Total force seminar builds 'bold leadership'

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Travis Edwards
  • 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
KAPAUN AIR STATION, Germany (AFNS) --  Nearly 200 Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine service members took part in a full-day leadership seminar hosted by the Kaiserslautern Military Community Top III Total Force Development Council here Aug. 3.

From junior enlisted to senior officers, all members who attended the seminar learned about the importance of being bold leaders.

"We wanted to reach out to all the services and highlight what Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force (James A.) Roy said back in April about bold leadership," said Senior Master Sgt. Terrence Edwards, 603rd Air and Space Operations Center superintendent of strategy division and organizer for the event.

Roy said in his public address to Airmen that now is the time for bold leadership and, as the Air Force's most precious resource, junior Airmen need to be properly trained, equipped, mentored and given accurate feedback.

"We need those bold leaders to rate each individual fairly and accurately, and that isn't easy. They will need the support of  senior NCOs and commanders to make it work," said Roy. "I'm not interested in doing what's easy; I'm interested in doing what's right (for our Airmen)."

The 3rd Air Force commander, Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin, echoed Roy's statements.

"You have to give honest and open feedback so that each Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine can improve," said Franklin. "You should leave with a legacy of caring versus a legacy of achievement. Achievements are the work that your people do. ... If you take care of the people, they will take care of the mission."

In addition to learning to be bold leaders, the seminar also focused on strength-based leadership followed by the 21 indispensable qualities of a leader.

"The biggest difference I've seen in this (seminar) is the focus on positive strengths versus weaknesses," said Navy Lt. James McClelland, a clinical psychologist in the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center who attended the seminar. "Many other leadership courses place a big emphasis on weaknesses and strengthening them. Often times we pose limits on our own strengths, but we can go a lot further and we can do a lot more than what we realize."

The course finished off with a leadership panel composed of command sergeants major and command chief master sergeants from the Kaiserslautern military community.

"The leadership panel was used to invite E-9s from all the services to garner their perspective of what bold leadership entails from their standpoint as enlisted leaders," said Edwards. "Their insight proved to be invaluable. It was truly amazing to see the answers that came from those professional enlisted Airmen and Soldiers."