CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
"Mission first, people always, safety in everything we do."
"I am the key to safety."
While simple to say, these messages communicate a much deeper message about the most difficult leadership challenge at any level and in any unit: accomplish the mission while ensuring the safety of the Air Force's most precious asset -- its people. It also communicates one simple fact: through vigilance, awareness and personal courage, every Airman holds the key to safety. By finding and sharing safety knowledge to prevent mishaps, we preserve combat capability and ensure mission accomplishment. Although it may not be readily apparent, safety shares two important aspects with mission accomplishment: communication and leadership.
Each Airman's training and professional expertise form the core of both communication and leadership skills. While experience and training develop the inner voice telling us when something is not quite right, the challenge is finding the courage to acknowledge and communicate those concerns. Communicating concerns can be especially challenging during intense operations because of perceived and real pressure to "move the mission." Leadership can help overcome hurdles in communication by ensuring their Airmen know they have the responsibility to speak up and by creating an atmosphere that supports constructive feedback. Every Airman must understand that leadership needs feedback. Communicating concerns can be as simple as clarifying guidance and offering other courses of action with leadership or confirming Air Force Instruction and technical order guidance. However, if the response to a situation is ever, "I'm not sure ... "; "that's going to hurt"; "that's not good"; or you find yourself physically cringing for an unknown reason, call timeout and find a way to mitigate the risk.
While it is everyone's responsibility to speak up when something is wrong, it is the leader's responsibility to listen and understand the concerns. If the situation involves the risk of injury or damage to our members, mission accomplishment or equipment, the leader must balance operational necessity with safety and institute appropriate measures to mitigate the risk. Even though the mission may move slower when safety adjustments are made, the mission will not move at all if there is a mishap. In the presence of mounting operational pressure, it takes courage for leadership to provide an appropriate level of attention to safety and to recognize concerns from subordinates as loyalty to the unit and mission. Honest feedback to leadership, based on objective assessments, is the ultimate expression of unit loyalty and requires all the skills we have learned as Airmen.
To accomplish safe mission execution, the basic skills are similar for both leaders and followers. Communication and leadership at all levels are common threads that bind together the seemingly differences between safety and mission accomplishment, courage and loyalty. Three simple rules can help: Be yourself while holding true to personal and professional integrity, communicate to others the information you would want to receive, and do your best to achieve safe mission accomplishment.