Leadership is action, not position

  • Published
  • By Lt Col Jeff Meyer
  • Commander, 421st Air Base Squadron
RAF MENWITH HILL, United Kingdom --  Why is it in the movies the generals and those in positions of leadership are shown as bumbling idiots, psychotic lunatics or at best egomaniacs? Do you remember Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove or Col Jessep in A Few Good Men? Can you even look at the fluoridated water for sale in the shoppette and not think of Ripper's Cold War illusion of a Communist plot to take over the world? Aside from the fact that it sells movies, these characters provide the conflict and story line in the movie which allows someone of lesser stature to step up and show the way.

However, what Hollywood doesn't know is that people of all ranks and positions in life provide leadership everyday and without conflicting with the already existing leadership structure. And here's a little secret...it's encouraged. In fact, it's needed!

You may not even be aware that you're a leader or that you provide leadership. But it's most likely that you are and you have. In any given situation, one person, regardless of rank provides more influence to a group than any other person. It might be that your technical expertise allows you to see a problem in a unique way. That perspective might allow you to provide guidance, direction and/or recommendations that no one else can see. In these situations you took the risk to speak up and help guide a group towards its objective.

There are many more ways to provide leadership. One of those involves the myriad of activities and organizations that help make our community thrive. Our private organizations, sports programs, committees, clubs, and youth activities are just a few places that people volunteer not only their time and services but their leadership. Are you a coach, a referee, a president or secretary, committee chair, scout troop leader? Our community cries out for people to step up and take on these leadership roles. And it's a testament to the quality of the people who serve here on how many people do step up.

There are other more subtle ways that I think show leadership. Doing a job with pride and enthusiasm, doing more than the job requires, persevering on a difficult task, and taking the time to do a job right, sets an example for others to follow. And if others are following your example then you are leading by example. Leading by example also extends well beyond what we do in our job. It applies to how we behave and treat others. This is embodied in a now popular quote from Ghandi which is a more activist version of the Golden Rule. It says, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." This is leadership by example.

One way to develop and display leadership traits is to work on expanding your job knowledge, learning the jobs of those around and taking on additional responsibilities even when it's not required. I sometimes saw this in my flying experience. A KC-135 is normally flown by a crew of four...two pilots, a navigator and a boom operator. The boomer is the only enlisted person on the crew, the rest are officers. The boomer's primary job is to fly the boom into position and plug it into the receptacle on another aircraft so we can offload fuel to the receiver. The boom operator has a very important job but it's only for a short time during the mission. Most boom operators will bring something to read to occupy the rest of their time. Many would take a nap. There was one boom operator I flew with whom I noticed didn't nap and didn't read during the lull in his mission responsibilities. On a long, overwater flight he was in the cockpit asking if he could make the position reports over the radio (normally the copilot's duty). During practice approaches he was following along in the approach book, learning the symbology and backing up the pilots on altitudes and headings. While we were in contact with another airplane, offloading fuel and he had his hands full, literally flying the boom, he would occasionally ask the copilot, who was running the fuel panel, how the offload was coming, backing him up to make sure we offloaded the correct amount.
To me, this young man was displaying and developing traits of leadership, expanding his job knowledge, learning the jobs of those around him, being a useful contributor in every way. And when he questioned an altitude call or he suggested a certain checklist for us to run, he was providing valuable leadership and he had my attention.

Rank and position provide opportunities for leadership but that is not the sole source of leadership. Our community thrives and requires leadership in one form or another from everybody. In A Few Good Men, Tom Cruise's character said, "you don't have to have a patch on your arm to have honor." Similarly, you don't have to have rank or title to be a leader. In short, we need you on that wall.