CAFB Leaders attend off-site

  • Published
  • By Sonic Johnson
  • Chief, 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  Forty members of the BLAZE Leadership Team gathered June 4 to attend a leadership off-site seminar at the Prairie Wildlife Hunting Lodge.

Servant Leader author and motivational speaker Jim Hunter started the day-long event with a presentation on Servant Leadership. After lunch, 49th Fighter Squadron Commander Lt. Col. Chris Stricklin gave a presentation on Strategic Negotiation and Dr. Matt Stafford from the Squadron Officer's College finished off the day with an overview of D-Day to intellectually prepare the group for that evening's D-Day Banquet.

Hunter's visit was a follow on to his September presentation to the BLT where he introduced them to the Servant Leadership concept. This session challenged the BLT to take measurable actions within their organizations to continue the journey to becoming a servant leader. Hunter used philosophy and lessons from great leaders like Coach John Wooden and Southwest Airlines founder Herb Kelleher to set the bar of leadership.

"Leadership is developing our moral muscle...and moral muscle equals character," said Hunter. He further challenged BLT members with his famous line "are you green and growing or ripe and rotting?"

Hunter spent the morning with his three stage process; Foundation, Feedback and Friction. The BLT has essentially finished the Foundation stage which consists of Servant Leadership Training and self study. Hunter set the team for the Feedback stage where leaders identify their skill or style gaps, which is accomplished by feedback. Feedback is solicited from supervisors, peers and subordinates alike to get a 360 degree view of leadership performance. Hunter cited material from his most recent book "The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle, How to Become a Servant Leader."

Following a prepared lunch of Greek Chicken by on-site chef Harry Psisisas, Colonel Stricklin kicked off his session on Strategic Negotiations with a few interactive exercises with the initial goal of realizing that emotions play a role in all decision making. While initially designed for newly arrived action officers to the Pentagon, Colonel Stricklin adeptly tailored the lesson to provide wing-level leaders awareness and tools to successfully negotiate.

Dr. Stafford had the unenviable task to present a history lesson at the end of a long, intellectually stimulating day; a task that Dr. Stafford met and excelled at accomplishing. Providing the strategic overview of World War II he interspersed interesting but little known facets of the war and gave a memorable and informative presentation.

With the event concluding with hearty thanks to all and most BLT members rushing off to prepare for the evening's D-Day Banquet, the planning team led by 48th Flying Training Squadron Chief of Training Maj. Steve Drinnon reflected on the success of the day. "The program today far exceeded our expectations of success," beamed Major Drinnon. "The speakers were perfect. The topics were perfect. The facility was perfect. The audience was perfect!"