The "Spark" of Leadership
Recently I attended an Airman Leadership School graduation where after six-weeks of Professional Military Education, the graduates seemed more than enthusiastic to finish. Now I have attended countless graduations of this sort and self-admittedly, I become zombie-like when the announcement of the guest speaker is made. More often than not, there is a Commissioned Officer speaking on his or her view of leadership, which almost never (in my opinion) parallels the leadership principles associated with enlisted members. I mean, most often times they have never “walked in our shoes.”
This time it was different. The guest speaker was a retired Chief Master Sergeant who spent the majority of his life laying down on the job and having college graduates, (his bosses) take him everywhere. By now, you probably guessed he was a former KC-135 Boom Operator. However, he intrigued me as he delivered the opening icebreaker joke, known in the PME world as the “attention step” and then smoothly transition into his leadership message.
His message was simple but I believe it can easily apply to almost any scenario (i.e. on-duty, off-duty, personal or private life and even in the realm of AFSA Leadership.) His message, described three various types of people—people who may ever resemble our mirror image. These people are:
1) Those people who sit idly by and WATCH things happen.
2) Those people who step-up and MAKE things happen.
3) Those people who shake their heads and wonder, “What the Hell JUST happened?”
Now, I am sure we can all assign a name to each one of these three types of people. I hope that many of you fit the role of #2. However, if your selected category was #1 or #3, I would suggest you adjust your vector and calibrate your success strategy. As an enlisted leader, you owe it to yourself and more importantly, to the people you lead to be dialed in correctly. Now, I encourage each one of you to stand-up...step-up...and MAKE THINGS HAPPEN TODAY! After all, it takes only one small spark of hope to create a raging inferno of success…
V/r
SMSgt Matthew “Mad Dog” Becker
AFSA International Membership (ADHOC) Committee Member
AFSA Division 89 Treasurer
AFSA Chapter 984 President
“Lead Me…Follow-Me…or Get Out of My Way”