Set the standard

“What should be the vision for the squadron?” This was the question I asked myself while sitting down in a moment of reflection after assuming the command responsibility of the 434th Flying Training Squadron.

Establishing the proper vision for an organization, no matter how large or small, is an important factor to ensure that everyone has a common understanding of what we want to become and helps define the expectation for each individual on the way to our goal. Knowing this, I began to think about the units I have been a part of and the individuals I have had the great fortune, and sometimes misfortune, of serving with over my 18-year career.

We are all defined by our experiences and whether it is the individual successes and failures on the sports field as youth to the interactions with senior leaders that one wishes to emulate and those one hopes not to become. But going beyond the individual level to the team or unit, we can relate to the success of teams that raise the performance of the individuals in the unit compared to those who lacked cohesion and therefore did not reach their full potential. All of these experiences, “establish a model or an example by which something is established by authority, custom, or general consent,”…at least that is how the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a standard.

In the conduct of flying operations, there is a guiding document that outlines specific aspects of daily flying execution that are expected to be known by every member. This common understanding thereby allows more time for discussion of specific aspects of the flight rather than use precious time discussing things that are common to every flight. The document is referred to as “the standards.” This underlying expectation of performance by individual and team to ensure mission success became instantly relatable to organizational success. “That was it and I had it…set the standard.” But what does that mean? What is the underlying expectation that each individual and the squadron will be held to? I think of this expectation in three ways: do your job, strive for excellence, and learn from our failures.

Do your job – Doing your job sounds like a simple task because it is what someone does every day, but it must go beyond just showing up and executing per the status quo. Individuals need to fully understand that they are an integral part of the entire mission as a whole, and not just the unit’s mission, but the wing, the command and the Air Force. That sense of importance and the ability to make a difference day-in and day-out should propel our individuals through continued dedication to doing their job.  This dedication in turn will raise their individual performance and that of the organization. Focus to the task is critical to that dedication.  It is important to have goals for the future, but the focus on those goals – next job, promotion, etc. – should not detract from the current focus for the job that you are doing today.

Strive for excellence – Excellence is a foundational principle outlined in the core values of the Air Force.  For many, the expectation of excellence can be a very daunting task because too often excellence is misconstrued as the need to achieve perfection in a given skill, task, or job. Absolute perfection is almost never achievable and even when something is judged to be perfect, many times there are things that could have been “just a bit more perfect.” Perfection is not required. Rather an individual should set their sights on an obtainable goal of individual and organizational excellence through humility, credibility, and teamwork. Let your actions speak for you through focused dedication that fosters the understanding in others that you are looking out for their best interests and that of the organization.

Learn from our failures – Failure has developed a singularly negative connotation in our society, but failure needs to be seen as means by which we as individuals and organizations learn from the unsuccessful results of our actions and processes.  These lessons learned can then be turned into a change mechanism for improvement on or reevaluation of individual and organizational behavior and actions.  Leaders must—within the bounds of safety, responsibility, and legality—encourage their people to not fear trying things in new and innovative ways just because it may not be successful the first time.  This assumes that that we encourage our people to accept the appropriate risk. By empowering people to accept risk will result in a more innovative and critical thinking culture.

Successful individuals and organizations with a high moral standard, I believe, understand the role that they play, work together and mitigate the relearning of old lessons. Success for success’s sake is not the end state if you lose people along the path to that success. Each of us has a different capacity, desire, and dedication towards being successful but each of us wants to be successful in our lives.  By setting the standard to be the best you can will provide a guiding principle to follow each and every day.