Today was just an avalanche of work. It started the moment i walked in until the moment I left for class, and I was only able to poke my head out a little bit after I spent 2 hours following class in the office trying to sort through everything that came down. I was able to have the conversations with the SMSgt and A1C that i needed to have, but didn't get too much else actually done. I just can't be in 20 places at once and spend all the time I'd need on the issues at hand. Realistically you have 3-4 people doing that job's that I've gotten yoked with, and try as I might, I can't be an effective leader and an effective worker at the same time. So I spent the time after work, analysing what requirements/taskings came down, and I delegated out what i could delegate, and i still had a heaping load of work left over for me to tackle. I've prioritized given what I currently know of the urgency of all items, busted out some of the smaller, easy wins, and prepped myself to take on the larger ones later i the week.
All this is just basic time management though, and, more importantly, its all very reactionary. I'm not looking forward to see what's comming down the pipe, and I'm not trying to improve my processes. I'm just simply taking the situations as they come and reacting in the manner that will most easily solve the immediate problem. Now, lets make an exercise of trying to decide what i would be doing if i were approaching this from a more proactive stance.
Certification training for the A1C. Yes, the A1C went through her class, in fact she did fairly well, so what happens when she gets back to the workcenter? She works. She doesn't study because, low and behold, the study program does not exist as it was billed to have been availible. While I did give the A1C ample time to study on her own, thats not the real issue here. The real issue here is that the training program doesn't exist. I need to coordinate with the other shops NCOIC and get training times, places, and schedules set up.
While I don't have a lot of time to tackle this given what my workschedule looks like for tomorrow, i think that will be a good place to start with.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
27 june - entry 1
Today was actually pretty smooth. Finally broke the news to the AB that he will not be staying in my shop. I felt sorry for the kid, he felt like he'd done something wrong. On the plus side, it was definitely a little refreshing to see someone who had been in my shop only a week and just had a desire to want to be there. I mean, he really seems to have enjoyed working with me, and i got to say, it feels kinda good to have someone actively seek you to be their boss.
I'm seeing a problem start to arise with a SMSgt I work with. Its all about definition of roles, and as I'm trying to establish myself as a temporary flight commander, she seems to be taking it as me criticising her for either overstepping her boundaries or for not being able to manage her work properly. Ultimately its a matter of responsibility, I've been put in a situation, even if it is a temporary one, where i need to know whats going on in the flight so that I can be responsible to the commander for any issues within the flight. I have nothing but the highest regard for the SMSgt and her abilities, and I respect and value her input, i just need to know whats going on. I think I'll need to have a talk with her on monday to make sure we're clear on my intentions and that its by no means a personnal attack when I request info and to be in the loop on several projects.
Also Monday brings the return of my A1C from her certification class. Now she's not really back, she has another 3-4 weeks of training her in the squadron to go through before she's officially mine again, but with all the moves and talk about the AB taking her job,, I definitely need to sit down with all parties in the room in order to explain everything, well maybe not the part about my boss being a weasel, but everything else just so there's no confusion or misinterpretation of the weeks events.
The biggest problem i have is that the A1C sits in the same room i do all day every day. She's not too bad when it comes to reading me and my moods, and while I don't exactly want to say everything that was a factor in the decisions simply because she has no reason to know, i have to be careful because if i slip in the wording or delivery I lose all credibility and only serve to lower morale.
Its a tough line, I'll have to spend some time on this one before our shop meeting on monday morning.
I'm seeing a problem start to arise with a SMSgt I work with. Its all about definition of roles, and as I'm trying to establish myself as a temporary flight commander, she seems to be taking it as me criticising her for either overstepping her boundaries or for not being able to manage her work properly. Ultimately its a matter of responsibility, I've been put in a situation, even if it is a temporary one, where i need to know whats going on in the flight so that I can be responsible to the commander for any issues within the flight. I have nothing but the highest regard for the SMSgt and her abilities, and I respect and value her input, i just need to know whats going on. I think I'll need to have a talk with her on monday to make sure we're clear on my intentions and that its by no means a personnal attack when I request info and to be in the loop on several projects.
Also Monday brings the return of my A1C from her certification class. Now she's not really back, she has another 3-4 weeks of training her in the squadron to go through before she's officially mine again, but with all the moves and talk about the AB taking her job,, I definitely need to sit down with all parties in the room in order to explain everything, well maybe not the part about my boss being a weasel, but everything else just so there's no confusion or misinterpretation of the weeks events.
The biggest problem i have is that the A1C sits in the same room i do all day every day. She's not too bad when it comes to reading me and my moods, and while I don't exactly want to say everything that was a factor in the decisions simply because she has no reason to know, i have to be careful because if i slip in the wording or delivery I lose all credibility and only serve to lower morale.
Its a tough line, I'll have to spend some time on this one before our shop meeting on monday morning.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
26 June - entry 1
After my boss's blow up and firey exit, I was curious to see how today was going to turn out. Much like I'd expect to see, the affected personnel formed a bit of a survivors cult against my boss. I did my best to discourage this, and not participate, not because i didn't agree with them, but because I'm going to have to work with this guy whenever he gets back.
It never ceases to amaze how relationships work. I mean you build up a working relationship for months/years and one action, one misspoken word, can completely shatter everything forcing you to more or less start out from scratch.
Its a good thing to keep in mind though. Whenever you get really upset in situations like that, you can't afford to lose it. Your momentary outbust might get what you need done then and there, but the trust and respect it cost you takes a long time to build back up again. Is it worth it to blow your top, just to get immediate results? What are the benefits of having the trust and respect of your subordinates? Is it better for you to be feared or respected? Yeah, thats a bit too machiavellian for my tastes.
Anywho, there are several short notices suspenses that have popped up today, that I'm trying to work. Thats part of the other reason why I'm not joining the cult of those who were scorned by their leader. I need to get them to work these suspenses for me, and if i go down to their level, I lose authority to enforce suspenses. There was some pushback at first, but i got them to start work without to much resistence.
A plus today is the AB who continues to shine. I gave him several tasks today and he preformed admirably. I made sure to point out where he did a good job. I need to remind him to take notes so i can write a letter of evaluation on him when its his time to move on.
It never ceases to amaze how relationships work. I mean you build up a working relationship for months/years and one action, one misspoken word, can completely shatter everything forcing you to more or less start out from scratch.
Its a good thing to keep in mind though. Whenever you get really upset in situations like that, you can't afford to lose it. Your momentary outbust might get what you need done then and there, but the trust and respect it cost you takes a long time to build back up again. Is it worth it to blow your top, just to get immediate results? What are the benefits of having the trust and respect of your subordinates? Is it better for you to be feared or respected? Yeah, thats a bit too machiavellian for my tastes.
Anywho, there are several short notices suspenses that have popped up today, that I'm trying to work. Thats part of the other reason why I'm not joining the cult of those who were scorned by their leader. I need to get them to work these suspenses for me, and if i go down to their level, I lose authority to enforce suspenses. There was some pushback at first, but i got them to start work without to much resistence.
A plus today is the AB who continues to shine. I gave him several tasks today and he preformed admirably. I made sure to point out where he did a good job. I need to remind him to take notes so i can write a letter of evaluation on him when its his time to move on.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
25 June - entry 1
So today I had a pretty interesting conflict with my boss. There was a quarterly award package that he requested to be done on the A1C in my office. I handed it off the my TSgt, who suggested (on the due date) that the package not be submitted. Part of this is my fault, because i tasked my TSgt with writing the package 3 weeks ago, then there was a few high priority situations that came up with disrupted our work, and the A1C the package is to be written for doesn't want it to be submitted in the first place, so I lost track of it, and the TSgt let it slide off his radar as well. Well we went to the flight superintendent (my bosses right hand who was the one we were supposed to turn the package in to) and explained that since the A1C didn't even want the package to be written in the first place, it would not only be a waste of our time writing it, but it would also just serve to lower moral in our section. The superintendent took our suggestion to my boss, and we let the package slide away. That was on monday.
We have the AB temp worker, who is doing an outstanding job, and would make a good replacement for the A1C, who is undergoing a certification process that would make her more valuable in another section of the squadron. The suggestion was made that the AB replace the A1C, and both of the flight superintendents ok'd the personnel move. My boss initially agreed to the move as well. The other flight superintendent wanted the package to be written on the A1C, and since I wasn't going to have her in my section anymore, i decided that regardless of what she wanted, I owed her this package in order to make her more competative for promotion (since i wouldn't be able to write her promotion package). My boss got wind of this, and took my decision as a personal insult. In his eyes, i wouldn't write the package for him, but i would write it for an enlisted flight superintendent. However, my boss did not inform me that he was upset at all.
He then goes into a meeting with the commander, where, after he had already told both flight superintendents that he would approve the AB to replace A1C move, he goes back on his word and completely rejects the idea to the commander. He then goes on to recommend another LT to the commander for a position that he told me he was going to recommend myself for. Additionally, he words an extremely strong(and might i say vulgar) email to myself and another section chief in his flight about missing suspenses, however, instead of addressing the award package issue, he belittles me for missing a suspense that I had already verbally told him i had no input on.
I was absolutely floored after all this. I mean, i work harder and longer than any other person in my flight including my boss. I bust my ass for the guy, and rather than talking to me about these issues, he just throws me under the bus. I only find out what happened after the damage has all been done.
Here's the larger impact though. His temper tantrum, effected not only the relationship i have with him, but also how he's viewed by both of the flight superintendents, as well as the other section cheif he belittled. Sure, he may have scored a point or two with the commander, but he lost a lot of respect from his subordinates and co-workers.
I was happy with how i handled the situation for the most part. Granted, by the time i learned the extend of the situation, my boss had already gone home for the day, so i didn't have the chance to talk to him directly. However, I did do a pretty good job of cooling off before i walked back into my workcenter. I worked out a plan with my TSgt to continue to write the award package, even though the reason for writing it wasn't the same. I listened to the flight superintendents complains about being left out to dry without going on a tie raid about how i couldn't believe what a weazel my boss was. I didn't lose my cool, and i managed to maintain the respect of my subordinates in the process.
Now, how to find a healthy way to deal with the fact that I'm still pissed.
We have the AB temp worker, who is doing an outstanding job, and would make a good replacement for the A1C, who is undergoing a certification process that would make her more valuable in another section of the squadron. The suggestion was made that the AB replace the A1C, and both of the flight superintendents ok'd the personnel move. My boss initially agreed to the move as well. The other flight superintendent wanted the package to be written on the A1C, and since I wasn't going to have her in my section anymore, i decided that regardless of what she wanted, I owed her this package in order to make her more competative for promotion (since i wouldn't be able to write her promotion package). My boss got wind of this, and took my decision as a personal insult. In his eyes, i wouldn't write the package for him, but i would write it for an enlisted flight superintendent. However, my boss did not inform me that he was upset at all.
He then goes into a meeting with the commander, where, after he had already told both flight superintendents that he would approve the AB to replace A1C move, he goes back on his word and completely rejects the idea to the commander. He then goes on to recommend another LT to the commander for a position that he told me he was going to recommend myself for. Additionally, he words an extremely strong(and might i say vulgar) email to myself and another section chief in his flight about missing suspenses, however, instead of addressing the award package issue, he belittles me for missing a suspense that I had already verbally told him i had no input on.
I was absolutely floored after all this. I mean, i work harder and longer than any other person in my flight including my boss. I bust my ass for the guy, and rather than talking to me about these issues, he just throws me under the bus. I only find out what happened after the damage has all been done.
Here's the larger impact though. His temper tantrum, effected not only the relationship i have with him, but also how he's viewed by both of the flight superintendents, as well as the other section cheif he belittled. Sure, he may have scored a point or two with the commander, but he lost a lot of respect from his subordinates and co-workers.
I was happy with how i handled the situation for the most part. Granted, by the time i learned the extend of the situation, my boss had already gone home for the day, so i didn't have the chance to talk to him directly. However, I did do a pretty good job of cooling off before i walked back into my workcenter. I worked out a plan with my TSgt to continue to write the award package, even though the reason for writing it wasn't the same. I listened to the flight superintendents complains about being left out to dry without going on a tie raid about how i couldn't believe what a weazel my boss was. I didn't lose my cool, and i managed to maintain the respect of my subordinates in the process.
Now, how to find a healthy way to deal with the fact that I'm still pissed.
Monday, June 23, 2008
23 June - entry 1
For the first part of this journal, i was given the assignment of writing down what my values where. Here's what I wrote down.
Hard Work - I value the sweat on the brow thats earned through laboring. There are plenty of easy patches and quick fixes out there, but if you really want to solve a problem, build a solution, and learn how to prevent/solve future problems in the process, you have to put in the long hours, put your nose to the grindstone, and put your heart and soul into working the process.
Personal Pride - This stems partly from how highly i value work. When you really put your time into something, it becomes and extension of yourself in many ways. People look at the product and know, simply because your name is attached to it that its going to be right, and if it's not right, they know you will do whatever it takes in order to fix it. If you take on your projects and responsiblities as if they directly reflected who you are as a person, the hard work follows.
Humility - Its one thing to take pride in a job well done, its an entirely different however when you let that personal pride in your job extend itself into boastfulness and feelings of superiority. If you want other's adulation, let your work speak for you, let your work earn it, don't promote your own actions or deeds because when you do so, the only praise you will receive is that which you give yourself.
That's what I initially wrote during the class, and i feel its an accurate reflection of my real values. Those are what i would consider to be the core of who i am, and traits that I work on every day. However, as the class discussion continued i realized that those values are great for the guy turning the wrench, they aren't great for the leader of 20 guys turning the wrenches. Hard work, personel pride, and humility will get me very far at lower levels, but in order to lead, in order to truely inspire the best in others, I need to adopt new values. Here's a couple i propose to work on.
Give praise where praise due- I have people that bust their asses every day for me. While I don't expect or ask them to do any more than I do, I don't always give them the praise they deserve. I need to recognize my people for the hard work they do, and let them know i see how hard they work every day.
Effective communication - This goes along with giving praise. I often find myself so far in the weeds that I don't stop to communicate my plans, my goals, my expectations, my current perceptions, as well as taking the time to stop and listen to their plans, goals, expectations, and current perceptions. I need to make time to communicate.
At the end of class, part 2, turning the ideal values into real values was announced. I've just come up with my 2 ideal values, praising others, and effective communication. Here's my current plan on how to implement.
More structured shop meetings - Currently I'm holding ad hoc shop meetings on a biweekly basis. These aren't planned, they don't have a set time, and they very rarely have an agenda. While I constantly communicate with my people, i very rarely communicate anything other than the day to day. I don't let them in on my thoughts, my plans, and my perceptions. For now, I'll plan on weekly formal shop meetings monday mornings, with an actual agenda, and more of the informal meetings that i use right now.
More regular individual feedbacks - The only time I'm really giving feedback to my troops currently is when I'm required to or when they approach me. I need to give more regular feedbacks to let them in on my perceptions, where i see their strengths, their weaknesses, as well as give them a private forum to address any grievances with me. For now, I'll plan on informal feedback sessions every 6 weeks.
Its only a two part action plan, but i think it adequately cover's my two goals. Praise will be given on the spot, during informal meetings, and during feedback sessions, and in the process I'll have more face time to communicate with my troops.
Hard Work - I value the sweat on the brow thats earned through laboring. There are plenty of easy patches and quick fixes out there, but if you really want to solve a problem, build a solution, and learn how to prevent/solve future problems in the process, you have to put in the long hours, put your nose to the grindstone, and put your heart and soul into working the process.
Personal Pride - This stems partly from how highly i value work. When you really put your time into something, it becomes and extension of yourself in many ways. People look at the product and know, simply because your name is attached to it that its going to be right, and if it's not right, they know you will do whatever it takes in order to fix it. If you take on your projects and responsiblities as if they directly reflected who you are as a person, the hard work follows.
Humility - Its one thing to take pride in a job well done, its an entirely different however when you let that personal pride in your job extend itself into boastfulness and feelings of superiority. If you want other's adulation, let your work speak for you, let your work earn it, don't promote your own actions or deeds because when you do so, the only praise you will receive is that which you give yourself.
That's what I initially wrote during the class, and i feel its an accurate reflection of my real values. Those are what i would consider to be the core of who i am, and traits that I work on every day. However, as the class discussion continued i realized that those values are great for the guy turning the wrench, they aren't great for the leader of 20 guys turning the wrenches. Hard work, personel pride, and humility will get me very far at lower levels, but in order to lead, in order to truely inspire the best in others, I need to adopt new values. Here's a couple i propose to work on.
Give praise where praise due- I have people that bust their asses every day for me. While I don't expect or ask them to do any more than I do, I don't always give them the praise they deserve. I need to recognize my people for the hard work they do, and let them know i see how hard they work every day.
Effective communication - This goes along with giving praise. I often find myself so far in the weeds that I don't stop to communicate my plans, my goals, my expectations, my current perceptions, as well as taking the time to stop and listen to their plans, goals, expectations, and current perceptions. I need to make time to communicate.
At the end of class, part 2, turning the ideal values into real values was announced. I've just come up with my 2 ideal values, praising others, and effective communication. Here's my current plan on how to implement.
More structured shop meetings - Currently I'm holding ad hoc shop meetings on a biweekly basis. These aren't planned, they don't have a set time, and they very rarely have an agenda. While I constantly communicate with my people, i very rarely communicate anything other than the day to day. I don't let them in on my thoughts, my plans, and my perceptions. For now, I'll plan on weekly formal shop meetings monday mornings, with an actual agenda, and more of the informal meetings that i use right now.
More regular individual feedbacks - The only time I'm really giving feedback to my troops currently is when I'm required to or when they approach me. I need to give more regular feedbacks to let them in on my perceptions, where i see their strengths, their weaknesses, as well as give them a private forum to address any grievances with me. For now, I'll plan on informal feedback sessions every 6 weeks.
Its only a two part action plan, but i think it adequately cover's my two goals. Praise will be given on the spot, during informal meetings, and during feedback sessions, and in the process I'll have more face time to communicate with my troops.
Friday, June 20, 2008
20 June - entry 1
Today was the flight's "offsite teambuilding activity" which consisted of golf. I am not a golfer, i cannot golf well at all, but i can drive the hell the hell out of a golf cart, however, that is an entirely different story. It was a a chance to blow of some steam, laugh at yourself and each other, and more importantly get to know your people outside of work. The more i know about who works for me and who I'm working with, the more i know about what they want and what can movitave them.
I'm a computer science guy by lifestyle and education, and I tend to think in a very structured and orderly manner. Step 1 leads to step 2 and produces output A. The challange i have is not only in understanding what affects a person's preformance in duties they already know and comprehend, but also to present new task to a person in a manner that will motivate them to want to undertake it. Yes, I can order them to do it, but an order to do it will only produce exactly what they were ordered to produce, nothing more, and depending on how clearly the order was communicated, maybe something less. If you motivate them correctly though, they take a task in, internalize it, take pride in it, and by doing so they're naturally more inclined to look for ways in which they can improve the process, both the final product and the production of it.
Thats kind of my goal with my temp worker. In my observation of my A1C training him up, I noticed that she was starting to see some flaws in her processes. She's focused more on her upcomming A+ class, so she didn't focus too much on the flaws then, but i see an opportunity here. Let the temp get settled in for a few days, ask him what he sees as not making sense just to get him thinking, and then get him to make some suggestions to the A1C. After she get's her A+ certification out of the way, she'll probably be dying to get back to something she understands again, and that's when i get him to talk to her about what he was thinking, and that, combined with her renewed vigor after an absense from the job, could get some new ideas flowing. Its just a thought, we'll see how it pans out later.
I'm a computer science guy by lifestyle and education, and I tend to think in a very structured and orderly manner. Step 1 leads to step 2 and produces output A. The challange i have is not only in understanding what affects a person's preformance in duties they already know and comprehend, but also to present new task to a person in a manner that will motivate them to want to undertake it. Yes, I can order them to do it, but an order to do it will only produce exactly what they were ordered to produce, nothing more, and depending on how clearly the order was communicated, maybe something less. If you motivate them correctly though, they take a task in, internalize it, take pride in it, and by doing so they're naturally more inclined to look for ways in which they can improve the process, both the final product and the production of it.
Thats kind of my goal with my temp worker. In my observation of my A1C training him up, I noticed that she was starting to see some flaws in her processes. She's focused more on her upcomming A+ class, so she didn't focus too much on the flaws then, but i see an opportunity here. Let the temp get settled in for a few days, ask him what he sees as not making sense just to get him thinking, and then get him to make some suggestions to the A1C. After she get's her A+ certification out of the way, she'll probably be dying to get back to something she understands again, and that's when i get him to talk to her about what he was thinking, and that, combined with her renewed vigor after an absense from the job, could get some new ideas flowing. Its just a thought, we'll see how it pans out later.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
19 June - entry 1
planning and prepping a change, both macro and micro examples. For this entry I've two examples that I'm currently dealing with that revolve around a lack of planning on the part of superiors.
For the Macro level, there's the situation with our special mission flight. 4/5's of our squadron is dedicated to base support, and 1/5 is dedicated to our deployable support/special mission flight. While this special mission flight is designed to be deployable comm support, it also serves to keep our base support airmen proficient on deployable comm equipment as well as supporting other elements of the wing during exercises. Roughly 3 months ago, senior leadership announced that the special mission flight would leave our base and be relocated. Senior leadership has not yet released a timeline for this move. I can understand the logic that you want to show all our cards to give your airmen most time to prepare for the eventual move, but really all this has just proved to be a high morale crusher. First off, you have an entire 5th of the squadron that you can't use in any long term projects or plan on using in the future because you can't depend on it being there. Second, you have a 5th of the squadron who know's they're going to have to go through all the stresses of moving, but have no idea when or where, so they can't make any long term plans that they can depend on.
Now its just foolish to think that decisions of this nature exist in a vacuum. Subject matter experts were most definitely called upon for their expertise, and they most certainly talked to their peers, who then continued the rumor mill process. But rumors are just that, rumors, they are by no means fact. However, whenever your boss says this will go away, you need a more substantial timeframe than, "sometime in the near future", and for the past 3 months, that's all we've gotten.
For the Micro level, there's my current position. For most Lt's in my unit, its common to move positions once every 8-12 months. Basically this base serves as an introduction into the career field, you have a chance to move around the entire squadron, experience all aspects of base communications, and develop a well rounded communication's officer from the whole thing. I was given a task of uniting several disjointed squadron support functions into a single office, which i did successfully. However, I ended up pigeon holing myself in the process by making myself too critical to the smooth operations of the unit in my current role. So, I figured that my current position would last longer than the normal 8-12 month rotation, however the commander made the point clear that she was going to move the officer's at their 8-12 month point, in order to give them the breadth of experience they need to get. She even went as far as to tell me face to face on several occasions that I need to move positions. This was distressing to me, because i was in a shop with a high turnover rate and as a result, i was the sole source of continuty in that shop, and i certainly didn't have my people prepared to take over for me. So here i am, on the basis of my time in my position and the commander pointing to me and telling me its time to move me, trying frantically to get my people spun up to the point where they could take over for me.
Ultimately there was a large meeting, in which all the officer's were given their new assignments, except for me. I was the only one who wasn't moved. The explaination was that I was too key in my current position, and that a recommendation would be made to the new commander to move me into another position when she takes command in august/september. Not that I don't love feeling needed, but now I'm almost feeling jaded by the whole situation. I'm told that I need to move for my career, and then I'm not moved because its too convienent to keep me where I am. So I spend a month an a half worrying, working 14-16 hour days trying to build up as much continuity as i possibly could, and its all for not. A suggestion will be made, however it will merely be a suggestion, there is no authority behind it, and who's to say it won't be more convienent for the next commander to just keep me where i am then as well?
So, the morale of these examples is, don't announce plans for a change unless 1) you have your facts straight and your road planned out and 2) you actually will go through with the change. Tomorrow brings with it a team building activity, I'm not a golfer, but I'll still give it a try.
For the Macro level, there's the situation with our special mission flight. 4/5's of our squadron is dedicated to base support, and 1/5 is dedicated to our deployable support/special mission flight. While this special mission flight is designed to be deployable comm support, it also serves to keep our base support airmen proficient on deployable comm equipment as well as supporting other elements of the wing during exercises. Roughly 3 months ago, senior leadership announced that the special mission flight would leave our base and be relocated. Senior leadership has not yet released a timeline for this move. I can understand the logic that you want to show all our cards to give your airmen most time to prepare for the eventual move, but really all this has just proved to be a high morale crusher. First off, you have an entire 5th of the squadron that you can't use in any long term projects or plan on using in the future because you can't depend on it being there. Second, you have a 5th of the squadron who know's they're going to have to go through all the stresses of moving, but have no idea when or where, so they can't make any long term plans that they can depend on.
Now its just foolish to think that decisions of this nature exist in a vacuum. Subject matter experts were most definitely called upon for their expertise, and they most certainly talked to their peers, who then continued the rumor mill process. But rumors are just that, rumors, they are by no means fact. However, whenever your boss says this will go away, you need a more substantial timeframe than, "sometime in the near future", and for the past 3 months, that's all we've gotten.
For the Micro level, there's my current position. For most Lt's in my unit, its common to move positions once every 8-12 months. Basically this base serves as an introduction into the career field, you have a chance to move around the entire squadron, experience all aspects of base communications, and develop a well rounded communication's officer from the whole thing. I was given a task of uniting several disjointed squadron support functions into a single office, which i did successfully. However, I ended up pigeon holing myself in the process by making myself too critical to the smooth operations of the unit in my current role. So, I figured that my current position would last longer than the normal 8-12 month rotation, however the commander made the point clear that she was going to move the officer's at their 8-12 month point, in order to give them the breadth of experience they need to get. She even went as far as to tell me face to face on several occasions that I need to move positions. This was distressing to me, because i was in a shop with a high turnover rate and as a result, i was the sole source of continuty in that shop, and i certainly didn't have my people prepared to take over for me. So here i am, on the basis of my time in my position and the commander pointing to me and telling me its time to move me, trying frantically to get my people spun up to the point where they could take over for me.
Ultimately there was a large meeting, in which all the officer's were given their new assignments, except for me. I was the only one who wasn't moved. The explaination was that I was too key in my current position, and that a recommendation would be made to the new commander to move me into another position when she takes command in august/september. Not that I don't love feeling needed, but now I'm almost feeling jaded by the whole situation. I'm told that I need to move for my career, and then I'm not moved because its too convienent to keep me where I am. So I spend a month an a half worrying, working 14-16 hour days trying to build up as much continuity as i possibly could, and its all for not. A suggestion will be made, however it will merely be a suggestion, there is no authority behind it, and who's to say it won't be more convienent for the next commander to just keep me where i am then as well?
So, the morale of these examples is, don't announce plans for a change unless 1) you have your facts straight and your road planned out and 2) you actually will go through with the change. Tomorrow brings with it a team building activity, I'm not a golfer, but I'll still give it a try.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
18 June - entry 1
So today we got in a new Airman to help out with the manning issue. Its always an interesting situation when you get a new employee to the workcenter. I layed out the basic groundrules and got him immediately to sit down with the A1C he'll be filling in for over the next couple weeks.
Its definitely a case of information overload. I didn't have a clue as to his level of experience, and despite his best intentions, he's still facing the challange of working from next to no knowledge of even the basic structure of our organization. Luckily the A1C is an extremely competent troop and was able to clearly lay out the squadron's structure, and cover Points of Contact in higher levels that the Airmen will need to be familiar with. She has one more day to spend training him up, and with the progress i've seen sofar, i think it will be fairly successful.
On a side note, a section cheif from another area came to me today with a personnel issue. She has a troop who is having some fairly significant physical fitness issues, and she wanted to use me as a sounding board before she went forward with any disciplinary actions. I don't think I'll ever really get used to this situation. Here I am only 24 years old, and there's this experienced MSgt with 20 years of active duty service who's asking me to serve as her sounding board. I mean I should be taking notes from her, I don't have the experience she has, but for whatever reasons she's feels like she can trust my judgement. It's just a strange situation to find yourself in.
Well tomorrow brings with it another day of training for my temp worker, and hopefully a chance to catch up on some work i have piliing up in my inbox.
Its definitely a case of information overload. I didn't have a clue as to his level of experience, and despite his best intentions, he's still facing the challange of working from next to no knowledge of even the basic structure of our organization. Luckily the A1C is an extremely competent troop and was able to clearly lay out the squadron's structure, and cover Points of Contact in higher levels that the Airmen will need to be familiar with. She has one more day to spend training him up, and with the progress i've seen sofar, i think it will be fairly successful.
On a side note, a section cheif from another area came to me today with a personnel issue. She has a troop who is having some fairly significant physical fitness issues, and she wanted to use me as a sounding board before she went forward with any disciplinary actions. I don't think I'll ever really get used to this situation. Here I am only 24 years old, and there's this experienced MSgt with 20 years of active duty service who's asking me to serve as her sounding board. I mean I should be taking notes from her, I don't have the experience she has, but for whatever reasons she's feels like she can trust my judgement. It's just a strange situation to find yourself in.
Well tomorrow brings with it another day of training for my temp worker, and hopefully a chance to catch up on some work i have piliing up in my inbox.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
17 June - entry 1
Today was the manpower meeting with my shop. I took them out for lunch, just to have a chance to de-stress and lighten everyone mood before we got into any heated discussions. Afterwards i arranged for a conference room, someplace away from out normal shop setting to be avaiblible for us to all sit down in away from our normal office environment. Also, before I brought my personnel in, i arranged for another member of senior leadership to be present.
I layed out the facts of our present situation. I layed out my plan of action in order to lessen our workload, and then i asked them for their inputs. Basically if we have the three of us, at work, unencumbered by any external forces, we can get the job done. However, there is no redundency and any change, be it leave, or training opportunities, or deployments would leave us high and dry.
This is where having our senior leader in the room really paid off. After hearing the arguments, i was able to convince her to commit another person to our shop. Now this is a fresh from tech school airman, so his experience level will be an issue, however he is an extremely hard charging airman, and has a strong desire to do good work, which i think will more than make up for his lack of experience in the long term.
The extra manning i was able to secure allows my A1C to train up on critical network certifications required by her AFSC, in addition it provides another body trained in personnel duties to augment my shops manning should my A1C need for go on leave, or i need someone qualified on data entry to update our databases and tracking systems.
Now for the fun part, the introduction to the workcenter, laying out of goals and expectations, and initial training. I'm really looking forward to just giving this eager young airman a program and seeing him run with it. I'm curious to see where he'll take it, how far he'll take it, and what ideas he'll come up with that I've never even considered before.
I layed out the facts of our present situation. I layed out my plan of action in order to lessen our workload, and then i asked them for their inputs. Basically if we have the three of us, at work, unencumbered by any external forces, we can get the job done. However, there is no redundency and any change, be it leave, or training opportunities, or deployments would leave us high and dry.
This is where having our senior leader in the room really paid off. After hearing the arguments, i was able to convince her to commit another person to our shop. Now this is a fresh from tech school airman, so his experience level will be an issue, however he is an extremely hard charging airman, and has a strong desire to do good work, which i think will more than make up for his lack of experience in the long term.
The extra manning i was able to secure allows my A1C to train up on critical network certifications required by her AFSC, in addition it provides another body trained in personnel duties to augment my shops manning should my A1C need for go on leave, or i need someone qualified on data entry to update our databases and tracking systems.
Now for the fun part, the introduction to the workcenter, laying out of goals and expectations, and initial training. I'm really looking forward to just giving this eager young airman a program and seeing him run with it. I'm curious to see where he'll take it, how far he'll take it, and what ideas he'll come up with that I've never even considered before.
Monday, June 16, 2008
16 June - entry 1
Most of my writing will inevitably revolve around my work, so its probably best to start off with my job description. Within the communication's squadron, i manage/run the deployment, training, emergency management, and personnel management programs. Until recently, today actually, my office consisted of three military personnel, a TSgt deployment manager, a TSgt training manager, and an A1C personnelist. None of these people were trained for these jobs by virtue of their AFSC, all these people were trained up while serving in their positions.
My Training manager, is in a critical AFSC, and due to manning shortages in another part of the squadron, he had to be pulled from my section, and sent to another worksection. Unfortunately, there isn't another person who can be pulled to replace him, so I'm going to be shorthanded for the forseeable future. Now, the immediate facts of the situation dictate that I find a way in which i can do the job of 4 people with 3, however, I don't beleive that's the end of the issue here. The commander's executive officer- aka secretary - is slated to PCS in July, and there is yet to be a clear replacement named. Before the current exec took his position, i filled in the position in the interim in addition to my current duties, and its my belief that when the current exec leaves, I'll be asked to preform those duties as well. So my actual challange is how to do the work of 5 people with 3.
Before the recent personnel moves, there was a clear division of tasks within my workcenter, and i was able to fill in for any absenses, balance out the workload when needed, and also help out any other struggleing workcenters with any training/personnel/deployment/emergency management issues they were having, leaving my workcenter to accomplish the day to day while i was able to help the squadron progress as a whole. It also made my workcenter more effective because they do not have any direct control over the squadron as whole, so while they're programs touched every memeber of the squadron, they had no real authority over the squadron, so i was able to serve as a liason to grease the wheels and alternately as a hammer when needed.
I haven't truely had a moment to sit down and absorb how this personnel move will truely affect my workcenter, and neither have my personnel, however if i wait for them to feel the effects, it will already be too late, and drastic measures will have to be taken just to catch up to where we need to be.
I think the most obvious solution here is to revise the division of work, however, if i alone make all the decisions on this one, I'll never get them to truely buy off. Morale will suffer regardless, but i think it will drop even lower if i tell them what programs to take on. My current plan to resolve this is simple, take an afternoon off, sit them down in a room, list out the tasks that need to be accomplished by the workcenter as a whole and the frequency in which they need to be done, and get their input on how best to divide them up. I have faith that they are both team players to the point that they would be willing to take on some additional work in order to ensure no lapse of service to the squadron, plus it allows them to buy in to the process.
So, thats my plan as best i can think of, hopefully I'll be writing a more cheery entry tomorrow.
-Jarzabek
My Training manager, is in a critical AFSC, and due to manning shortages in another part of the squadron, he had to be pulled from my section, and sent to another worksection. Unfortunately, there isn't another person who can be pulled to replace him, so I'm going to be shorthanded for the forseeable future. Now, the immediate facts of the situation dictate that I find a way in which i can do the job of 4 people with 3, however, I don't beleive that's the end of the issue here. The commander's executive officer- aka secretary - is slated to PCS in July, and there is yet to be a clear replacement named. Before the current exec took his position, i filled in the position in the interim in addition to my current duties, and its my belief that when the current exec leaves, I'll be asked to preform those duties as well. So my actual challange is how to do the work of 5 people with 3.
Before the recent personnel moves, there was a clear division of tasks within my workcenter, and i was able to fill in for any absenses, balance out the workload when needed, and also help out any other struggleing workcenters with any training/personnel/deployment/emergency management issues they were having, leaving my workcenter to accomplish the day to day while i was able to help the squadron progress as a whole. It also made my workcenter more effective because they do not have any direct control over the squadron as whole, so while they're programs touched every memeber of the squadron, they had no real authority over the squadron, so i was able to serve as a liason to grease the wheels and alternately as a hammer when needed.
I haven't truely had a moment to sit down and absorb how this personnel move will truely affect my workcenter, and neither have my personnel, however if i wait for them to feel the effects, it will already be too late, and drastic measures will have to be taken just to catch up to where we need to be.
I think the most obvious solution here is to revise the division of work, however, if i alone make all the decisions on this one, I'll never get them to truely buy off. Morale will suffer regardless, but i think it will drop even lower if i tell them what programs to take on. My current plan to resolve this is simple, take an afternoon off, sit them down in a room, list out the tasks that need to be accomplished by the workcenter as a whole and the frequency in which they need to be done, and get their input on how best to divide them up. I have faith that they are both team players to the point that they would be willing to take on some additional work in order to ensure no lapse of service to the squadron, plus it allows them to buy in to the process.
So, thats my plan as best i can think of, hopefully I'll be writing a more cheery entry tomorrow.
-Jarzabek
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)