My Aha Moment In Leadership

The most significant lesson that had an impact on me this week was the second half of the Emergent Leadership Issues lesson. Breaking into groups to go over different emergent leadership issues from subordinate/supervisor perspectives was an eye-opening experience. This lesson is also where I had my “aha” moment. I was up first to play the supervisor role for stress management and was flipping through pages of the student guide to find instructions or steps that would help me communicate with my subordinate. My “aha” moment was when I realized that there are no exact guidelines on how to talk to a subordinate about difficult topics and that I must rely on open communication and my knowledge of resources to effectively be there for my airman. This has changed my problem solving skills because now I have to rely on my subordinate to provide me with enough information to make the proper choice. I must create that trusting relationship if I want them to open up enough to provide that information instead of relying solely on my own knowledge. I realized that there will not always be an official form like the ACA to deal with unexpected situations when it comes to being a supervisor. With this new knowledge, I plan on changing my behavior by becoming more confident in my answers to my subordinates instead of being insecure and relying so heavily
My previous shop was really small and the financial/personnel aspects of resource stewardship were managed by my civilian program manager and offsite civilians. The most frustrating part of last week was drill practice. That is an area that I have struggled in since basic training, and it has only gotten worse. From the individual research I have been conducting for my second briefing, I have become aware of some suicide prevention initiatives that I did not know the Air Force had