While assigned to the 4404th Logistics Group at PSAB, Saudi, General Fogelman, then the CSAF visited and had the occasion to tour our transportation squadron’s vehicle maintenance facility (Tent). It was hot and our mechanics were working hard everyday trying to keep the oldest fleet of hand-me-down vehicles in-commission. The mechanics were sweaty, and their overalls were what you would expect of folks taking engines and transmissions apart and all these mechanics were deeply involved in the vehicle repairs. When General Fogelman walked through the facility he had an entourage and was getting a walking briefing from the transportation squadron commander, Lt Col Rita Woolwine. When Gen Fogelman stopped the procession at a Hummer (in the midst of major engine work), he engaged the young mechanic in a discussion of engine overhauls. Gen Fogelman was overhauling his car engine at Bolling AFB -- and he engaged in a very detailed discussion of problems and solutions. Very shortly there was a circle of the 70 mechanics around Gen Fogelman and the conversation had already lasted well over 30 minutes when the Colonel travelling with the CSAF, tried to get him to disengage and move on to the next stop on the wing tour. Gen Fogelman resisted lightly and the colonel decided to be a little more assertive because they were falling too far from the scheduled itinerary…until Gen Fogelman abruptly stopped talking, turned to the colonel and said, “Colonel you can see I am busy and when it is time to go, I will let you know”---stared, and then Gen Fogelman returned to the SSgt he was talking to. Every dirty and tired mechanic was engaged with the CSAF that day in the vehicle maintenance facility -- beamed with pride and you never saw such a vehicle in-commission rate ever. Gen Fogelman was not talking to these mechanics about the role of Air Power, or the importance of fighter squadrons to the Joint Task Force, or the need for mechanics to be “focused on compliance,” he was talking with them about vehicle maintenance. He was focused on what “they” were doing and not on what he was doing. He did not need to say how important vehicle maintenance was to the overall AF mission -- in words, because by spending his time and engaged attention, he had already done that in spades---that was real leadership. There were many of us who learned a valuable lesson that day!
This was the CSAF but the lesson in this story is not about a visit from the CSAF, the lesson is for those in leadership positions - you only have to genuinely engage your people on their jobs to have a tremendous impact on performance. It can’t be a fake performance but if you are genuinely interested in what they are doing and pay them the compliment of doing your homework and learning enough of the details to be able to engage them about the work, the entire AF team wins.
A quote from a recently published book about General Curtis Lemay supports this basic principle. Kozak (2009) described LeMay’s move out of Europe at the end of June 1944, when General Hap Arnold assigned him to run the B-29 operations in India LeMay was told there were “problems” with the airplane. Lemay knew every part of the B-17 but had never even flown a B-29. Kozak wrote, “Lemay immersed himself in the planes’ technology. But rather than asking the ground [maintenance] crews incessant questions, he simply worked alongside them and seemed to just absorb what they knew” (p. 170-171).
The principle is pretty clear and has been modeled for us throughout our short Air Force history; effective leaders get firsthand knowledge of the problems to be solved and do not rely on 9 lines from a staff officer to understand complex issues. Real leaders are self-driven to understand the details and that is why they seem to always be able to “connect the dots” and make good decisions. lchandler@avesllc.com
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