Take on leadership, hone your skills, don’t just follow Published Oct. 27, 2006 By Chief Master Sgt. John Johnson 325th Medical Group superintendent TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Have you ever noticed there seems to be a very small group of people within your unit getting most of the attention and awards? If you have, you also probably noticed these people are the ones stepping up to tackle the major projects or issues. They are also the ones, time and time again, who are out in the community, busy in professional organizations and getting involved wherever leadership is needed. Do these people have secrets on leadership they keep to themselves? Do they have an exclusive membership in a leadership club? Well, the answer is no to both of these questions. They simply know the Air Force needs leaders and have overcome the fear of possible failure. They also know the Air Force is becoming smaller and their involvement becomes more crucial every day. They realize continuous leadership gets you promoted, whereas continuous followership just gets you a paycheck. There is no magical recipe or checklist to become a leader in your unit. If you look at all the leadership philosophies we are exposed to during professional military training, you will see an obvious agreement among the authors. There are no true "born" leaders. Leadership is a skill you learn. You learn by watching others, reading, asking questions and most importantly, by performing as a leader, through practice. By serving in the military service, regardless whether it is in the Air Force, Army, Marines or Navy, you are afforded opportunities far surpassing anything you might receive in the civilian sector. Just take a look at your high school or college buddies and compare your responsibilities after a couple of years in the military, versus their responsibilities. Remember to start taking on little roles to hone your basic leadership skills. You can start taking on small projects within your shop, become involved in an AFSO21 initiative, or even volunteering to chair a sub-committee for your booster club. This will permit you to start learning how to deal with other folks and help you learn procedures and roadblocks. Once you learn these basics, you can start turning this knowledge into effective and efficient skills aimed at more involved leadership roles. Also, this will permit you to maximize the output of those you are working with. You won't succeed at everything you tackle by following this path. When you take on anything, there is a possibility of failure. I would challenge anyone at anytime to say they have never suffered a failure. If someone says they have succeeded at everything, I would bet they did not push boundaries. Someone once said failure is not a bad thing as long as you "fail forward." Failing forward is basically learning from the mistakes you have made and using the knowledge to prevent mistakes in the future. I have never seen a supervisor or commander come down on anyone for giving 100 percent. If you volunteer for something and find out you are "in over your head," realize the project or task will not just go away and it could have a monumental impact on your unit's mission. You have a vast resource of knowledgeable people to help you. Your supervisor, first sergeant, senior NCOs, officers in charge and commanders are just waiting to provide you with help and mentoring. Although obtaining leadership skills never ends, our leaders have gone through successes and failures. They generally know what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and to what level it needs to be done. They are also charged with building tomorrow's leaders - their replacements. They know you are tomorrow's commanders and chiefs, and take the responsibility of producing leaders very seriously. As I mentioned before, being a leader takes a lot of practice. There are no kept secrets kept or leadership clubs you haven't been invited to join. The Air Force is definitely becoming smaller and needs more leaders to step up and carry on the mission of protecting our great nation. So, what this boils down to is you putting up your hand, acquiring the skills to become a leader and realizing failure may occur, but you have people willing to help you. The Air Force cannot wait until the last minute for you to develop your leadership skills. If you continue to wait, you will probably see your buddy standing at attention with your commander being STEP promoted to master sergeant or getting a well deserved below-the-zone stripe instead of yourself. The choice is yours, but remember, continuous leadership will get you promoted and continuous followership will just get you a paycheck.