Smile at diversity, embrace differences

  • Published
  • By Col. Mark MacDonald
  • 615th Contingency Operations Support Group
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  During my first assignment as a brand-new second lieutenant attending pilot training, I received some of the worst advice ever given by a supervisor.

It was at the end of the year, just prior to graduation, when we received our feedback from our designated military mentor instructor pilot. My assigned mentor, a captain who had spent the better part of the 80's prepping to fight the big war from the left seat of an F-111 Aardvark, wasn't much for daily or even monthly contact. He didn't provide much input or feedback until that end-of-year counseling session. The second time I had a private face-to-face discussion with my assigned mentor he provided these sage words, "It's difficult to take you seriously because you smile too much."

According to the captain, the passage of time would remedy my grave faults, as he relayed, "Perhaps when you're in long enough to get beat down by the system, you'll carry yourself more appropriately."

Fortunately for me, the expletive that had generated in my cerebrum temporal lobe did not run the full synapsis to emerge vocally from my smiling mouth.

Looking back, with the benefit of 21 years of hindsight, there are two additional lessons I take from this interaction, neither of them involves smiling less.

First, be true to yourself. We are all cut from different swaths of cloth, with different personalities, capabilities and backgrounds that shape us. Inherent in this diversity are various strengths that we bring forth to the task at hand. While my outwardly cheery exterior might have been considered a weakness in the front seat of a T-38 Talon, it seemed to work wonders when congealing a combat crew over the skies of Iraq in the KC-10 Extender or forming a goal oriented, tight-knit team on staff in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not proclaiming a proverbial little-league coach hair tussle we're all special winners message. Of course, we are members of a highly disciplined military organization, with associated processes, procedures and regulations to steer us in the solemn task of National defense. However, within these parameters, is plenty of room for ingenuity, initiative, resourcefulness, and dare I say, flair, to getting the job done. Being true to yourself means bringing your unique talents to bear at the problem at hand. If you are a people person use your gifts to build strong, goal-oriented teams focused on solving your organization's problems. If you are a gruff former F-111 pilot, who is slightly offended by civility and courtesy in the workplace, perhaps you may want to focus on the technical aspects of the job or if necessary, find yourself a different line of work that doesn't require an abundance of personal interaction.

Which leads me to the second lesson. As supervisors and commanders, we must mentor and groom diversity. As I look around my own group, not everyone is a balding 44-year-old male of Scottish and Cuban descent, with a lifelong propensity to perhaps smile too much. Which means there are dedicated Airmen under my command which I have nothing in common with and may have difficulty relating to. This is a good thing.

There are rich perspectives and unique mindsets inherent in a diverse organization, which can serve as an inoculation against stagnation, groupthink, or organizational paralysis. These differences in personality, background, or mindset are not something to be mentored out of an individual. Instead, as long as they fit neatly within Air Force Instruction 36-2903 and do not violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice, we should work to vector these differences towards the common good. Winning teams are not going to look identical. As leaders, we must cast our nets far and wide; we may be surprised by the results.

Often, the case is in columns, sometimes the most ludicrous interactions provide the best lessons. While it may be easy to denigrate the relevance of a you smile too much performance feedback comment, we mustn't discount the value of the inherent lesson it provides. Similar to that F-111 pilot, who are we now overlooking because they smile too much or not enough, or they talk differently, they challenge the worldview we hold? I'll vouch that embracing these differences is worthwhile to the success of any organization and to the betterment of the Air Force.