Leadership lessons learned on the playground

  • Published
  • By Chief Master Sgt. John Evalle
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Command Chief
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  I have so many wonderful memories of being a young boy spending hours out on the playground in elementary school during recess. I think everyone remembers recess. Let's face it, other than lunch period, recess was absolutely the best period of the day at school. Recess was certainly a great break in the day from the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic, but was it all fun and games? Did we learn anything at recess? I would like to submit that many long-enduring leadership lessons were learned by each of us on the playground at recess every day. Of course, we didn't know they were leadership lessons at the time, but let me take a moment to remind you of a couple principles that may be helpful to you today.

My first playground leadership principle comes from riding on that spinning merry-go-round ride that existed on almost every playground. It was that ride where children climbed on top of the large metal disk and held on to the bars as another child stood on the side and spun them. It is probably one of the best rides ever invented for young thrill seekers. I loved that ride. But did you ever experience that awful time when that older teenager snuck up behind you and cranked the ride really fast to scare the small riders? When laughter turned to screams of terror, the teenager was motivated to spin even faster? Very scary stuff, but what's the leadership lesson here?

Let me change the situation slightly. Now you are on that same ride having fun and enjoying the thrill when you feel a surge in speed or tempo. Your grip tightens, but this time when you come around you see that it was your mom or your dad that snuck-up and spun it faster. You love and trust this person and certainly know they would never let anything bad happen to you. You trust this person because you know they are keeping a close eye on you and watching to ensure that you are OK. The leadership lesson here is that developing a trusting relationship with subordinates is essential to successfully leading in today's environment of high operations tempo.

Think of the spin of the merry-go-round as our operations tempo, and as a leader, the demands of the mission have forced you to raise the operations tempo and surge. I offer that if you have already built a trusting relationship with your Airmen and they know that you are genuinely watching over them, your Airmen will hold on through the surge because they are 100 percent confident that you would never let anything bad happen to them. Trust in leadership is so important for one simple fact; if Airmen feel like you are that teenager spinning the ride as fast as you can until someone flies-off, you will probably have Airmen screaming to get off this ride. Develop trust.

My other very important leadership principle comes from playing kickball. Kickball is a classic recess game still played by millions of children every day. So do you remember how teams were picked when you played kickball? That's right, two team captains were chosen, then they in turn selected individuals from the remaining group to be on their teams. Let's say that you are one of the team captains for today's kickball game. Who do you pick from the group and why? Good kickers? Yes. Fast runners? Yes. Good Catchers? Yes again, but why? Isn't it because all of these folks have skills and abilities that add value to your team? Yes, of course and they improve your chance of winning. We want to win. Would you consider picking an average kicker-catcher-runner that gives it their all in every effort and has a strong competitive desire to be the best? I know I'd pick him or her. On the opposite side, would you consider picking someone that is known as the most athletic person on the playground, but seems to not care about winning or doing their best and usually ends up quitting halfway through every game? That's not a person I would pick. Now let's talk about the new kid, and that kid's first day at recess at your school. Do you pick them to be on your team ahead of any of your proven performers? You might not pick the new kid on the first day, but let's say they're on the other team and when they get up to kick for the first time. Wow. She's a great kicker and really fast. And makes some incredible dives, catches and throws a few people out. They're really good, so what happens the next day at recess? "Hey new kid! You're on my team!" Right?

So what's the leadership lesson? Life is like kickball, all of us have skills, abilities and attitudes that are regularly being considered for the value we bring to the team. Developing yourself in ability and attitude is key to demonstrating your value and ultimately, being a better you makes the Air Force better. I tell every new Airman at the First Term Airmen's Center each week that they are the "new kids" on the playground. I tell them their "Team Captains" are their new squadron commanders, chiefs, first sergeant and supervisor and they are all looking to see if the "new kid" is a good kicker, catcher or fast runner. I tell the Airmen to show them from day one how much value they bring to the team. I tell them to walk in the door to their new unit with a 90 or above score on their FTAC mock Physical Training test. That's being a fast runner. Show to their leadership that they are fully invested in their upgrade training by completing their 5-level Career Development Course ahead of schedule and mastering the end-of-course examine with a 90 or above score. That's being a great kicker. Show their initiative and positive attitude by getting involved in their squadron, group, wing and community activities to broaden their network and help grow our caring Travis Family culture. That's being a great catcher.

Everyday each of us bring our skills, abilities and attitudes to work as we serve our country and answer our nation's call. Almost everyone will agree the Air Force's priority of "Win Today's Fight" is a no-fail mission. That coupled with today's smaller force and the very real need to use our dollars wisely leads to the fact we cannot tolerate members that are not good kickers, catchers and fast runners. The Air Force and our nation need you to bring your "A-game" everyday. With limited resources, we need everyone to use initiative to find better, smarter ways to perform our mission. The 60th Air Mobility Wing's vision is "America's First Choice!" for a reason. America depends on us and we must prove to them on a daily basis that we are great kickers, catchers and very fast runners. More importantly, those bad guys around the world know how good we are too. Develop yourself.

Of course, our profession of arms is a more serious subject than time spent at recess on the playground, but I truly believe we can all learn from these two simple leadership lessons: Develop trust and develop yourself. A trusting relationship serves as a key link at every level of leadership as well as a source of loyalty and motivation especially when the force is challenged beyond normal operations. Developing yourself, your skills, abilities and winning attitude absolutely ensures that our Air Force remains strong and ready. We are not asking our enemies to play kickball, but I have no doubt that our kickball team will annihilate anyone foolish enough to take the field.