Laughlin Commentary -- Leadership through training, coaching and mentoring Published Sept. 29, 2010 By Maj. Ian Dinesen 47th Security Forces Squadron commander LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- In my tenure as a squadron commander in the United States Air Force, I find myself taking the time for personal reflection on a daily basis. I do this not because I feel a strong desire to second-guess myself, but rather to analyze my actions and decisions through multiple viewpoints in order to validate my personal leadership philosophy. Essentially, I step back and ask three questions about any given scenario. First, did the situation give way to any lessons learned or areas where we can improve? Read this as "were we trained right or can we improve what we do in similar cases in the future through enhanced and/or refined training?" Without providing the appropriate skills to deal with a crisis, large or small, we as leaders have already failed our personnel, and most importantly, have failed our mission. Additionally, as leaders, we have a responsibility to maintain current and continuing training for ourselves, as the followership part of this dynamic requires our ability to do exactly what we ask of our Airmen. By engaging in what we ask of our Airmen, I ask myself question number two; were trust, confidence and support provided in the execution of duties during the situation? In other words, was I the biggest fan and cheerleader for my organization and did I allow my Airmen to perform to their potential? All the training in the world will make anyone capable to a limited point. Once the skills have been acquired a leader has to step out of the way and allow for the execution of duties at the tactical level. Think of this as teaching a child to ride a bicycle. One can only teach the mechanics of riding so much; at some point we have to let go and let the child ride on their own. Will the child fall? Of course, but falling back into the followership portion of coaching, leaders must continue to encourage the trust, confidence and support in our Airmen in order for them to both gain confidence and hone competence. Once I am confident in the competence, I provide mentorship through feedback. Plain and simple? Not quite. Feedback, in my mind, is a set of events that continually occur. Although it is required by our profession as a means to discuss overall duty performance, it serves best as a tool for all we do. Providing feedback gives leaders the ability to give growth to subordinates. Feedback also provides leaders the ability to validate the first two points of this commentary; is the training there and is the confidence there to execute the duties to which we are trained? By validating both training and coaching, mentorship ties together the leadership and followership aspects of my personal philosophy on command. To sum it all up, I like to use a quote from National Football League coach Chuck Noll. He said, "Champions are champions not because they do anything extraordinary but because they do the ordinary things better than anyone else." This tells me Chuck Noll not only provided appropriate training to his championship teams, he also provided his team with solid trust and support, and, most importantly, he gave his team continual mentorship through performance feedback.