F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo., -- Dr. Jeffrey Smith, Thinkenomics president, held half-day courses in, “The Art of Leading Oneself “for security forces defenders here, March 6-9.
Thinkenomics offers a unique approach to developing an organizational culture that begins with self-leadership.” The course demonstrates that leadership starts by first improving the personal leadership style used, which in return will increase the productivity of those being lead.
“The reason this course is important for Airmen is because you can’t give something to somebody else that you don’t already have,” Smith said. “The single most important thing to becoming an effective leader is we have to have the personal discipline to build the life worth living. If we can’t do that, we can’t be expected to lead other people.”
The course lasted for four days and was specifically geared toward reaching defenders in the 90th Security Forces Group.
“Defenders are such a rich, powerful requirement within our Air Force. If we get something right we have to get it right with them,” Smith said. “We need to grow, teach and make sure they fully understand the immense responsibility that they are given to wear that badge and beret.”
The topics discussed included bias, entrenched thinking, consequence of power, the importance of being trustworthy, commitment and loyalty.
“There was a lot of talk about relationships, emotion and intelligence and how those play into you as a leader” said Capt. Timothy Marriner, 790th Missile Security Forces Squadron tactical response force officer in charge. “We discussed that by getting to know yourself as a leader and improving your faults to a point where your team is better as a result.”
Marriner added his thoughts about why having courses such as this are important in improving today’s leaders in the ICBM force.
“It’s critically important because our mission is a no-fail mission,” said Marriner. “We have a ton of Airmen that we supervise and that can be tricky because every Airman is unique. We need to know how to adapt leadership styles and communicate effectively as leaders.”
Smith, a retired Air Force colonel, uses his experiences and ideas to spread his leadership messages to military instillations and other organizations.
“This whole week was designed around creating a culture that is positive, that allows our Airmen defenders to grow and to develop,” Smith said.