04/19/23

Developing Your Leadership Style

Integrity – Service – Excellence

Lt Col Lucia MoreLaboratory Flight Commander

Elmendorf AFB, AK

Thank you for giving us this time

“Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.”

Plato

What is a Leader?

• Leadership definition• Developing Personal Style• Strategic Leadership• Creating other leaders• Generational Leadership

Leadership

• Leadership definition• The office or position of a leader• Capacity to lead; one that takes the lead or

initiative• “Leader” versus “Manager”

• Managers are maintainers; systems/controls• Leaders are innovators/creators; people• Leaders have a clear sense of vision

What is a Leader?

• Leaders are perpetual learners

• Demand and reward honest feedback• What you don’t know CAN hurt you…

• Leaders have a burning desire to help others• Have courage, boldness to pursue purpose• Do what needs to be done despite the fear• Failing to act when necessary…may be one of the

more common stumbling blocks of effective leadership

What is a Leader?

• Leaders are accountable; they don’t make excuses• Always willing to look inside themselves to see what

needs changing• Take responsibility for what is happening now and for

making things better in the future• Share the credit with everyone who helped along the

way• Average people focus on problems, not solutions

Leadership Style

• IS NOT:• Dictator; arbiter of all information and decisions

• NOT a position, a process • Actions and style have tremendous influence over

the working atmosphere/morale • You may BE the problem!• Be aware of own style, impact on others…BUT,

can’t worry about approval rating or strive for consensus on every issue to avoid unpopularity

Leadership Style

• Leaders provide vision• Effective vision provides guidance• Think big…be willing to stretch

• Don’t limit your own potential• “Yeah, but…”

• Character and attitude are most important• Skills can be taught

What is a Leader?

• “If we are to promote the exercise of leadership among all the players on the team it is essential to separate the process of leadership from the title of leader.”(from article by Robert C. Burgee prepared for AU-24, Concepts for Air

Force Leadership)

What is a Leader?

• Must have foundation of acceptance and support• Genuine communication leads to trust in others’

motives• Respect for others’ intelligence and commitment• Make sure your comments are worth saying• Listen to what is being said

• e

Personal Style

• No “best” style denotes leadership

• Not only for the visionary or charismatic• Frees follower from idea that leadership is

reserved for those with titles• Frees managers from idea that they must be

smarter quicker, better informed and more decisive than anyone on their team

Personal Style

• The word “leadership” implies collaboration• You can’t lead if no one follows!• Tap potential of initiative, creativity, and energy

from middle and lower echelons

• Empower independent decision making• Define desired outcome and let them get there

Personal Style

• Developing your leadership style is a process

• Grow into progressively more complex tasks at successively higher levels of organization

• Individual combination of knowledge, interactive and thinking skills • Tend to focus and do well in strong areas • Areas of weakness may become a problem later

Personal Style

A word about time management:

Managers who don’t manage their time create even greater time management problems for

their subordinates who spend significant time waiting for the boss

Personal Style

• Manager must have enough technical knowledge to know how to use it most efficiently

• Foster empowerment, learning, purposeful sharing of information

• Inspire trust in others • Objectivity, consistency • Personal openness• Active listening, responding appropriately• Respect others

Interpersonal Skills

• Network, scan, interpret, understand what’s going on that may have future relevance to organization• Expected growth in your MTF??? Increased

specialty care…what does the lab need to do to support it?

• Visualize and predict potential problems• Formulate least-risk solutions

• Sometimes requires assembled wisdom of a team

Interpersonal Skills

• Comprehend and set understandable goals• Develop concrete plans/tasks for allocating

resources• Visualize interactive dynamics of large systems

• Decisions in one area may affect others• Unanticipated or undesirable indirect effects

• (2d, 3d, and 4th order)

Decision Skills

• Future focus and vision• Realistic planning• Problem analysis and diagnosis• Provide concept/guidance for entire program

• Envision desired future, assess current position• Understand what actions in the present can shape

what the future will be• Monitor progress

Decision Skills

Personal Style

• Understand and empower lower level leaders• Don’t micromanage unless you have to; if you have

to… you aren’t making your message clear enough!• Balance stabilization with need to change; short term

results against future gains• Understand your own and others’ preferences

• Generational leadership, personality styles• Make decisions/take action not dominated by your

preferences/comfort levels

Strategic Leadership

• It’s all about the people• Must draw people together around a set of shared

values and interests • Show future goals that are worth struggling for• Create confidence that these goals are attainable• Must be morally uplifting; means may be attained

in accord with high moral and ethical standards

Strategic Leadership

• A strategic leader must:• Have person-to-person influence skills• Deal persuasively, collegially• Negotiate constructively with near equals (other

flight commanders, etc.); they have the power and ability to commit resources to achieve shared objectives

• Be proactive: understand the need for change and the balance between stability and creating change

Strategic Leadership

• Effective leaders operate with top-level teams• No leader can manage, decide, implement alone• Purpose often seen most clearly by the strategic

leader…seeing and guiding is an important responsibility!

• Effective organizations have a sense of where they are going; effort justified by the purpose

Strategic Leadership

• Our job = look ahead/smooth the way for organization to transition from today’s work to tomorrow or next decade

• Create leadership climate so team sees purpose in lives and fulfillment in work

• We exist to support AEF!

• Strive for excellence!

Strategic Leadership

The more senior you are, the more power implicit in position, the more potential to USE power• Opportunity for self-deception is greater• “Executive temptations” – impatience, huge

power to harm others, embarrass• Makes others reluctant to get involved, negative impact

on competence, decrease development and learning

• Need self-awareness, patience, read others

Interpersonal Skills

• Leader attitude plus positive atmosphere = great accomplishments

• Leaders must model the leadership they desire• Can’t demand of others what you don’t of self

• Fitness, uniform, courtesy• What leaders do, potential leaders around them do

• Good and bad….

Creating Other Leaders

• Identify the potential in each future leader• Cultivate it in light of the needs of the

organization

• Find the one thing you believe is an asset (maybe they don’t see it) and give 100% encouragement

Creating Other Leaders

• Starting point for all achievement = drive, determination, desire

• Know the desires of those you lead• Look for positiveness, servanthood

• (play team ball, follow the leader), hunger for personal growth, consistency (gets the job done), loyalty (leader/org above personal desires), resiliency (bounce back from problems), integrity, big picture mindset, discipline, gratitude

• Does your mentor see these qualities in you?

Creating Other Leaders

• Determine the needs of potential leaders• Expose to successful people• Provide secure environment where they can take

risks• Provide tools/resources needed• Training and continuing education• License to act

Creating Other Leaders

• Network: seek out mentors/be a mentor • Core values: who do you see in the mirror?

• Integrity, humility, service

• Know what your personal goals are, but don’t pursue them at the expense of others

• Believe in yourself; if you don’t, no one else will

• Balance: spiritual, physical, mental fitness• You set the example whether you intend to or not!

Leadership

If the whole world followed you,

would you be pleased

with where you took it?

Parting Thought

• Four (4) generations working together

• Different values, experiences, styles and attitudes create• Misunderstandings

• Frustrations

• Diverse work environment

The generation gap is increasing communication gap

(this information is From Generational Leadership, Col Alton Powell, III, USAF, MC, CFS, Chief, Population Health Support Division, Nov 04)

Generational Leadership

• All have different needs and desires• All are typically loyal for different reasons• All will require different approaches to managing

• Balance• Feedback

How do we get them to going in the same direction?

Work Characteristics

• Traditionalists (Matures/Silent Generation)

• Baby Boomers

• Generation X

• Millennials (Generation Y/Generation Next)

Generational Leadership

• Born 1925 – 1945 (>65 yrs old now)• Influences

• Great Depression, Roaring Twenties, World War I, World War II, Korean War, G.I. Bill

• Characteristics• Patriotic, loyal, “waste not, want not,” faith in institutions• Military influenced top-down approach

• Value logic and discipline• Don’t like change• Want to build a legacy

Key Word: Loyal

Traditionalists

• Born 1946 – 1964 • Influences

• Suburbia, TV, Vietnam, Watergate, protests, human rights movement, drugs, and rock ‘n roll

• Characteristics• Idealistic, COMPETITIVE, question authority

• “Me” Generation• Money, title, recognition• Want to build a stellar career

• Key Word: Optimistic

Baby Boomers

• Born 1965 – 1980• Influences

• Sesame Street, MTV, Game Boy, PC, divorce rate tripled, latch-key children

• Characteristics• Eclectic, resourceful, self-reliant, distrustful of

institutions, highly adaptive to change and technology• Possibly most misunderstood generation• Need a balance between work and life - Freedom• Flexible and motivated• Want to build a portable career

Key Word: Skepticism

Generation X

• Born 1981 – 2002• Influences

• Expanded technology, natural disasters, violence, gangs, diversity

• Characteristics• Globally concerned, realistic, cyber literate, “personal

safety” is number one concern• Value diversity / change• Been involved entire life• Want work to be meaningful

• Key Word: Realistic

Millennials

• Mature: want to work with people, not email• more likely to write a memo than shout across the room,

base decisions on what worked in the past

• Boomers: “People who live to work” • willing to sacrifice for success; recognition is important;

more optimistic and team oriented

• Gen X: value a work/life balance; • “work to live”; would rather work with email vs. people;

individual oriented

• Gen Y: learning opportunities;• flexible working arrangements; want a fun environment;

need highly collaborative and optimistic atmosphere

Work Characteristics

• Matures: the personal touch – hand written notes

• Still motivated by traditional perks: executive washrooms, company cars, upfront parking

• Boomers: treat as equals, public recognition, the personal touch, reward work ethic and long hours

• Gen X: Family style work atmosphere, casual/comfortable; give them freedom and great responsibility, work they can feel control over, need more constructive feedback, fun work environment, latest technology

• Gen Y: Continuing education, ability to develop work skills, on the job training, multi-tasking opportunities

Motivations

• Matures• “No news is good news”

• Boomers• “Feedback once a year, with lots of

documentation”• Generation X

• “Sorry to interrupt, but how am I doing”• Millennials

• “Feedback whenever I want it at the push of a button”

Feedback

• Matures• “The satisfaction of a job well done”• Respect

• Boomers• “Money, title, recognition, the corner office”

• Generation X• “Freedom is the ultimate reward”

• Millennials• “Work that has meaning for me”

Recognition Systems

• Matures• “I learned the hard way, you can too!”

• Boomers• “Train’ em too much and they will leave”

• Generation X• “The more they learn, the more they stay”

• Millennials• “Continuous learning is a way of life”

Training

• Matures• “Job changing carries a stigma”

• Boomers• Job changing puts you behind”

• Generation X• Job changing is necessary”

• Millennials• Job changing is part of my daily routine”

Career Management

• Different generations of employees need to understand each other’s different motivations and work characteristics

• YOU need to know how to reach them

Career Management

• More civilian managers than ever before• Must have team mind set• Respect knowledge and experience

• New Lt as a supervisor• Seen it all before; you’ll go away eventually

• Communication must be 2-way as lab professionals• Civilian provides technical expertise, continuity,

stability• Encourage to speak up, not clam up and wait you

out

Working With Civilians

Expeditionary Medics