Leading others to achieve specified goals can be challenging, but leading them at high speed carries its own challenge. In the picture above, I am standing beside Captain Terry "Cherry" Colgrave after a CF-18 Hornet Flight we completed in August 2012 as part of my Investiture as Honorary Colonel of 419 Tactical Fighter Training Squadron. "Cherry" was the Flight Lead for this two-plane mission and I was his 'back-seater'.
Our mission included a range familiarization, Basic Fighter Manoeuvres, Close Formation, and Low Level Navigation-all at speeds ranging from very slow to transonic (that's very fast!). In thinking about this flight, I am struck by the resonance I sensed between the Leadership qualities "Cherry" demonstrated and those I see in the Business Leaders I work with in Calgary. The critical difference is that "Cherry" and those like him lead others, sometimes many others, to accomplish difficult objectives in dangerous places at great speed. Mission Success comes with careful mission planning and preparation, high Situational Awareness, Clear Communications with all Team Members and Fast Forward Thinking. Mission Success is defined in the pre-flight briefing; assessed during the flight by the Instructor Pilot; and constructively critiqued in the post-flight 'debriefing'. As this process has proven, Fighter Pilot Students who can translate the lessons learned during each phase of this learning experience into higher levels of performance in the next flight are the ones who make it. Those who cannot quickly integrate these lessons, self-identify by their performance and do not progress on to become full-fledged Fighter Pilots.
None of this happens by accident and Leaders like "Cherry" take many years to develop only after they demonstrate that they can be the 'best of the best'. In my capacity as Honorary Colonel, I have a privileged vantage point to witness this development process every time I engage with the Instructors and Staff of 419 Tactical Fighter Training Squadron. Their tremendous results are a reflection of the continued development of the Mission Preparation skills, Flying skills, Leadership skills, Teamwork skills and Communications skills of their aspiring Fighter Pilot Students.
This causes me to ask you, as Business Leaders, what you are doing to foster the development of the Business Skills, Leadership skills, Teamwork skills and Communications skills of your aspiring Leadership Team Members? Are you seeing the development you and your business need and want? If not, why not?
A measurement that I apply to myself is the answer to the following questions:
Are the people that are meant to follow me reaching their potential contribution level?
If not, what part am I playing to ensure that they do?
-Lieutenant Colonel (ret'd) Ron Guidinger BEng, MBA, PEng, PMP