Sharing experience, knowledge makes us stronger

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Earl Scott
  • 60th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron commander
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Pay it forward normally refers to repaying the good deeds one has received by doing good things for other people.

Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of the subject titled book, described paying it forward as an obligation to do three good deeds for others in repayment of a good deed that one receives.

Such good deeds should be things that the other person cannot accomplish on his or her own. In this way, the need to help one another can spread exponentially through society creating a social movement with the goal of making the world a better place.

In practice, the philosophy of pay it forward has broadened relative to its original roots, and now stands for a more general social responsibility and desire to help others in recognition of the help one has received.

Why is this important and how does it relate to what we do every day? In my humble opinion, it's a direct correlation to leadership and the training of each Air Force member. 

There are many definitions of leadership both in educational and philosophical terms, because it can be so nebulous.

Webster's Dictionary defines leadership as the capacity to lead, the act or an instance of leading. A common statement you may have heard is that you lead people and manage things, or that leadership is an art and not a science. 

The common theme is that leadership rarely makes reference to one's rank, position or duty title. In some capacity, regardless of where you work, we're all leaders and should be in the business of helping and leading others down a path of achieving new heights and making this wing, and each other, as successful as possible.

Every single one of us has, or had, someone in our lives who took the time to care for us, mentor us and lead us. They chose to do that because they wanted to see us succeed, and it was probably done for them at some point.

One of the "nuggets" I learned a long time ago, from a mature and very savvy aircraft maintenance officer, was that military members are, and should be, focused on training our replacements. 

If you're in a supervisory role, the only real way to accomplish this is to take the time to share your experiences and knowledge with the person(s) whom you lead. If we don't take the time to properly train our young and ever-changing work force, we won't be able to accomplish the mission of the Air Force and our nation's defense will ultimately suffer.

It's absolutely crucial that we pay it forward by spending the extra time with our personnel, taking them to lunch, having open communication, and soliciting feedback to ensure that our knowledge is shared and passed on.

After all, knowledge is power, but it's only effective and far reaching if shared with others.

So, take the time today to reflect on how you can pay it forward and give back.
Team Travis, the Air Force and subsequently you, will be better for having done so. 

Have a great Air Force day and thanks for all that you do!