The Coin of the Realm

  • Published
  • By Col. Marty Chapin
  • 621st Contingency Response Wing commander
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  We've got a tough fiscal climate out there these days and it seems every time we turn around, we hear how challenging our financial future is going to be in the Air Force.

As I visit the squadrons and flights in my wing, I frequently witness how stretched manpower is and yet we still have more than enough mission to go around. We always get it done, but there should be no doubt we now live in a resource-constrained world.

What if I said you have a virtually unlimited resource? You can make more of it yourself. You can use it to improve your organization in almost any way imaginable. It can give you more hours to get your mission done, it can increase your ability to get the supplies and equipment you need and, even better, it will make your unit a place your Airmen look forward to coming to every day. If I said you could get all this without limits, you would probably call me a liar, but you would be wrong.

What is this resource that seemingly has no limits and you can create yourself? Simple: respect.

A number of studies revealed workers are actually more motivated by nonmonetary rewards than by simply earning more money. Examples include recognition at work, faith in leadership, feeling relevant opportunities to advance and an enjoyable workplace. More and more, corporate America recognizes money is not the panacea of motivation many believed it to be. Truth be told, in the Air Force, we've known this for a long time.

When I consider these nonmonetary motivating factors, one word seems to be common across them: respect. People like to be respected; it's that simple. Have you ever met someone who does not welcome respect or is not highly demotivated if they feel a lack of respect or even outright disrespected?

Here is the best part: Each of us has the ability to create and engender respect at home, at work, at church or anywhere. At work, respect directly translates to improved productivity, which is that amazing resource I wrote about earlier. Respect helps develop more productive Airmen, who get more done in the day and give you more hours in your work center. Motivated Airmen eagerly look for more efficient ways to stretch your limited budget dollars. Airmen who feel they have the respect of their subordinates, peers and supervisors are clearly going to dramatically improve unit morale.

Seems easy right? Unfortunately, just like we can create respect, we can also destroy it. If we look at respect being as a sort of coin of the realm, it would be crazy to waste such a precious resource. But we do it every day, any time we have even one Airman who feels harassed, demeaned or discounted as less important.

Here's the deal: We have to understand and internalize having even a single Airman in our unit who is missing the respect he or she deserves as a servant of their country is a drain on our resources. It costs us time, it costs us money and it destroys everything we all work so hard for every day.

Instead, start thinking of respect as a resource more valuable than any other you have. Protect it. Use it wisely. Most importantly, make as much as you can.