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  • Mentorship is a two-way street

    General Dwight D. Eisenhower was once asked, "How does one develop as a decision maker?" His response was, "Be around people making decisions." Gen. Eisenhower's answer reflects his belief that successful leaders are shaped by those around them. Mentorship is one of the primary responsibilities of every leader in the military and it's our duty to

  • New Year's resolutions make better Airmen

    Did you make a New Year's resolution? According to a FranklinCovey Products survey, the top three New Year's resolutions for 2009 are to (1) get out of debt or save money, (2) lose weight and (3) develop a healthy habit like exercise or healthy eating. This list got me thinking about how habits and behaviors relate to our roles as leaders and

  • Adapt to winter conditions to avoid injury

    Freezing precipitation turning to sleet, hail and then snow with a wind chill down to negative 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Ahhh ... winter on the Great Plains - no wonder buffalo have such thick pelts. Thankfully, your ice and snow removal teams are out working literally around the clock. As many as 20 team members at a time plus facility managers

  • First-hand Experience

    Not long ago, I attended Combat Skills Training at Fort Bliss, Texas in preparation for an Operation Enduring Freedom deployment to Afghanistan. Most of the course instructors had "been there and done that" - seen it with their own eyes. A few had not, and even those of us new to Army training could easily sort out which ones hadn't been there. One

  • Equal treatment requires equal feedback, good and bad

    Giving or receiving performance feedback is easy when an employee is meeting or exceeding expectations. However, it's much more difficult to give or receive negative feedback . By "negative feedback" I mean informal counseling up to minor disciplinary action and by "employee" I include military or civilian. This difficulty can be especially true if

  • Go back to basics in aircraft maintenance

    A high operations tempo is having a negative impact throughout our Air Force, causing a need to get B2B (back to basics) for doing our jobs. It is very common to make mistakes when under pressure in a demanding environment. In aircraft maintenance small mistakes can have huge impacts on the mission and endanger the lives of our Airmen, Soldiers,
  • Early Years -- Gen. Henry H. (Hap) Arnold (Courtesy photo)

    Learn from heritage to broaden our horizons

    Last year during our Air Force's 60th anniversary celebrations, we adopted a slogan titled "Heritage to Horizons." Although to some it was just a clichéd advertising campaign, to me and many other Airmen it was a call to action. In the history of our great Air Force, we have had many heroes. Some were leaders such as Gen. Hap Arnold and Gen. Carl

  • It’s time to say ‘thank you’ to those who serve alongside us

    I just returned from a memorial service for two members of Team Souda who were killed in a car accident. They were a husband and wife with over 30 years of service as contractors, mostly to the U.S. Navy and nearly all of it at Naval Support Activity Souda Bay. They were survived by many family members but most noticeably a two-year-old grandson

  • Leadership lessons from command (so far)

    The past 18 months of command have been a blur. In fact, it seems like my change of command was just last week. Although the time has passed very quickly, I ironically feel like I have lived two or three lifetime's worth of leadership lessons. I suspect the simple truth is that no matter how well you prepare, how much you read, or how many

  • Are you Really Prepared?

    I'd like to share a real-life story about "being prepared." It's a scenario I wouldn't wish on anyone, but one that all of us should probably discuss with our families. Are you really prepared for a family tragedy? On the military side, we talk about keeping our affairs in order and keeping our wills updated, but if you've ever experienced a family
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