CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
I was reading the Diamond Notes article on maintaining standards from the July 24 issue of the Airlift Dispatch and I thought to myself the topic "standards," can never be discussed too much. Master Sgt. Michelle McMeekin, the 437th Force Support Squadron's acting first sergeant, did a fantastic job of breaking down the two sides maintaining standards in her article, so much so it inspired me to write my article on our charge to exceed the standards.
We all know the third Air Force core value is "excellence in all we do." Do we interpret this core value the same way? Do we live by it? Do we set the example and help others understand it?
To me, "excellence in all we do" means it is our responsibility to know the standards and to set goals to exceed those standards day in and day out. Meeting the minimum standard is not enough; we need to continuously try to raise the bar and set higher standards.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to attend a seminar last month with the chief master sergeants in my career field. I was like a sponge trying to soak up as much as I could from those who have reached the pinnacle of the enlisted corps. I expected to take back with me profound ideas and solutions to the challenges I have in my unit. What I got from the seminar can be summarized by a simple story one of the chiefs told.
The story is about a chief master sergeant who was having lunch with an Airman and the Airman was boasting about how he was selected as the Airman of the Quarter for his squadron and he was primed to face the awards board for the group level award. The chief told the Airman his sideburns were too long. The Airman responded by saying he knew the standard and his sideburns were just at the lowest part of his ear opening but it did not extend beyond it. The chief then told the Airman if his sideburns barely met the standard, the board members would notice it and they might assume the Airman barely met standards in other areas as well. The Airman cut his sideburns by a whole inch, faced the board, but did not win the group level quarterly award.
Nevertheless, the Airman always remembered what the chief had told him and lived by it. I know this story could not be any simpler ... nothing profound here, but I believe it has great meaning and we could learn from it. It was as important a takeaway for me as anything else I got from the seminar.
If you are one to argue that you deserve to be rewarded, however, you simply arrive at work on time and leave on time, do the minimum asked of you and barely comply with dress and appearance or fitness standards, ask yourself if your are applying excellence in all you do. If your answer is no, do you deserve to be rewarded with recognition or an excellent performance rating? Are you meeting the intent of our core values?
As Airmen, we must all pursue excellence by exceeding the standards to hold true to our identity.