Photo By Senior Master Sgt. Paula Macomber | Nevada Air National Guardsmen participated in the second annual “Battle Born...... read more read more
Nevada Air National Guardsmen participated in the second annual “Battle Born Professional Development Fly Away” at McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base from July 29 to August 2.
There was a need to professionally develop the junior leaders of the Nevada Air National Guard, State Command Chief, Chief Master Sgt. Michael Drisdale said.
“We began offering this to noncommissioned officers (NCOs) last year and every year we are going to refine it,” Drisdale said. “Although the first year went great, there are always lessons to be learned. We are going to continue refine this.”
“The future is not going to be any less challenging than the present,” he said. “It only ramps up. We need more out of the NCO Corps. There is no limits to effort or the resources that we should expend ensuring that we have a solid future. We will not stop.”
The training this year was slightly different from last year.
“We started off with some team building exercises, which we felt were lacking last year,” Drisdale said, “I think adding this, gives the teams a chance to begin bonding much earlier than they did last year—making for a better overall experience.”
The entire Nevada group began the training with an introduction from the Col. Kenneth Lozano, the Training Education Center’s commander.
“Leadership is more than just checking a box, leading is about serving others, inspiring Airmen, leveraging their diversity, and most importantly taking care of them,” Lozano said.
The teambuilding exercises were a big hit with the Airmen.
“The team building took me by surprise, we thought we were going to go do normal physical training,” Staff Sgt. Eduardo Vargas Vasquez from the 152nd Communications Flight said. “I really liked the angle where they actually attacked the training situation by doing something totally different than what I have seen in active duty and any of my time in the military. The teambuilding was a completely different twist on how they related it to leadership, putting a new spin on it.”
“I liked the team building exercise a lot because it was, with the obstacle courses and activities—it taught you a different way to lead or a different way to instruct,” Senior Airman Mychel Christian from the 152nd Operations Support Squadron said. “You had people with different learning styles and or ways they responded to those different leading or instruction styles.”
After the team building activities on day one, the group split into their two separate teams, Silver and Blue, and began classroom training on various topics such as John Maxwell’s “The hardest person to lead is yourself,” Unconscious Bias, and Leading with Emotional Intelligence.
“So far, I love it, because you don’t realize how much instruction you need on being a leader and being a follower,” Christian said. “You don’t realize the things you are lacking. They ask you questions that you never considered, like: I don’t really seek advice, or, do I seek advice? And then do I follow the advice? I appreciate that it’s being drawn out of us and we’re able to discuss it and actually be in an open forum to sit and actually think about and discuss it.”
The team met the first evening with an icebreaker BBQ sponsored by the Chief’s Council and Top 3 Council. Chief Master Sgt. Angela Ash, the 152nd Airlift Wing Human Resource Advisor, held a friendly competition game of icebreaker BINGO for members to get to know each another.
“I love that these types of events get Airmen out of their comfort zones a little,” Ash said. “The Airmen in our unit are very bright and interesting people. The icebreaker BINGO forced them to seek out other Airmen who aren’t that different from themselves—and open the dialogue -- in that, they find that we are all way more alike each other than different from each other.”
Training day two was a full day of classroom instruction on various topics such as Conflict Resolution and other John Maxwell’s principles such as, “Keep Learning, Keep Leading,” and “Don’t Manage Your Time, Manage your Life.”
The Airmen participated with their respective mentors in class discussions, problem solving and several exercises.
Master Sgt. Laura Magee talked with both teams about the importance of force development by first explaining it.
“Force Development is all those things that you put into yourself to make yourself a better leader or a better person,” she said. “It makes you competitive for future positions. Those opportunities that you take as an individual or that the military makes you take that helps make you a better Airman.”
The Airmen attending had an overall positive reaction to the entire experience.
“It was an amazing experience,” Staff Sgt. Berenice Domenzain from Nevada State Headquarters in Las Vegas said. “It reminded me that I need to look at my toolbox and add more stuff. Work on myself--work on my leadership and that I need to grow.”
The Emotional Intelligence class seemed to be the one that stood out for everyone.
Domenzain said, “One of the classes that stood out for me was Emotional Intelligence. Because sometimes we let our emotions get in the way. So it was a reminder that I need to put that aside, that I need to know what triggers my emotions so that I can deal better with my subordinates.”
“The Emotional Intelligence class was more relatable with what we deal with on a day-to-day basis of dealing with others’ emotions,” Staff Sgt. Jason Salberg a Commanders Support Staff Technician from the 232nd Operations Squadron at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nev. said. “And that’s how anything really gets done is by communication and it was good training on how to read folks.”
The final day also had some teambuilding in the form of a group physical training session and a talk from instructors about attendance at formal in-residence professional military education and then back to more classroom work.
One of the instructors, Master Sgt. Pamela Lewis, while teaching the John Maxwell class, "Don't manage your time, manage your life," instilled in them the value of time by demonstrating an exercise where you look at your life and figure out how many years you could have left on the earth, you take a jar and put that number of marbles into it and each year, on your birthday, take out a marble.
"If there's anything to get my priorities straight in my life is looking at this (the jar on the nightstand) and pulling one out each year,” Lewis said. “I am not telling you to go out and buy marbles but I'm telling you to find something that's going to get your attention."
Twelve Airmen were selected to have lunch with Commander of the Nevada Air National Guard, Brig. Gen. Ondra Berry. During the lunch, Berry explained the Nevada Air National Guard’s position within and relating to the National Defense Strategy.
“That’s my role--is to make sure I position us to be not only the best practice but the next practice of what’s relevant for the military based off of what I know that the National Defense Strategy expects out of our Airmen,” Berry said.
After explaining the Nevada Air National Guard’s position within the National Defense Strategy and the upcoming new missions that the Nevada Air National Guard is trying to get, Berry added, “All those things require leadership, leadership, leadership. When you start getting new missions, and you don’t have the capability, the competency, the vision, the strategic thinking, the alignment, the ability to bring together a team—if you don’t have all that, it fails. Everything rises and falls with good or bad leadership. I don’t care what anybody tells you, it’s not the officers that run the organization, it’s the enlisted that run the organization. If I don’t have a strong team, bench of enlisted that ‘get it’ – then it doesn’t work.”
He encouraged them to take everything back and stand up and hold everyone, including yourself accountable.
“Taking care of the Airmen, making sure we are strong in areas on the people side, that’s leadership and that’s what I need from the noncommissioned officers. You see things far faster than we ever do.”
The final day was complete after a motivating out-brief by Berry.
“A leader’s job is to pull the emotion out of people,” Berry said. “Because if I can get you to have love and care and drive and commitment and focus and a purpose for what you do—you will be great at it. Leaders are evaluated off results and productivity. Leaders produce. They add value. They are making a difference. You don’t have to hold them accountable. They hold themselves accountable. That is a big part of what you’re being asked to do when you show up at these opportunities. I appreciate each and every one of you for taking on this growth and learning opportunity. You have been tapped on the shoulder to lead. Embrace engage and execute on your untapped potential. Aim High!”
| Date Taken: | 08.02.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 08.02.2019 23:07 |
| Story ID: | 334382 |
| Location: | RENO, NV, US |
| Web Views: | 255 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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