Svp (Chair), Department Of Leadership And Warfighting, Air War College
Usaf
As a College Department Chair (Colonel), provided executive level leadership for 26 senior officers and civilian PhD faculty in the execution of curriculum for Leadership and Warfighting core courses and related electives. Provided graduate-level education to 240 board chosen top senior executives and future leaders of foreign nations. Guided them to greater knowledge, critical thinking and mentoring skills. Built and defended a $160,000 budget. Principal advisor to senior staff.When I started, it was natural for me to assume those who worked for me were my "peers." After all, we were all full colonels. But, as always, I learned from those I led.Bottomline: I transformed the organization that could easily have become a caretaking group of "strangers" into a cohesive, highly effective and unstoppable team of employees who increased productivity, maximized ROI and made a difference.We may have all had the same rank and had some shared background. But, each one of those 26 executives who reported to me had a different style, different knowledge, different leadership techiniques. It was up to me to make this group more effective than the sum of its members.Here's how I did it. I gave them the support and resources they needed and created a no-nonsense but informal work environment. I also gave them clear direction, matched the right people to the right jobs, then got out of the way.Here were the results: we not only achieved all five of the main goals I set, we exceeded them. Both internal and external customers--demanding senior leadership and Board of Directors equivalents--told us how much we had improved the product. What pleased me more than that was how rewarded every internal constituency felt. In fact, morale soared to new heights.Everybody won. We delivered better products and saved money at no cost; saved $185K and cut production time in half and boosted quality.