CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
When was the last time you had the opportunity to talk with your supervisor, squadron leadership, coworkers or Airmen who may work for you? I'm not talking about communicating through the many electronic devices we seem to be tied to these days, group briefings or job-centered discussions, I'm talking about face-to-face, person-centered discussions. It's hard to know someone through a computer screen, so getting out and spending time with people in your unit is very important.
As we continue trying to find ways to do more and more with less, time that was once used getting to know one another outside of what is happening in the work center has become harder and harder to find. Discussing the job, the shop or the mission is very important to ensuring we complete the mission, but I think there is another key element that gets neglected too often. Our people are our most valuable resource, yet we have less and less time to spend checking on that resource. We should all try to set aside some time each week to spend with Airmen we work with or who may work for us to find out more about them as a person.
Knowing our people on a personal, but professional level can not only help support each other when a difficult situation arises, but can make sure that the mission is completed without undue hardship on our members. The best example of knowing the people around you that I've seen recently involved a commander who spent time getting to know his Airmen not only professionally but on a personal level as well.
The Airman was doing his job and doing it well as he always did, so most people did not recognize that he was troubled. When the commander greeted him, he realized the Airman's response was not typical for him. Most would not have picked up on this because the Airman's response was professional as it always was, but the commander knew that something was uncharacteristic and asked if anything was wrong. In the end, the Airman revealed he had an extremely sick family member. A replacement was quickly found so the Airman could go home to help his family.
To me, this was a great example of being able to take care of our people and get the mission done by spending a few minutes somewhere along the line to get to know someone beyond their technical qualifications. Even though we try to capitalize on each and every moment we have during the day, there are always opportunities to ask how things are going, how are your kids or family, what have you got planned this weekend or how have you been doing.
We take the time to learn about the equipment we use, we take the time to learn the procedures and operating instructions so let's not forget our most valuable resource -- our people. Any time you can spend getting to know your fellow Airmen will be time well spent and will help us all be better wingmen.