COMMENTARY >> Did you lead today?

By Senior Master Sgt. John Spillane
29th Weapons Squadron superintendent


Did you lead today or did work get in your way?

On most days, I bet the answer to that question is, work got in the way. In our modern day Air Force, e-mail, phone calls, shrinking budgets and consolidation, doing more with less, distract all of us. We get caught up in our jobs and don’t “lead” on a day-to-day basis. So, I must ask you, “Did you lead today?”

Commander’s desks are stacked high with officer performance reports, first sergeants are coordinating everything from luncheon pro-ratas to what’s going on in military fashion, supervisors are prepping continuity books for the next inspection and everyone else is eyeballs-deep just trying to get to the end of the work day.

There are many reasons why this occurs, but the primary reason is we have to get “work stuff” done. We get caught up in this kind of work stuff, because as a society we define each other by our work.

To illustrate my point, when we meet someone new, one of the first questions we always ask is, “So…what do you do?”
So far, in 45 years of asking that question, nobody has said, “I lead!” I think that leadership is getting buried beneath our everyday lives and we need to get it out, dust it off and exercise it a little more often.

As Airmen, non-commissioned officers and officers in the United States Air Force, it is imperative that we lead every day.
Air Force Doctrine Document 1-1 states, “Leadership is the art of influencing and directing personnel to accomplish the assigned mission.”

Most readers already know this because Airman Leadership School, NCO Academy, Senior NCO Academy, the Chief’s Leadership Course, the USAF Academy, Air and Space Basic Course, Squadron Officer School, Air Command and Staff College and the Air War College all teach leadership.

Talking about leadership in an academic environment is easy; practicing leadership in the real world, however, is a bit different. Let’s clear some things up.

Conducting roll call is not leading! Making sure a fleet of trucks get washed is not leading! Being an aircraft commander and flying an airplane is not leading! Checking time cards, reviewing customer comments, responding to office e-mails or attending a staff meeting is not leading!

The Air Force definition of leadership, “the art of influencing and directing,” describes leadership but doesn’t adequately describe how to execute the challenge of leading on a day to day basis.

To help out the Air Force definition of leadership, I follow my own definition of leadership which is, “The art of inspiring others to accept the responsibility of executing the leader’s vision.”

That statement alone gives me a definition and a mission statement. A leader’s job is to inspire! A leader’s job is to get his or her followers to embrace a vision! A leader’s job is to get everyone to accept the responsibility of getting the job done right!
Leadership is hard. Most Air Force members have gone to school to learn about leading.

Most Air Force members can recognize leadership when they see it. As Air Force members, we need to crawl out from under our pile of work and translate our leadership education into leadership action.

The question is: did you lead today? Did you set a great example? Did you inspire a subordinate? Did you boost morale? Did you share the commander’s vision with someone? Did you make the work environment better?

We all have a leadership education, we can all recognize leadership, we all have the opportunity: the question is: “Did you lead today?” If not, “Will you lead tomorrow?”