I was never a credit hound, but I certainly was the guy who wanted to do it all on my own. I thought it was easier to not have to worry about other people and they often just slowed me down. This worked ok as a young Airman and early on as a NCO; however, it quickly led to burnout. We need to remember we are not in this fight alone and each of us can add value to the task. Until we learn to work with and lift up the others, we can never be a leader.
I can’t even count how many times someone else has received credit for my work or for someone else’s. A lot of times they don’t even realize they are getting the credit for it. It is frustrating to see, but, most of the time, it doesn’t have any real long-term impact on me. When this happens we can be bitter and quit or just keep doing our job excellently. If you are working for “credit” only, you may want to reconsider what you are doing.
This is one of the biggest challenges I have had as a SNCO. I have worked very hard over the years to gain the knowledge and experiences that I have to finally make it into the SNCO tier. I figured people would be in a line with interesting problems for me to solve. However, there is no line and I typically have to seek out the issues. My biggest fear was that I was not trusted and then I learned people did not want to “bother” me with an issue and they would continue to stew in it. Use your SNCOs’ networks, experiences and big picture views to remove the roadblocks in your path. Rule of thumb: If it is something in your daily duties, try to solve it yourself. If it is something that involves another team, get a SNCO involved.
We have all wanted to go back in time to when we were 5-, 10-, or 20- years younger. It would be awesome to go back knowing what we know today. We would be wealthier, in better shape, wiser and have better relationships today. Obviously, we can’t do that, but we can think about where we want to be in 5-, 10, or 20- years and do what we need to set us up for that future starting today.
This is one of the biggest complaints I have ever heard about those of us with rank. “SNCOs look good because we work hard for them and then they forget all about us.” This kills me to think I may have given that impression and I work really hard to never do that. We are a team that needs everyone on it to be successful. Those doing the work make the mission happen. Those of us with rank are there because we have more experience and the ability to see the obstacles coming up and move them before the team gets there. People are not on our teams to service our desires…we serve each other to lift each other.
Many years ago, a mentor of mine told me that people want to be led. At first I was cynical and thought he must’ve saw this in a fortune cookie. Then I started stepping back and observing groups of people. When something would come up, they were all hesitant to step up and take charge. There would actually be a look of relief on many faces when someone would take ownership. This applies to most areas of our lives. We are always looking to see what other are doing before we step out. What are the leaders in fitness doing to get bigger arms? What are the leaders in <insert industry> doing? People want to be led…so lead them!
This is the curse of the Information Age. We have always wanted to keep up with the Jones’; however, we now can see every Jones in the world. We see the ‘highlights’ of those on social media and try to emulate them. We see those who get promoted did x-y-z and now we start doing that until we see someone else who did a-b-c and so on. We become squirrels. Focus on one thing each day that must be done to move your life or family forward and do that first. Then go play with the squirrels the rest of the day if you really can’t beat that urge.
The first step in doing something no one else will is to take the first step. We let fear and complacency tell us something is not possible. Stop worrying about doing everything; just do the next thing.
I love this concept about failing. We all fail. It is ok to fail. We look at failure as something terrible and as if we are losers. Failure means we tried something and fell short…that is it. Now, the important thing is what was learned from that failure to make us better for the next time. We have to ask what went wrong and how can we prepare for it better the next time around. Failure is merely feedback, it is not the end of the road.
