GUEST BLOGGER: Leadership USAF Style…

Welcome to my first guest blogger who is writing a supplement to my popular post (“Leadership is a Gift Given By Those Who Follow“). Here is a short bio on Tom Hood:

• Tom is a cousin via my wife’s family.
• He was Born in Grand Blanc, Michigan
• He accepted appointment to the US Air Force Academy and graduated in the top 25% of his class.
• He entered the Intelligence career field.  He graduated from the USAF Officer’s Intelligence School.  He went on to complete 7 years of distinguished service as an Intelligence Officer specializing in Counter-Terrorism and enemy surface-to-air missile systems.
• Tom is currently the Lead Designing Engineer for the 2014 Corvette interior trim system at General Motors
• During his time at GM, Tom engineered components and subsystems of several award winning vehicles, including the Cadillac SRX, Chevy Equinox, and Chevy Cruze.
• Tom Hood is a member of Generation Y – The Millennial Generation.  If there is any concern about the quality of the budding leaders behind us – read on.  His commentary is unedited.  Solid and inspiring…would you follow this young man?  Absolutely!

Tom Hood: In Response to Comments on General Mark Welsh’s speech to the USAF Academy Cadet Wing

Previously in this blog, David Kanigan posted a remarkable speech Gen Mark Welsh gave to the US Air Force Academy Cadet Wing earlier this year.  The title of the speech was “Leadership is a Gift Given by Those Who Follow.”  In the post comments, a reader wondered if the General was some sort of new age warrior, or if those in the US Military always talked that way.  As a graduate of the USAF Academy’s Class of 1994 and having spent 7 years as an AF officer,  I have a little insight into the General’s speech.  I sat in a countless number of those addresses we were privileged to attend after lunch during my time there.  In summary, rather than being a “new age warrior,” the General is speaking about the basic fundamentals of leadership the military expects of all of its officers.  During my 10 years in the private sector, I’ve seen many leaders who lack those basic fundamentals.  Therefore, over the next few weeks, I’ll take some time to address many of the General’s themes and illustrate why these qualities are enduring, unchanging, and crucial to any leader in any endeavor.

I’m going to begin by referring to an incident where Gen Welsh admitted he failed as a leader.  For those who heard the speech, the General had an airman serving in his unit who had family problems, and because the individual’s chain of command didn’t know their people well enough, it almost cost this airman custody of his daughter.  Rather than describe the details of the incident, I’ll refer to the Gen’s statement “Everyone has a story, and if you don’t know the story, you can’t lead the airman.”  One of the things I’ve noticed in the private sector is that leaders do not take the time to truly get to know their people.  In the group I currently work in, none of my co-workers has every met my spouse, or son, and, if it wasn’t for my tendency to want to get to know people, I wouldn’t know very much about them.   When I was in the military, this was almost unheard of, as leaders and co-workers took the time to get to know and socialize with each other.

I pose the following question to everyone who reads this blog: “How well do you know your people?”  You may think that anything beyond a professional relationship is not only unnecessary, but possibly improper.  However, as the General said, if you do not truly know each individual’s story, how can you lead them effectively?  What are their desires, hopes, goals, and frustrations?  What do they deal with when not at work? All of these things affect the behavior and motivation of each individual, and it is a leader’s fundamental job to know them.  Added to that, when team members know each other well, the resulting camaraderie binds the team together and results in greater productivity.  As a leader, if you take a good look at your group and find your workplace to be transactional and/or competitive rather than collaborative, you need to take a good look at yourself.  It is up to you to set the tone and take the short amount of time necessary to know the stories.  Failure to do so will cost you dearly.

“How well do you know your people?”