Servant Leadership...

Last weekend I attended a "Dining Out" for my brother's Officer Training School Flight near Maxwell Air Force Base.  Just in case you didn't know, a Dining Out is basically a formal party with a dinner and some fun thrown in.  I had been to a few of these in my  career as an Army Officer, but this Dining Out had a special function.  One I was particularly proud to be a part of: Celebrating the upcoming commissioning of a brand new class of US Air Force Lieutenants.  

To get to this point, the cadets at my table had to endure months away from family and friends, endure intense academic training that included last minute changes, random stresses, and designed problems throughout the training schedule along with rigorous physical training...  The Air Force tried very hard to weed out anyone who shouldn't be an Air Force Officer.  It's very difficult to get selected into this program, and many people don't make it after the get accepted with a drop out/failure rate nearing 40%. 

I had a chance to ask the cadets at my table:  "Why did you do this?"  Each one of the cadets at my table had the credentials to be a very successful civilian.  There were a few medical professionals, an IT specialist and a business manager...  why put themselves through the extra stress?  In the end, each cadet had an answer connected to serving...  not only their country but the service members they will eventually be leading.   

The concept of servant leadership focuses on taking the responsibility to actually care for those who take care of you while accomplishing a mission.  Servant leadership builds better teams by developing better team members, encouraging respectful communication, and by doing so building loyalty and creating unity of focus towards a goal.  There are quicker and easier ways to just get the mission done, but often these other paths involve sacrificing something else; maybe sacrificing someone else's career or unnecessarily violating their time with family.  Servant Leaders don't necessarily have it easy, the time and effort it takes to build a person and an effective team has a ton of work behind it.  Better teams and better outcomes often come to those servant leaders who can make it work.        

Congrats to this new class of Air Force Officers, and good luck on being a servant leader in the defense of our nation.