfortable with change and is very quick to point out regulations and their flaws but
not solutions to the problems he sees. He executes well, and is always on task but could be a
little more oriented toward vision and could raise his aptitude a little in order to impose the
changes he acts like he so desperately wants.

Do the people in your organization tend to value and support leaders or managers more? Why
do you say that and what are some of the reasons they support one more?

Without a doubt in the military we all tend to value leadership over management. We
have taken an oath to give out lives for our country and that is hard to do for someone who
may be more concerned with metrics or processes than people and their families. A person
who gets to know you and is always willing to support you and help you see the future of the
organization and your career is going to be more appealing. We want a leader who cares,
bottom line. I think many managerial minded people care, but they dont show it and they
dont get anyone excited about whats next. Leaders all the way!
What are three behaviors you want to change (see pgs 41-43). What are supports and barriers
to making these changes?
1. Innovation- I want to take the organization to new heights! I feel that if we empower our
people and give them some autonomy to be creative we could be the best organization on
base. Some of the barriers are military command structure and we are a medical unit, so our
patient schedule. I feel like we need to create more time to be around our patients throughout
the base to build trust, but we also have to be in the clinic to see patients which creates a
barrier to innovation. We can do it, but we may have to really consider our own time we take
for physical fitness, lunch and other personal needs in a different light. We can still do those
things, but maybe we need to not ALL do it at the same time???
2. Motivation- I would love for everyone to be as motivated as I am everyday to be an Airman.
We constantly strive to get our involvement in the unit to the far right of the scale where the
far left is people here just for the money and benefits, and the far right is people who think
they are serving a calling to be in the military. We cant do this unless we take time to develop
our force and present opportunity to all people. When a persons career is stalemated they
tend to get lazy and complacent, because they have no hope for a better future. We need to
deal hope!
3. People- Focusing on people is my job, literally. I want people to be considered our most
valuable resource, not airplanes, buildings or weapons systems. If we devoted the time to
people that we devote to taskers from up above we could create an environment like a family.
The limiting factor here is we all have bosses, and their bosses have bosses, etc. When your

boss wants information, you get it. In the military sometimes we have to neglect our people to
complete a tasking that may not have a bigger return on investment. I attended a Franklin
Covey course which talked about this (5 Choices), and if all of our leaders attended and
operated for great return on investment tasks vs. crisis action to please someone or capture
useless data, we could be such a phenomenal organization.
With all of this said, I love the Air Force and all we dobut like any organization we could be
improved.
Social responsibility or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as defined by
investopedia.com is the idea that companies should embrace its social responsibilities and not
be solely focused on maximizing profits. Social responsibility entails developing businesses with
a positive relationship to the society which they operate in.
One perspective our group discussed is that there is responsibility to your corporate
citizens as well as being ethically responsible in your business practices. However, if profitability
is degraded for CSR, outside of what should be reasonably expected of a business, then CSR is
counterproductive. From Joyce Munros Organizational Leadership, business aficionado Steve
Forbes said that CSR seeks to force firms to accept responsibility for a number of social
objectives beyond their duty to shareholders. Forbes also goes on to state that profit (to
many CSR advocates) is a dirty wordbut profits are the seed corn for future advances for our
standards of living (p. 43). One of the issues is that of what defines a stakeholder? If its any
consumer, employee or other loosely connected person to a business, then trying to please
that group of constituents seems impossible; however, maybe its not
One corporation, who is globally well known, seems to turn huge profits while satisfying
their stakeholders; that business is The Walt Disney Company. According to Business Review
USA, Disney is heavy on volunteerism. As a matter of fact, they offered a million free tickets for
citizens who volunteered for an organization of their choice. This is a GREAT example of CSR.
Not only did they donate a million tickets to nudge one million volunteers out in our country,
but the affect these volunteers likely had on our ecosystem and welfare was likely very

measurable. Additionally, they gave out a million tickets, and rationally if even half of those
people came to the park with a pocket full of cash, they turned huge profits on volume of park
guests alone. However, we found out that not all is happy as Disney may have us believe. An
article cleverly named Corporate Social (Ir)responsibility in Media and Communication
Industries, by Marisol Sandoval (2013), makes a very compelling case against Disneys
Imagineering of CSR. Workers in Disneys supplier factories are producing toys, books, clothes,
and furniture. These merchandising products for Disneys childrens program, family movies, TV
shows, and series symbolize a world of fun, joy, fantasy, and happy endings. It is sad irony that
the day-to-day working reality of the mostly young workers in Disneys factories (in China) is
opposed to joyful fantasy worlds Disney creates in its TV and film productions (p. 51).
This leads us to our group discussion about ethical culture. We found that in the book 7
Lenses: Learning the Principles and Practices of Ethical Leadership by Linda Fisher Thornton,
"ethics in leadership is about how we think, behave and perform our work. It's about how we
make decisions and how we hold ourselves accountable for thinking beyond our own interests.
It should not be watered down to a detached philosophical debate." Social responsibility is
built on a foundation of ethics, where decisions and actions are validated ethically before taking
place. If this action is found to cause harm to the environment or society, then we would
considerate to be socially negligent. Our ethical values are inherent within society to create the
distinction between what is right and what is wrong. Social responsibility is seen to be what is
right for the community. Without having the ethical background decisions or actions may be
overlooked in favor of personal gain. This makes us believe that ethical leadership and CSR go
hand-in-hand.
We believe that leaders have an obligation to take care of their people and their
customers. You are socially responsible for their well being and supporting communities in
which your business operates. However, its probably not fair to expect a leader to please
everyone that affiliates themselves with a business. Asking Chick-Fil-A to open on Sunday, just
because many of their customers dont believe in taking Sunday to rest, is not fair to the owner
who is firm on being closed that day. This leader has to maintain some level of his/her values

and beliefs. One of the best pieces of advice we can take heed to is to be true to ourselves
when leading people.

REFERENCES:
Daft, R. L., & Marcic, D. (2005.) Understanding Management. Mason: Thomson Higher
Education.
Leadership. (2013, June 10). The Walt Disney Company - A Leader In Corporate Social
Responsibility | Leadership | Business Review USA. Retrieved from
http://www.businessreviewusa.com/leadership/3827/The-Walt-Disney-Company-A-Leader-InCorporate-Social-Responsibility
Sandova, M. (2013). Corporate Social (Ir)responsibility in Media and Communication Industries.
Javnost-The Public (European Institute For Communication & Culture (EURICOM)), 20(3), 39-57.
Social Responsibility Definition | Investopedia. (2015). Retrieved from
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/socialresponsibility.asp
Thornton, L. F. (2013). 7 Lenses: Learning the Principles and Practice of Ethical Leadership.
Richmond: Leading in Context LLC.
Failing to capitalize on diversity in an organization can lead to an organizational leadership crisis
because you may be minimizing your access to the labor pool. According to Munroe (2008),
one of the major drivers behind the business case [for workplace diversity] is the demographic
changes that directly affect the labor pool and available talent (p. 136). The text goes on to
boast stats that reflect how the labor pool is a dynamic group that over just a two year span can
rapidly change. Some of the changes noted are that women and minorities will represent the
majority of new hires and that the total U.S. workforce is getting older. This is important
because if leaders are unaware of these changes to their workforce they ma y be essentially
degrading their labor pool.

I would parallel this to school athletics. Lets say you coach in a very small town where
there is much less diversity than the surrounding cities. Then, you get hired to coach one of
those city schools but only keep kids on the team that resemble the demographic of kids from
your old school. The chances are that now that youve degraded your talent pool your team
will be much less effective. Having a diverse workforce is successful largely because of the pool
of talent you get to employ that brings different knowledge, skills and abilities to your team.
Some steps I see for a leader to effectively utilize diversity in the workplace are
inclusiveness and accountability. Inclusiveness means that no persons race, age, gender, etc,
be the reason for hiring, promoting, or assigning tasks. However, all of the aforementioned
diverse groups should be included (genuinely) when considering a talent pool for these
opportunities. Everyone has value and based on what that person brings to the table you select
the right people for the job. Consider the person and not just the credentials to be successful.
Accountability is for you and your leaders in the organization. Encourage and even reward
innovative uses of your organizations diversity. Allow different cultures and sub-cultures to
celebrate certain months marking their heritage and make sure leaders are involved. Examples
may be African American history luncheon, Women in the workplace breakfast, etc. Empower
your workforce to put on these events and sit back and be proud to be a part of your diverse
team. When leaders show signs of resistance to diversity, ensure they understand thats not
the vision of the organization and that its not optionalbecause its not. Being against
diversity is advocating for segregating people on your team which is wrong. When your leaders
are successful with integrating diversity into their decisions and their mission reward them with
more opportunity, money, or whatever is allowed in your organization.

REFERENCE:
Munroe, J.H. (2008.) Organizational Leadership. Dubuque: McGraw-Hill Learning Series.
1. Leaders Are Great Men Who Are More Qualified to Lead and Solve Problems Than I Can Ever
Be:

My alternative: Leaders are developed. Leaders are developed over time through their
education and life experience. Specifically a leader should have to face and overcome difficult
times in their life as they grow into the leader they want to be. Also, leaders must have a
strong self-efficacy. Being groomed and handed opportunities like education and wealth will
not make you a great leader. Persevering through life and paving your own path will.
2. Good Management Makes Successful Organizations:
My alternative:
Great leadership makes successful organizations. First, being a good manager means being
able to plan and execute to meet a standard. Being a great leader means empowering the right
people to be successful in the roles they are comfortable. Job matching people by their
personality and strengths is how a great leader employs their people. Greta leaders will work
with good managers to achieve holistic success in the organization. Great leaders will play to
the strengths of their personnel to be successful.
3. Mistakes Are to Be Avoided at All Costs:
My alternative:
Leaders will make bold decisions and will sometimes fail. It is how they respond to their
failures that will define them as a leader. Leaders should seek out the failures of their
organization in order to encourage people to learn from their mistakes and to better arm them
to do so. By being a leader who is aware of your organizations failures you can empower your
folks to problem solve and improve themselves. This right to fail will resonate throughout the
organization and build a level of trust within. Our people will want to do their best for us as
leaders and will know that we dont make mistakes, we create learning opportunities.

My family treated failures as an opportunity to get better. The only exception was malicious
failure, which means I did something wrong on purpose. Trying and failing was very acceptable

in my family, so long as I learned from it. If I did not learn from my mistakes, I was given very
direct guidance to rectify my failure. When I failed to do my homework (after being told to do
so many times) I was sent to my room from the moment I got home until bed time. I had no
TV, toys, radio, etc. The only time I could NOT do homework was dinner time and bed time.
One semester of that sort of learning opportunity and trust me, the message was received. This
sort of tough love was what I needed. Today I impose these lessons on myself. I often make
myself go to work early because I KNOW I havent given 100% for a few days. Getting up 3
hours early doesnt feel good, but having my work done and relieving stress does. I went from
a teenager and young adult who made the wrong decisions for immediate gratification and
have grown into a man who makes the right decisions because they are the right decisions,
period.

1. Clear Communication (2) - I pride myself on clear communication at work. I set very clear
standards for subordinates and ensure there is no confusion about expectations. I also believe
in feedback, early and often. You should follow up clear expectations with constant feedback,
good or bad. If you tell someone that today they are not meeting the standard they will usually
want to get better. If you wait until they fail so miserably they have to be held accountable or
disciplined they will not trust you nor will they believe you want them to get better.
Remember, people have the right to make mistakes, but you owe it to them to help them
bounce back. Where I fail at this is in my personal life. I often fail to express to my wife what I
want from her and how I feel she is meeting these expectations. Of course, the dynamic is a
little different but not really. Honest up front expectations and feedback still applies. I have
done a little better, but for my lack of feedback (mostly positive) for my wife, I deserve a 2, not
a 1.
2. Ethical Practices (2) I feel I do this very well. I have not always been a good guy. Ive made
poor decisions and bent my integrity almost to the breaking point. Now though, I have had so
many years of doing the right thing it just feels to good to do the wrong thing. I dont have the

stomach for lying, cheating, manipulating people. I never really did, but in my past I have some
regrets because I went for what I wanted vs. what was right. Those experiences ground me
every day and make me a much more honest and caring person who lives with integrity.
3. Diversity (2) Once again I have not always seen the value of all people. I used to have close
minded perspectives because of the environment I grew up in as a poor kid from central Illinois.
Now I have my eyes wide open. Working for over 16 years in the Air Force has given me the
opportunity to work with people from all over the world. I have learned that no matter ones
race, color, religion, age, gender, sexual preference, etc. we all contribute. I now realize that
having these different experiences and values in your organization make you much more
capable of greatness. Filling your roster with people from all different walks of life gives you
the best chance at success. It only took me about 1 year in the military to shake any close
mindedness I once had and Im very grateful fro that.
4. Ongoing Recognition and Support (1) I am a FIRM believer in sharing success and owning
failure, the title of a book by then USAF Colonel David Goldfein, now the current AF Vice Chief
of Staff, General Goldfein; he just visited my base this week! It is crucial to allow those in your
organization to reap the benefit of their hard work. People know who leads an organization
and will credit your for the success and failure of the organization regardless what you do
publically. So if you choose to take credit for great things your folks do and dont take the time
to thank the people that REALLY made it happen you are a terrible leader. Leadership does not
have room for greed. On the reverse side of this, you as the leader need to step-up and take on
the failures of your people. I cant tell you how many times I tell my boss that I messed this up
and will get it right next time. She/he already knows who was involved and usually Im not, but
Ive never been ridiculed or beat up because they know that I am owning my peoples failures.
This gives m e the ability to help my folks learn from their mistakes. If I do to the boss and say,
Johnny messed this up, or I told them a million times then Im just deflecting my inability to
lead my people onto my people which is disgusting. This is called taking care of your people.
Its not blind loyalty; some people make such big mistakes that only they can face the music
(like criminal acts).

5. Participatory Empowerment (1) I also give myself a high mark here. This one is actually
easy for me. I love to lead, but for me part of leading is delegating. I dont mean the type
where I dont do anything I dont want to because I delegate the crap work. I mean when
something hits my plate that could help another person grow and develop into a leader I
present it to them as an opportunity. This is a great leadership tactic for two reasons. One,
your folks will see that you want them to be successful. Sharing opportunities with your people
is so important. If you take all of the high glory opportunities to make yourself look amazing
you are missing the point of leadership. Develop this person and then take credit for
developing leaders; thats way more impressive to me. Second, by allowing others to take on
leadership roles and make decisions that you normally make you are gaining their investment
as a stockholder in your organization. They will become invested like you and want to continue
to take on these tasks, especially of you highlight THEIR great work on! Reinforce this positive
behavior and the sky is the limit as you start to leave your legacy behind in the form of the next
generation.
Picture yourself in the future, and envision a time and location that are pleases to you. What
kind of society would you like to create? Listen to the emotions in your heart. Describe in detail
how this world would look. Please do this in 100 words or more.

The world would be peaceful. We (my family and I) would be in Boise, Idaho in our forever
home nestled in the Sawtooth Mountain foothills. The United States would have a booming
economy and we will have defeated those in the world who seek to terrorize the rest of us.
More importantly, the country would start leaning further toward partisanship and many of us
would see eye to eye on the values that we are proud of as Americans. We would not only
accept each other no matter our differences or what we look like but we would even appreciate
each other and realize that we all have something to offer our society. We would better take
care of our own people and focus less on the rehabilitation of other nations. We would
however continue to take the fight to anyone who dare disturb the freedoms we have or the
allies we have that help us maintain those freedoms.

On pages 117 and following. seven personal areas are mentioned. Select five of these and give
a brief answer as to how you envision your future in these particular areas. In each, give an
explanation of what you will do to accomplish this vision of your future. (655)
1. Self- I would be retired from the Air Force and teaching at the university level, hopefully
courses like this one. I would be kind and gentle, yet very influential. I would have such pride
that I have achieved my goal of being a teacher and have become an expert in my field of study.
I would be educating future educators and leaders in our society, which is important to me
because those that I influence and impact in life will be my legacy once I am no longer on this
earth. My family and I would be in our forever home and I will have prepared myself financially
to support my son in achieving his dreams as well as helping my wife and I live out some of our
biggest dreams.
2. Health- I will be running marathons when Im 60 years old! I love to run and love the idea of
being healthy. More importantly I will continue to stay healthy by being active with local youth
and coaching kids baseball, basketball, etc. I would love to have my son doing these things
with me, because he loves sports and we always have shared our love for the game.
3. Family- My Wife and Son are healthy and we are living life to its fullest. My wife runs with
me sometimes and my son is a very healthy young man. Me and my wife love each other more
now than ever and have opportunities to get away and do the things we always wanted to as
youngsters. My Son is healthy, married and has kids of his own (my grandkids)! We are a very
close family and love my Sons family more than anything. We all make each other happy and
whole. Our kids and grandkids are the most important things in our lives and we let them know
it!
4. Community- I love to be involved with veterans and those who serve. I will always make a
point to support men and women in uniform when they are in need. I would love to use my
skills to mentor and guide young military members. I will contribute time and money to local
military. I would also like to be a mentor for other sin my profession and maybe even be
involved as a leader in the community. I dont know that I would ever like to be an elected
official, but being president of a little league, a military liaison group, or maybe a Non-for profit

organization would be fulfilling. I want to be making a positive difference in people lives. Being
a civic leader is important to me.
5. Enriching activities- I would like to be mostly making sure my wife and I can see the wonders
of the world. We struggle to travel and see the world now because of the military lifestyle. We
are always separated from family and spend much of our leave to see them instead of
vacationing for ourselves. I want to be a little selfish when Im settled down. Of course, my son
and his family are ALWAYS invited to travel with us. They are our life.
What is it about your organization that is unique? What are the values that shape how they see
the future? What do your peers, customers, and leaders want and need from the future? Do
you feel they are serious about their future....in other words are they investing in it and are the
passionate about it? If not, why aren't they? If they are, how can you tell?
The United States Air Force is a sub culture of America where we have our own Core Values
that we live by. We are in the profession of arms and are held in high esteem by the general
public, which means we should live by the highest standards. Our values are Excellence,
Integrity and Service Before Self. Once one lives by the core values AND determines this is their
calling at this time in their life (to serve) they become a highly valuable member of our
organization. My peers need leaders that are open to innovation and change. We all need
leaders that are willing to change the way we do business to better meet the needs and desires
of our customerthe American people. The Air Force is VERY serious about our future, but I do
believe that we are tied to political bureaucracy and therefore we, like the public are somewhat
held hostage to civilian leaders inability to make bold decisions for the greater good. We are
tied to litigation and competition in politics. We still get the job done every day and with great
morale though. There is an innate faith in the system form our leaders on down that makes it
easy to just do our part and let our civilian leaders do theirs. There is extreme passion for the
Air Force from the Secretary of the Air Force on down. Not every Airman or leader will have the
same idea of what the future holds, but there is no doubt that we are in it and we are going to
be better than we are today.

Page 128 and following describe the elements of meaningful communication. What is the most
important content of your message? Through which medium will you most effectively
communicate your message? To whom do you aim your message? What would you like to
know from your listeners about your message? What is the larger context for your
communication (See pg 129)?

The most important context of my message is the part that reaches the intended audience. In
my line of work being a leader is not easy. We have many people that by their rank alone fancy
themselves as leaders, but their message is very poorly communicated. Its super important for
me to first know my people and second learn what motivates and inspires them. If I am to lead
and develop new leaders I have to reach them and form some personal power. I have the
positional power, so with that I can influence people. However, without building that personal
relationship the influence is weak and has no inspiration behind it, let alone trust.
My medium of choice is eyeball to eyeball communication. I think to be a leader you can
convey some things in email, text, etc., but to truly get your message across and be able to read
if the message is received you need to look someone in the face. Empathy is hard to read in an
email.
I aim my message to Airmen who need assistance in their personal and professional lives. My
message is designed to get our Airmen through the worst moments of their lives. Sometimes
Im charged with helping folks through the death of a loved one, financial woes, divorce and
bouncing back after being punished or sentenced due to a criminal act.
I would like to know from my listeners that they trust me. Its hard to know that youre sending
the right message when you have to discuss very personal things. I have found that being
honest and open in your discussion can sometimes render an affirmative response. If you tip
toe around the intended message there is a good chance that even your best intentions wont
be received.

The overall intent of my message is that no matter what our Airmen are facing we can get them
through it and help put them on the path to success/recovery. Life can be brutal, but being
resilient and persevering is vital. Just tonight I had to mediate a drop off of a child between
husband and wife due to some very complex issues in their relationship and concerns about
them communicating on person alone and have a member who had to call 911 for her husband
who is feeling ill and passed out. These are just small life issues, but my position requires me to
keep our commanders informed and our members safe. I feel my position requires me to help
them through these times in their lives and let them know that they are not alone; they have a
wingman.

Walt Disney said "If you can dream it, you can do it!" FIve areas of alignment are mentioned on
pages 135 and following. Take each of these and describe your dream and how you can fulfill
that dream for each one.
Unify- I dream to join my colleagues with the vision of taking care of Airmen and their families.
It takes a village to raise young warrior Airmen and to inspire them. We (leaders) have to be on
the same team and understand that our community is bigger than any one of us and affects the
lives of people across the globe. It starts with our people being taken care of.
Empathize- This is huge for me! We cannot take care of our Airmen and families if we dont
show empathy. The text speaks of getting to know your peoples spouse, kids, etc. This is very
impactful and if you know whats going on in your peoples lives you can really affect them.
This is the cornerstone to trust, not the often misused SYMPATHY which really just shuts people
out.
Partner- Partnership is something that can really inspire people. For me to take care of our
Airmen, its important that their careers are intact. Many people in my position choose justice
over prudence. I am strictly opposed to the notion that you do the crime you do the time as a
blanket statement. I would not probably fall on my sword for a severe criminal act, but I would
certainly argue that an Airman with an impeccable service record have the opportunity to

bounce back from a mistake. I think that using mistakes as a learning lesson is the right
approach. We CANNOT all be perfect and to develop trust you have to allow people to learn
from their mistakes. They will not WANT to work with you if mistakes go unforgiven.
Inspire with metaphors- I recently taught a professional development seminar using a very
highly respected Airmans (Chief Master Sergeant Ramon Colon-Lopez) metaphor for 20 quotes
to live by. He called them 20 silver bullets and cleverly since our M16 (assault rifle) has a 30
round magazine he states that we are to come up with the other 10 silver bullets on our own.
The idea of filling your 30 round magazine with silver bullets for leadership is a great example
for how to come up with an outside of the box metaphor. He could have just said that we
needed 20 tools in our leadership toolbox, but thats old and worn out.
Encourage transparency and candor- As mentioned in my answer to the first question; hitting
peoples life issues head on is important. A leader not only needs to discuss others concern
with candor, but even their own. Being willing to be vulnerable and admit defeat, failure or
draw from your mistakes is a great way to relate to people. Insinuating that you as a leader are
perfect and have an innate ability to be right all the time will only serve to drive a wedge
between you and your folks. Also, sharing your vision and your IDEAS for the future is
paramount. Too many people make decisions in a vacuum and miss the opportunity for the
people that carry out these decisions to weigh in. Then the leader sticks by their poor decision
out of some necessity to preserve their own reputation. If we are just transparent and
encourage all feedback (good or bad) we can avoid these huge missteps and start building trust.
Competence (4) - I think Im pretty competent. I find myself fielding calls and office visits a
large part of the day for people seeking my counsel or knowledge. I pride myself on helping
people be successful and having personal power requires me to be a credible leader. You dont
have to know everything, but as a leader you batter know who or where to find the answer.
Congruity (4) What you is what you get! I am who I am and I try to stay true to that because I
live my life ethically and morally grounded. I realize that good intentions can still lead to

mistakes, but I believe these mistakes are recoverable. Its when you have bad intentions or
ulterior motives that you start getting yourself in trouble.
Constancy (5) I am literally a crisis NINJA! As an advisor to 4 commanders, responsible for the
development, welfare, morale and discipline of 370 people I have a lot of business. Last week I
had two a member return from down range (for disciplinary reasons) that is going through a
separation after 8 years of marriage, and there are children involved. I have another member
who got into a spat with his girlfriend and doesnt want the relationship to end but realizes he
has messed up in the past and the relationship is volatile. I have another member who has a
very dangerous family member that literally wants to hurt her and came to us just recently
under a victim assistance program within the Air Force (poor Airman). And lastly, I had to bring
back another member from Kuwait to be here with his family after his spouse (also Active AF)
lost their baby after being 36 weeks along; I went to that memorial today. On top of all this I
am the chairman for a NFP organization that helps Airmen in need (crisis) and the President of
the Beale First Sergeants Council. Im actually writing this at 8:26 PM on Sunday because I just
spaced that I was even taking a class after the week Ive had, but.being there for these people
and helping them with a solid plan to get through these difficult and terrible times is the reason
I do what I do. Helping folks through their worst days is the mark of a leader and I want that to
be part of my legacy when I leave this great AF.
Caring (4) - See above :0 Also, I whole heartedly believe that real empathy is important. If you
find yourself saying, at least when somebody is having a tough time, its best to keep
your mouth shut.

1. Do not place my own personal desires ahead of my people

- I will not fail to be there for my people in favor of something that only benefits me
2. Do whats right when nobody is looking
- I will not have hidden agendas that I carry out behind others backs

3. Do not put people in harms way unnecessarily

- I will not make poor risk management decisions for haste or personal desire, peoples
lives depend on it
4. Do not infringe on peoples inherent rights
- I will consider all people regardless of race, color, religion, age, gender, etc as equals
and not make decisions based on these factors
5. Do not leverage my position for personal favors/desires
- I will not take advantage our influence someone to engage in unprofessional activities
6. Treat people with respect
- I will treat others as I wish to be treated
7. Do not use my position to manipulate people
- I will not manipulate people to see an outcome I may rather see than the one that is
the right outcome
8. Be honest
- Do not lie and do not hesitate to give immediate feedback instead of leading someone
to believe they are doing well when they are not, its irresponsible
9. Do not waste or defraud taxpayers hard earned dollars
- Do not spend government funds for niceties that do not help accomplish the mission
or that are for personal gain only
10. Love your fellow Airmen

Our Airmen are someones husband/wife, mom/dad, son/daughter. They deserve a

compassionate person to make sure that they are returned to their family as well as received
with exception only to necessity of war