Commentary Search

  • Culture, character and communication

    When I first arrived at McConnell, I began receiving summaries of operations reports submitted across the Air Force. Week after week, I read about suicide after suicide in alarming numbers. Since then, I’ve been focusing on how to communicate with Airmen about our culture and character to build a

  • Leadership and expectation

    Expectation is a gift and a pillar of successful leadership; in fact, Yale University list Leadership Expectations as a key attribute and competency for their leaders. These expectations parallel and expand the expectations Air Force leaders should impart to subordinates.

  • Leadership: it's a team sport

    Leadership in the Air Force isn't simply a role you take on based on a position you've attained or your expertise you apply to a technical problem. It's an activity of monitoring and adapting to the challenges presented to your unit to ensure mission accomplishment and effectiveness. It’s allowing

  • Competence

    I have had the pleasure of serving in the Air Force for 21 years. When asked to write an article related to leadership I thought long and hard about what to say. I wanted to share my thoughts on one important aspect of leadership with you, competence. John Maxwell wrote “Competence goes beyond

  • I am a military brat

    On our base and in communities all across Kansas, April is month of the military child. As likely one of, if not the most senior military child on McConnell I am a proud to call myself a life-long Air Force brat. Some people do not like that term, but I do.

  • Embracing diversity: leadership perspective

    Diversity, according to Webster’s Dictionary, means, “the condition of having or being composed of differing elements, especially the inclusion of different types of people in a group or organization.”

  • Starting with why

    In his book “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action,” Simon Sinek presents the idea of a Golden Circle to describe organizations, which consists of three concentric rings with “why” at the center of the circle moving outward to “how” then “what.”Sinek proposes that the

  • Pioneers of innovation

    Americans are innovators. We are part of a remarkable bloodline of problem-solvers, tinkerers and out-of-the-box thinkers. As Airmen, we continue this heritage by pushing the boundaries of what is possible, but I think it is important to give our inventive culture some historical context.

  • The importance of empowerment

    The Air Force is not slowing down, every day our Airmen are asked to do more and more with less. As leaders we continue to push through these challenges with our Airmen. However, we do not always have the answers or know how to solve the problem. This is why empowerment has a vital role within our