Core Values: Be a Leader

Knights of Heroes is an adventure camp in the mountains of Colorado for sons and daughters of fallen soldiers. Boston and I have been attending this camp  for the past 11 years, and are now mentors. We accredit the incredible program for putting us on the path to true manhood. Knights of Heroes' five core values of teaching are from the following mission statement, found on their website:

"Knights of Heroes objectives include teaching children to be responsible, proactive, boundless, bold, and to exercise leadership while rejecting immorality, substance abuse, infidelity, and a sense of entitlement."

These five core values are instilled in the young men and women campers every day, in order to teach them what being a real man or a real woman looks like in a world of phonies. Each day this week, we're going to take a deeper look into one these traits.

The fifth post, on being a Leader, is written by USAF Chief Master Sgt. (ret.) Scott Dearduff.

"Chief" as he's known to most everyone, served in the U.S. Air Force for 28 years. The Chief enlisted in the Air Force in 1982. He completed a variety of duties in the security forces career field including work with nuclear weapons, presidential security, and air mobility operations, as well as expeditionary tours in operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom.
           Scott is a former Command Chief of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen and the former Command Chief of United States Air Forces Central Command where he was responsible for 60,000 deployed airmen. In Iraq, he served alongside our father, Maj. Troy Gilbert. The Chief retired as the Command Chief Master Sergeant for the Ninth Air Force in 2010.
           In 2012, Chief started his career in the private sector. At the same time, he began writing his first book and developing the Dearduff Consulting brand. He has authored two books now,  A Cup of My Coffee: Leadership Lessons from the Battlefield to the Boardroom, which is now a series with 5 different versions, and Chief: My Journey Thru Iraq at the Peak of War. Chief now resides in Peoria, AZ with his wife of 34 years, Mags.

The following is his take and experience on the value of being a leader. 

                                                                          LEADERSHIP

Thousands of highly intelligent people have written tens of thousands of books covering the subject of leadership.  It’s easy to find books on leadership characteristics, leadership traits, and many more covering leadership lessons learned.  Herein lies a new way to look at leadership in your pursuit of the boundless lifestyle, evoking responsible conduct, proactive thinking, bold action, and an unlimited approach to leading your own life and leading others well.

            

I believe a leader must know where they have been, where they are presently, and where they are going in the future.  That statement alone has been used by many other people to make sense of their own lives.  Hearing that statement the first time, I immediately ingrained it as a useful philosophy for life as a leader.  That philosophy would also help bring focus to me as a person of faith, a father, husband, friend, professional, and a community leader.

            

After 20 years of serving on active duty in the United States Air Force our country came under attack when terrorists hit our homeland.  There is no doubt that every American had their lives changed on that day.  For those in uniform, our world would change in ways we could never have imagined.  War became our existence and we came to know sacrifice in a whole new way.  Although I was eligible to retire from military service and could have retreated to an easy life out of uniform, I needed to evaluate my options.  By days’ end, I was fully committed to serving my country at any cost until I was no longer able.

            

Immediately following that decision it was time to evaluate my life as a leader and determine my path ahead.  I knew where I had been.  For 20 years I trained and prepared for combat actions.  Years of fighting simulated enemies in made up lands like Somewhereistan, prepared me for what was to come.  I also knew that as a senior enlisted leader, people would count on me to be prepared myself, so that I could help them prepare and when things got difficult, I would be there to support them.  The leadership lessons learned prior to the War on Terror would be useful on foreign lands and I needed to account for them and find ways to implement them in the months and years ahead.  Lessons learned in peacetime are easily translated to wartime and vice versa.  Using those lessons and reviewing my military leadership history, I was then prepared to deploy and serve on the front lines.  Once I got there, the first lesson used once I deployed was to Improve the Foxhole.  That lesson engrained the mentality of leaving a place better than you found it.  We started a bare base operation and had little to nothing in the way of base defense and living conditions, so improving from that level was easy.  Using that mentality, we improved things for the teams coming behind us to increase their chance for success.  You can use the same lesson in your own life and in leadership challenges you face today.  You will be replaced from the position of leadership you hold now, and by making things better for the next person, you will gain respect and credibility.  Never settle for the status quo, always think proactively and use innovation to improve your situation.

            

Determining where I was seemed easy enough.  As a respected leader in a combat career field, there was little doubt about the need for me to be in Iraq where I could lead men and women in combat.  There was no place I would rather be at that time in my life than fighting the enemy face-to-face in Baghdad, and somehow found a way to convince the right people to give me and a dedicated team that opportunity.  Spiraling down from 30,000 feet onto a darkened airfield in less than three minutes, all while under attack from the enemy, I knew there were leadership challenges in front of me and I had to get started right away.  The most important lesson to implement was Walking the Mile with my people.  Based on the leadership level obtained by this time in my career, it would have been perfectly acceptable to remain inside the protected perimeter and under the safety of a hardened building.  But where I was at that time required direct, on-scene leadership of those who faced the enemy, and they needed their leader beside them facing the same danger.  Walking the mile with them was critical in my development as a leader and ensured that trust grew between myself and those who followed.  There was an obvious increase in the confidence level of troops when they saw me out front, leading convoys and standing tall under enemy fire.  You can lead from the front today in your chosen field, and people will take notice of where you are.  Knowing where I was and Staying in My Lane showed leadership boldness that translated into the ability to act with courage when it was needed.

          

Among the things I learned along the way, maybe the greatest one came from my wife following a demanding year in combat.  We had just arrived at a new base and were attending a formal ceremony with hundreds of people in attendance, few of which we actually new or had met.  At the conclusion of the night, as we were driving home, she told me that she had noticed something about me.  She said I was the same 19 year old kid she met back in 1982.  Taking immediate offense to her statement, I responded that I had grown and was a man…how could she say that about me.  Then she told me that what she meant was, while watching me during the evening, she noticed that I was integrating myself with the 19 year olds like I was one of them.  She said, they enjoyed being around you and were not intimidated by your stripes or the position you held.  She closed by telling me that I never forgot where I came from and who I was.

Knowing where I was going was the toughest part of this equation because of the focus on the present. But, there needed to be goals and expectations or I feared becoming complacent and endangering my teams.  There was an obvious first goal of knowing where I wanted to be; at home with my family and all of my troops at home with theirs.  But beyond that, I knew the war on terror was not going away and my services would be needed again.  In the midst of fulfilling my present role as a combat leader, I took a few minutes to consider the future.  One night during a lull in the fighting, a colleague asked me what I wanted to do next.  Remaining focused, I told him I wanted this fight to be over, to get about four hours of sleep, then some hot chow.  He laughed and said that he meant what I wanted to do once we were done with the current deployment.  Thinking for a minute, I responded that I wanted to come back to Iraq and lead more troops on a larger scale so I could implement the things we had learned during this combat tour.  Then I went on.  I said that ultimately I wanted to be the senior enlisted member of the Air Force over all deployed forces across the entire theater of operations.  If a leader is to remain committed to the mission, they must continue to set goals and look to the future.  I thought my leadership had unlimited potential.  I told him that one day I wanted to retire to Arizona, have a pool and a view where I could host my family, including the ones I served with.  The fighting restarted.

            

Finally, a boundless leader lifts up those around him and encourages them to grow without feeling threatened by their skills or abilities.  A boundless leader shapes the world around him through his work and his wisdom.  Living a boundless life and putting others first will open doors for you that previously seemed unattainable.  Live, love and lead with boundless passion. 

Today, sitting near the pool and enjoying the blue sky view of surrounding mountains, I can evaluate my philosophy and share this.  There will be many leadership highs and lows on your path.  But knowing where you came from, knowing where you are, and knowing where you are going, will help you serve to the best of your ability.  As you seek to lead a boundless lifestyle, these three simple thoughts should serve you well.  Best wishes for great success.