Leadership, Initiative: Formula for Success Published June 5, 2006 By Maj. Scott Maskery 43rd Mission Support Squadron commander POPE AFB -- I’ve heard throughout my Air Force career that “you can delegate authority, but not responsibility.” I take my responsibility as an officer and commander very seriously — basically, the buck stops here, and I am accountable for our squadron’s accomplishments and particularly our failures. One leadership strategy that always brings success to squadrons is establishing high expectations, providing a clear vision and what the end-state should be, and then giving the leaders — officers, NCOs and Airmen — the authority and tools to accomplish the mission. I believe what makes some people shine and some remain average is their willingness to think problem-solution versus “I have a problem — who can tell me what the solution should be?” when they already have the tools, capabilities, and support from leadership to create a solution. What is it that makes those people shine? Two words: leadership and initiative. It is important to know how and when to delegate authority and decision making power. Each situation or problem is different just as each officer, NCO, and Airmen is different. But skilled leaders know how to get the best from their people. Leaders at all levels can grow the next group of leaders by setting high expectations, teaching decision making skills, critical thinking skills, and giving people the opportunity to lead and own processes. I think that is a primary responsibility of leaders — to grow leaders. Let’s look at a “fictional” situation I’m sure we can all relate to. It involves Supervisor A and Supervisor B. Supervisor A isn’t the delegating type. He wants to keep his authority to make major and minor decisions on processes he’s responsible for. He’s set this expectation with his NCOs and Airmen and they meet it everyday by making sure all decisions are cleared with him before they act. Supervisor B takes a different approach to accomplishing the mission. He learned to “let go,” meaning he doesn’t need to make every decision about every process he’s responsible for. He’s taught his NCOs and Airmen to make decisions. If they need further guidance or direction, they know he will provide it but he won’t chew them up and down for asking. Supervisor A has a problem: he cannot get the machine to produce the correct widget. So Supervisor A’s troops call him at home. Supervisor A rushes into work, obtained reports from his NCOs, gave some orders, and spent the night in the office trying to figure out the solution. He finally did find the solution — but not until 4:30 a.m. Needless to say, he was a bit tired the next day at morning squadron physical training. Supervisor B had the same problem — but he didn’t get to the office the next day until after morning squadron PT. He calmly checked his e-mail and early morning messages. Then Supervisor B learned about the problem during his morning meeting with his NCOs. They — the NCOs and Airmen — explained how they handled it and solved the problem. Supervisor B congratulated them on correctly and safely solving the problem and their initiative in doing so, and said “thank you.” When a similar situation in your squadron happens, which leader/supervisor would you rather be? And as officers, NCOs, and Airmen which supervisor would you rather work for and with? The Air Force provides all of us with outstanding opportunities to become leaders no matter our rank or position within our squadrons, groups, or wings. Current opportunities that come to mind are Smart Ops 21 and Continuous Process Improvement training associated with Rapid Improvement Events. It is important all of us take advantage of Smart Ops 21 training, initiatives, and the authorship/ownership to continuously improve processes we are responsible for. Some say it’s too hard to do, there’s no time, or they just aren’t interested. I think those people need to re-read or introduce themselves to the former U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Shinseki’s quote “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance a lot less.” Bottom line — the Air Force needs leaders at all levels. The Air Force needs the current generation of leaders to grow the next generation of leaders. We prove everyday the United States Air Force is the world’s number one Air and Space Force. Each of us is an integral part enabling our highest-level leaders to accomplish our national policy objectives. I know we will continue to do this through teamwork, initiative, leadership, and continuous process improvement.