The course readings and videos were extremely insightful and beneficial. It has helped me learn more about myself both personally and professionally. I gained insight into my personal skills such as values, emotional intelligence, and learning style. The managing stress and well being lesson reminded me of the importance of self-awareness and care. In fact, I set an 8 week goal of clean eating and scheduled exercise. I also made time in my day to practice meditation. This class also helped hone more leadership skills including creative problem solving. I realized I place several constraints on myself. Constancy and Complacency are probably the two conceptual blocks that that inhibit my problem solving the most. My aim is to be more mindful and self-aware of when I am avoiding thinking.
Communicating Supportively and Motivating others are two lessons I truly appreciated. I will use the information learned for myself and to share with others. In the Motivating others module, we watched the Dan Ariely video made me reflect on what motivates my followers. I feel ownership piece is a contributor. With my new job, I have been asking a lot of questions and going out to see how and what others are working on. This has let the Airmen take ownership of their tasks by acknowledging their work while learning new things myself. I could tell right away that the Airmen weren't used to this and jumped at the opportunity to teach and show off their work. This not only motivated them, it also empowered them. A good leader needs to be able to motivate their people to accomplish more than the person believes is possible. I will use all that I've learned to develop myself and others as I continue in my endeavor to make a difference.
Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills (9th ed.). Essex, England: Pearson Education.
Write a blog entry on task-facilitating and relationship-building roles. In your blog, reflect upon your understanding of how these roles enhance team performance.
Consider how you generally relate as a team-member.
Do you actively engage your team to accomplish its mission?
Do you work to improve the team cohesion and collaboration?
I am a huge advocate of Teamwork. In fact, my goal as a Section Chief was to bring the group of 32 Airmen together as a team. I understand the stages of teams and was able to view them throughout the course of my tenure in Support section. As a team-member I feel I take a more relationship-building role although I am aware that I tend to lean more that way and need to balance that role with a task-building role. Furthermore, I am generally empathizing and supporting. These roles come naturally and have helped build trust and better relationships with my team members. I also thoroughly enjoy developing others to help them learn and grow. Developing others has helped me engage the team to accomplish the mission. For example, we have to write Enlisted Performance Reports annually and I have a lot of information and data that I collect in order to help make the process easier. I've also attended a handful of classes to better my understanding and facilitate the process. Throughout the year, I send out different articles, information sheets and resources as well as have mentoring sessions with my Airmen. This has also help build an environment of information-sharing which, in turn, has improved team collaboration.
As for task-facilitating roles, I tend to take an information seeking monitoring roles. I love learning, therefore, asking questions and requesting different perspectives is a natural tendency for me. I have also noticed that if I ask questions, it increases others likelihood to ask questions. I work in a male-dominated career field where the men are very prideful. They tend to do without thinking or asking questions even when they don't feel comfortable with something. However, I can notice their reluctance to ask questions and don't mind asking the "silly" questions. Furthermore, in a monitoring role I check on progress often and expect my NCOs to do the same. In fact, I make it known that my priorities within the section are: Accountability, Timelines, Follow-up.
Whetton, D. A. & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills, 9th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Two years ago I found out that I had earned the rank of Master Sergeant. This meant that I was in the elite corps of Senior Non-Commissioned Officers (SNCO) of the United States Air Force. Senior NCOs are expected to set the highest standards of personal integrity, leadership, and devotion to duty while upholding Air Force policies and standards. Although I had studied, worked hard and strived for this promotion, I didn't feel quite ready for the responsibility. I was moved in to work as an assistant section chief and within a few months my Chief came to my office to tell me I would be moved again. However, this time I would put solely in charge of the Squadron Support section. This meant I would be responsible for 35 Airmen, 32 programs and $5.2 million worth of tools and equipment. I felt inadequate. Chief Ente explained that the section was struggling and had issues with accountability. I told him that I wasn't sure if I was ready and his words were... "We need your type of leadership there." Chief Ente's encouragement inspired and empowered me to take on this challenge.
I sought advice from several peers and mentorship from upper supervision. With their support I was able to spend the next 15 months leading my team. We accomplished so many things. In the first six months, we recycled over 5,000 spare tools, six vehicles and thousands of other items. Within the first few months, we obtained new crew chief boxes and transferred over the old ones. We've initiated new processes and accomplished 40 improvement projects. Our support team went gone 31 days with no Quality Assurance (QA) fails and 5 out of 14 months above 90% ratings. Overall, we've raised the QA pass rate 6%. Additionally, physical training test fails decreased from four to one and our averages increased 9.4%.
By putting me in this position, Chief Ente empowered me to make decisions, set goals and accomplish great things. I couldn't see it at first but I am forever grateful for that gift. It made me realize my potential and reach. Furthermore, it allowed me to empower others to make change and improve our squadron. A previous supervisor explained to me once that others can usually see your potential before you can and sometimes leaders must push followers in a direction they are reluctant to go in order to grow. I will that supervisors advice and this experience in mind as I continue to lead others.
First, view the video below. Then use your blog to describe an example of a successful conflict resolution that you have either witnessed or participated in.
William Ury's TED talk focused on changing mindsets by finding a third side or the 18th camel. He said we must change the frame from hostility to hospitality. Although it is easier said than done, he insisted it is possible and I must agree.
Recently, I witnessed a conflict between two subordinates. We moved Airman Tavera to dayshift after being on swings for several months. While dayshift works a lot, there are random tasks to be performed and a different mindset. Within 2 days of being on days, he had a handful of negative interaction with Airman Lukes. Tavera is a very positive individual who works at his own pace but gets the job done whereas Lukes has a pessimistic point of view most of the time and often finds ways to get out of work. Tavera complained several times to supervisors about Lukes attitude and work ethic however none of the supervisors did much. The last straw came when Lukes called Tavera lazy and other names. Tavera finally came to seek my advice. While I told him I hoped they could resolve the situation on their own, I agreed to speak with them together. I called Lukes into my office with Tavera and let them each speak their minds and discuss their issues. I played the role of the mediator, finally getting both Airmen to hear each other. It was a successful resolution where both parties can now work side by side as they are able to understand each other more.
While this conflict was resolved, other times have not been as effective. For example, I had a disagreement with a previous subordinate, Tommy. The two of us did not have the same work ethic or ideas of accountability. We were able to work together for several months before he became insubordinate and disrespectful. As an emotional person, I was not able to clearly see the situation and was not able to resolve the conflict between us. Eventually, I had him moved to a different section due to our differences and his attitude towards me. Knowing what I know now, I would have started the relationship with being more forthright and upfront with my expectations. Furthermore, I could have brought in a third party to mediate our differences. We also had disagreements on Tommy's responsibilities that we could've negotiated or discussed more in depth. However, I didn't do that and regret the things I said and did.
Communicating Supportively and Motivating others are two lessons I truly appreciated. I will use the information learned for myself and to share with others. In the Motivating others module, we watched the Dan Ariely video made me reflect on what motivates my followers. I feel ownership piece is a contributor. With my new job, I have been asking a lot of questions and going out to see how and what others are working on. This has let the Airmen take ownership of their tasks by acknowledging their work while learning new things myself. I could tell right away that the Airmen weren't used to this and jumped at the opportunity to teach and show off their work. This not only motivated them, it also empowered them. A good leader needs to be able to motivate their people to accomplish more than the person believes is possible. I will use all that I've learned to develop myself and others as I continue in my endeavor to make a difference. 
