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Leadership University – Empowering Your Career

  • Published
  • By Col. Michael Hornitschek
  • 375th Air Mobility Wing Commander
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  You've heard it said that the Air Force's greatest asset is its people--and it's true. The planes can't fly, the equipment can't operate, and the Air Force mission can't be executed without its Airmen. Each member, whether an Airman Basic straight out of basic military training, or a general with more than 30 years of service, is a leader.

Regardless of our job title, where we're stationed, or even our rank, we're responsible for the leadership and cultivation of those who will one day fill our shoes. With that tenet in mind, we must understand two vital roles we play in the careers of our Airmen: influence and progression.

Dale Carnegie once said, "I shall pass this way but once; any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again." Harvey Coleman, another career coach, emphasizes that in each activity we participate, there is interaction with other people, and in each of these encounters we exchange chips of life. These chips can represent a positive or negative effect, and that choice is ours alone. These chips are our influence, and over time either the good chips or the bad chips will accumulate. It is important that we choose to influence our people positively, enriching their lives so they can influence those who will look to them for guidance in the future.

The second role we have is to understand the career progression of our Airmen in addition to our own. Beyond understanding career progression, we must take a philosophical approach to making career and life choices that affect that progression. We all need to set aside meaningful time to choose the lifestyle that we want, and that doesn't mean sitting at your desk for 30 minutes over lunch to come up with a plan. Get away from work--dedicate time for yourself and your family to reflect on where you want to go in life and set goals that will get you there. The input from our families is valuable; we don't want to make decisions that affect our families without their involvement in the decision-making process.

To help us set goals for career progression, the Air Force Personnel Center possesses a wealth of information online (www.afpc.randolph.af.mil) that should serve as the basis of conversation with one's supervisor and mentors. In order to achieve our goals, we must know the "rules of the game."

Just as a football player wouldn't go out on the field without a clear understanding of the playbook and the rules of the game, we can't make goals for our future without knowing what we need to do in order to achieve them. The classic career pyramid diagrams and other Air Force Specialty Code guidance documents on the website puts these rules and guidelines in an easy to understand format that will recommend certain assignments and professional military education based on rank. These are only some of the tools we are provided to help explain the rules of our 'game' and gives direction to how we can achieve milestones throughout our Air Force careers to meet our individual goals.

While we must all empower ourselves to get invitations to join the next level, we must all also be mentors for our Airmen and empower them as well. As we maximize the opportunities for our Airmen and ourselves to reach for that next level, we will achieve our goals for the lifestyle and career we've chosen to have, creating a stronger and more capable Air Force along the way.