Page 2 - Nellis Creech NTTR Bullseye 6-3-16

2 June 3, 2016
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Taking care of Airmen
By senior Airman christopher tam
99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. —
What is Airman Leadership School?
ALS is probably the most stressful and
overwhelming experience I have yet to
go through in my Air Force career.
In my four and a half years in the
Air Force, I have had multiple supervi-
sors. Some good, some bad, and some
in-between.
Even before my ALS experience I
knew what kind of a supervisor I didn’t
want to be.
The type of supervisor I don’t want
next Level Instruction:
Zero cost institutional improvement in Air Force
By Maj. Ryan A. slaughter
44th RS/FTU
Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. — The final
18 months of my assignment to the 435th
Fighter Training Squadron at Randolph
Air Force Base, Texas, brought about
an interesting shift in our approach to
student training that has cemented my
views of leadership.
During that time we actively sought
out techniques and principles to im-
prove as instructors and leaders as we
introduced our students to fighter fun-
damentals.
Our improvement efforts were cap-
tured in a program called Next Level
Instruction, or NLI. In January, nine of
the squadron’s Reserve and Active Duty
instructors briefed NLI to the Secretary
of the Air Force and the incoming Chief
of Staff of the Air Force as a method of
improving productivity, climate and
culture.
NLI is founded on three principles
that serve as pillars for the development
of our Airmen. The first pillar establishes
an environment where our wingmen
were thrivers or survivors. To understand
if our wingmen were survivors or thriv-
ers, our instructors were asked to think
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to be is the laissez-faire one. Basically,
the lazy type that doesn’t do anything
for their Airmen. Instead, I strive to be
the transformational type. I want to be
able to nurture, motivate and lead them
in the right direction. Unfortunately, we
all get stuck with at least one laissez-faire
supervisor in our career. The Air Force is
very diverse. There are people from dif-
ferent backgrounds, faith and culture. As
a supervisor you have to be able to adapt
to all the different cultures.
To be honest at first, I really did not
want to be at ALS. I didn’t want to be stuck
in a classroom. I hate public speaking, but
you have to do it. Most of all I hate tests.
critically about the student’s mental state:
“Is this student thriving or surviving?”
The thriving student is comfortable
in the learning environment, excited
about the training and motivated to take
on the next challenge. Conversely, the
surviving student feels like an outsider
to the organization, is just trying to pass
the next event, and fails to recognize the
value of the training. The survivor’s only
objective is to pass the ride.
Our wingmen would arrive excited
about their futures as fighter pilots.
Over the course of the training program,
short-term setbacks can be devastating
to their mental state. Our instructors
recognize the impact they have on each
student’s ‘thriver’ or ‘survivor’ status. No
matter what the setback, our instructors
continue to convey they are bought-in to
the students and their training.
Instructor buy-in leads to confidence
that helps overcome setbacks and builds
thrivers. Our students must know how
confident we are in their ability to learn
and perform in our challenging training
environment. In turn, students become
open to instruction, and give instructors
permission to identify their weaknesses.
This permission is a vulnerability that
must be treated with dignity and respect.
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Along the way I learned that it is not
all tests and homework. My instructor
told my flight we were going to build a
life-long relationship with each other,
and I didn’t believe her. I just wanted to
focus on graduating.
In the end it was true what my instruc-
tor said. We built a relationship that would
help the whole flight graduate while learn-
ing how to become effective supervisors.
Unfortunately, not all of us will be suc-
cessful when we have our first subordinate
however, we will have our peers to help us.
I love to network in my daily routine
at work.
In ALS, I was able to network even
When students see their vulnerability
handled with respect, they are more open
to instruction, which leads to the second
pillar of NLI.
The second pillar of NLI is feedback.
Feedback compels personal improve-
ment for everyone in the squadron, stu-
dents and instructors. We went outside
the Air Force to understand feedback by
studying the works of Harvard profes-
sor Dr. Sheila Heen, a world-renowned
feedback expert. Although challenging,
Heen suggests leaders must lead from the
front when it comes to receiving feedback
to ensure organizational improvement.
When the leaders of an organization are
able to receive and incorporate feedback,
the organization will emulate the leader’s
behavior.
Feedback is comprised of two dia-
metrically opposed concepts: the desire
to improve, and the desire to be ac-
cepted in your current state. With these
conflicting human desires, opening the
discussion for honest and productive
feedback is a challenge. To overcome this
challenge we asked our instructors to end
debriefs with a two-part question “What
was most beneficial about my instruction
and what part of my instruction was least
beneficial?”
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more. I learned more in depth about all
the career fields in my flight. Not only did
I learn about my flight’s career fields, but
I got to know all of them on a personal
level. We saw each other every day for five
weeks. We marched together, studied to-
gether and ate lunch together. The flight
made sure no Airman was left behind.
After going through the course, I
realized how to manage my time a little
better. With all the reading and assign-
ments that are due on a daily basis, it’s
hard to manage everything. Even though
I won’t remember everything from ALS,
there is one thing that I will never forget.
Take care of my Airmen.
As these young Airmen recognized
how our instructors were willing to
accept feedback, they emulated that
behavior. With feedback channels open,
the squadron saw better instruction and
improved student performance. We also
revealed more of our own faults and areas
for improvement. This unanticipated
benefit led us to the development of the
third pillar of NLI.
The third pillar of NLI was an instruc-
tional shift from a squadron of evaluators
to a squadron of coaches. In an interview
with leadership expert Bill Hybels, we were
surprised to find we were mixing two types
of feedback: coaching and evaluation. Hy-
bels explained to us that combining coach-
ing and evaluation is a poor method for
productive feedback. He described evalua-
tion as the most “emotionally loud” type of
feedback that drowns out the improvement-
driven feedback — coaching.
By recognizing the demarcation between
evaluations and coaching, we realized we
were a squadron great at evaluation and
needed work on coaching. Our mind-shift
brought about improved student perfor-
mance in our course and in their follow-on
training.
__ See iMpROvEMENT, on page 9
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