You are about to witness an absolute coup, and to be honest, I can't wait to see it unfold. It has become all out chaos here, and the number one reason it's become so terrible is that our leader (an inexperienced Lieutenant Colonel) doesn't know anything about the 31 other people he's been charged with leading. Which means that horrible creature we in the Air Force call the Idea Fairy has stricken our lives.
In case you aren't familiar with the Idea Fairy, that is the evil creature who delivers the world's worst ideas to senior leaders which they immediately act upon without any consideration of the impact said ideas will have.
Today the Idea Fairy delivered the idea to march to class. In formation. Carrying coffee cups and bottles of Coke. Wearing sunglasses. And without calling any type of cadence to keep people in step. So you can imagine how completely ridiculous this looked as a swarm of 30 or so idiots was parading down the street in a huddle. And where was our grand leader? Running ahead of the formation trying to figure out where we were going. Oh wait, so then we sat in class for about 4 hours and gaggle marched back.
Now I'm all about military discipline, doing the right thing, you know the drill. But I am not all about leaders who lead by the book. If this guy could identify every guy in the flight by face, I would be less insulted when he marched us back from class. Or if he could sit in class and actually learn instead of watching his Blackberry all morning. But that's not how it's going. In order to lead Airmen (or people) you have to know them and they have to trust you. It's really that simple.
And here's a hint...if you can't pay attention in class, I don't trust you. If you don't know my name (after week 3), I don't trust you. If you never sit with any of us at any meal, I don't trust you. So now I have to go plan an intervention so that this dude sees what my guys are all seeing...leadership is not "do what I say, not what I do." When you're a leader, people watch you constantly. And you had damn well better be making good decisions.
Phew. What a morning...
In case you aren't familiar with the Idea Fairy, that is the evil creature who delivers the world's worst ideas to senior leaders which they immediately act upon without any consideration of the impact said ideas will have.
Today the Idea Fairy delivered the idea to march to class. In formation. Carrying coffee cups and bottles of Coke. Wearing sunglasses. And without calling any type of cadence to keep people in step. So you can imagine how completely ridiculous this looked as a swarm of 30 or so idiots was parading down the street in a huddle. And where was our grand leader? Running ahead of the formation trying to figure out where we were going. Oh wait, so then we sat in class for about 4 hours and gaggle marched back.
Now I'm all about military discipline, doing the right thing, you know the drill. But I am not all about leaders who lead by the book. If this guy could identify every guy in the flight by face, I would be less insulted when he marched us back from class. Or if he could sit in class and actually learn instead of watching his Blackberry all morning. But that's not how it's going. In order to lead Airmen (or people) you have to know them and they have to trust you. It's really that simple.
And here's a hint...if you can't pay attention in class, I don't trust you. If you don't know my name (after week 3), I don't trust you. If you never sit with any of us at any meal, I don't trust you. So now I have to go plan an intervention so that this dude sees what my guys are all seeing...leadership is not "do what I say, not what I do." When you're a leader, people watch you constantly. And you had damn well better be making good decisions.
Phew. What a morning...
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