My influence
This blog is my story on the the influence of a leader. What peoples in my life have motivated me to reach my own potential and why? What leader would I trust to go to war with? How does this relationship develop and why? Why was that leader so important to me and my growth as a leader. There has been many leaders in my military career some I would/will do anything for. I have seen the good and bad side of leadership, I have witnessed forced leadership because of rank and positional power. I have had to deal with the fallout of years of misunderstood leadership. The military is a great example of poor leadership, because of rank. When leadership is poor, I normally fall back on the old adage respect the rank not the person.
The military has also lead me to some of the greatest leaders and people that I have ever known. One of those in particular was one of my old squadron commanders, Colonel (ret) Jennifer Moore. Col Moore entered the United States Air Force Academy in 1986 and retired 2013. She was my squadron commander of then one of the premier squadrons in Air Force Space Command, 76 Space Control Squadron, in May of 2007. I was a space control operator during this time. She took over during lots of change, we where in the middle of deploying the squadron for the first time in years, a squadron that dated all the way back to World War II was losing its hertiage and the CONUS training was accelerated at a what I thought was an unmanageable pace.
Lt Col Moore at the time, walked in as one of the calmest commander I have ever seen, almost to the point where we did not understand. At first most people did not like her, we felt that she was responsible for us losing our heritage, taking away our bar, and keeping us in the field for months at a time. I never forget the first day that I meet her, she walked in to the bar "heritage area" one Friday afternoon after months on the road and told us that we had to come home. I was assuming through group think that she was responsible for all the negative emotions that I had at the time. Lt Col Moore never let this selective manned unit phase her. In one particular memory that I have during her assumption of command, there was a member who could not handle deploying, and she removed him from the unit. Of course by this time the unit was buzzing and everything was her fault.
We were wrong, this is when our followership/leadership relationship developed. I was completely wrong about her. What I did not know until it was almost to late, Lt Col Moore was a quite professional leader, that always looked after her people and continuously managed the temperament and exceptions of this premier unit with grace and strength. She held her values while holding the values of the unit steadfast and balanced. She shaped the cowboy operators of the past into professionals that would go on to move the mission area toward the very successful path that it is on today. Despite our loss of history, she embraced the change and empowered the unit to create their own, even the squadron's patch and colors were designed by the unit. When our new building was built she asked the unit to make it our own, even down to the cable trays in the training area. When we went on the road, she entrusted the complexities of the unit to the noncommissioned officers if they where not the senior folks or the most experienced.
One of the best examples of her grace and strength was when I was deployed and committed a large error, instead of yelling at me and throwing me to the wolves, she charged me with a mission statement that I hold even a decade later--everyone makes mistakes, take ownership and be accountable. She quietly defended my actions at the highest level of government because I took ownership and did not hide from it or blame others. I was so wrong to judge her timidness of a leader. She went above and beyond what was asked of her as a leader, to fall on her sword for mere NCO. After this instead of looking backward she moved me forward and asked me to lead another mission stand-up. This story was repeated at her retirement ceremony from the presiding officer, Lt. Gen Raymond. He told the story from his perspective because he was one of the senior leaders that she had to defend my actions.
This is one of the greatest leaders that I have ever worked for and since then I have asked her to help me with this course as we move forward throughout the assignments.
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