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22nd Air Force recently held two concurrent events June 2024 in Knoxville, Tennessee. The two events were the 22nd Air Force’s Senior Leadership Summit and a Noncommissioned Officer Summit.
SLS is 22nd Air Force’s biannual event, alternating every other season through the year, consisting of direct reporting unit commanders and respective senior enlisted advisors across 22nd Air Force. The NCOS consists of junior supervisors, otherwise dubbed the “backbone of the force” by senior leaders within 22nd Air Force.
These symposiums are conducted to provide professional development and growth for leaders, new and seasoned. SLS in particular also allows for 22nd DRUs to congregate and voice issues, concerns and praise with one another or to higher command for synchronous clarification, collaboration, forward-planning and streamlined communication.
Conducting these two events simultaneously allowed further opportunity for interaction and information dissemination across the entire rank spectrum.
“Leadership is really at all levels,” said Maj. Gen. Melissa Coburn, 22nd Air Force commander. “The mid-level NCOs are the next generation of leaders, so it’s important to learn from them as I think we can all learn from each other.”
22nd Air Force command reinforces that mid-level NCOs are the future in leading the force through the everchanging status quo not only within Reserve Command and Air Force, but in the bigger socio-political climate within the world at large. In addition, Coburn states how commissioned leadership often consults and relies on the NCO experience and knowledge in order to efficiently manage a workforce.
Although there is some crossover in topics between the two symposiums, to allow discussions on differing interpretations of the same message, the NCOS implemented more interactivity and engagement.
“Our NCOs are coming directly from the Airman ranks and are our first-line supervisors,” said Master Sgt. Monica Hanson, 932nd Medical Squadron medical technician and NCOS coordinator. “They really are our target audience to ensure they have all this information to be the best they can be and lead future Airmen.”
Several highlights during NCOS included narrative writing, feedback delivery and listening techniques, enhanced critical thinking and a presentation by a military training instructor, who also serves as an MTI recruiter, who was brought to assist in facilitating the event and share her experiences as an instructor and the importance of continuing growth no matter the rank. Another highlight was an exercise involving a volunteer webcam-calling an individual at a remote location, utilizing a digital avatar to pose as an Airman, in a given scenario regarding “difficult conversations.” One of the concluding events in the summit was an impromptu group speech embracing the use of internet memes and social media trends and utilizing them to convey a professional message.
“All the training and scenarios the NCOs participated in are to prepare them for when they are faced with these situations in the operational capacity,” said Master Sgt. Kami Luster, 94th Airlift Wing Inspector General exercise planner and NCOS coordinator. “As a 24-year Master Sgt., these were some of the things I didn’t have. Looking back, if I had known then what I know now, I would have wanted to share that knowledge with my Airmen, and we can finally provide that now.”
While junior NCOs were engaged in interactive seminars and exercises, SLS was being held one floor below.
SLS involved more logistical seminars such as psychological health statistics and issues, diversity/equity/inclusion, finance, retirement and even a window of time to outright discuss improvements on vision and mission statements that are and aren’t working within command. While these topics, as paramount as they were, were more stoic in nature, there was still room for engaging and interactive activities for training purposes.
One of the crossover exercises between the two symposiums was the digital avatar exercise. While the NCOS practiced “difficult conversations” between supervisor and Airman, the SLS version focused on diversity and was presented to a volunteer commander. The volunteer commander held a discussion with the avatar who expressed frustration regarding the color of one’s skin and promotion. Following the discussion, the floor was open to feedback and advice for future reference at the command level.
The overall benefit of facilitating two leadership symposiums simultaneously is to familiarize and express experiences at all levels to learn from each other.
“Everyone has great ideas about how we’re going to lead through these unprecedented times of change in the Air Force,” said Coburn. “Everyone brings something different to the table – ideas and experiences. It’s good for us to get everyone together where we can all share those experiences and ideas so we can manage the change and come out the other side better.”
| Date Taken: | 06.07.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 07.24.2024 08:48 |
| Story ID: | 476069 |
| Location: | KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE, US |
| Web Views: | 23 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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