Master Sergeant Lewis was impeccable at her job. She was the non-commissioned officer in charge of the Nellis Air Force base honor guard. The duties of a base honor guard ranged from funerals to marching in parades, posting colors at base function, performing saber arches at weddings and for the arrival of dignitaries. The fact the Nellis Air Force base is located in Las Vegas, Nevada also meant that the honor guard performed posting of the colors at boxing matches, the professional bull riders events, and various other events throughout the casinos in downtown Las Vegas.
The honor guard experienced an influx of new honor guardsmen about every 3 months. The rotation existed so that each section on the base was contributing members to the base honor guard. In the leadership position Msgt. Lewis had to be very good at what she did. She had to be able to fill specific roles within the honor guard in order to make a productive and cohesive team. We could examine the leadership of Msgt. Lewis from many different perspective. She was a very transformational leader as she inspired all of those who served under her. As we learned there are also many approaches to leadership. This week we covered the skills approach to leader ship. While I could give examples of the many different skills she possessed, I will give examples of how she fit into Katz’s three skills approach to leadership.
From the technical perspective she had the knowledge and ability to keep the organization running (PSU, 2014). She was able to adequately keep the budget in order, keep up to date on were the new honor guardsmen were coming from, and organize the honor guard into the appropriate groups that were needed.
The human set of skills that she possessed went beyond being there for people and recognizing when they needed something. She had an open door policy which allowed the members of the base honor guard access to her. She could recognize when people needed a little extra attention but more than that she could recognize what they could learn from the honor guard to make them more successful. As an example of this she didn’t always but the strongest people in charge of training but rather she put people with weaker skills alongside people with stronger skills to afford the weaker skills people the opportunity to improve. Her ability to recognize that the members could learn from one another and benefit from each other in ways that they weren’t expecting it was an example of people skills at its finest.
Her concept of the honor guard is that we were a team and we always do our best to make sure that each and every one of us made the base and the Air Force look good. Due to some medical issues that prevented me from performing my regular base duties as an Air Traffic Controller I was able to be with Msgt. Lewis for two years while I awaited the my fate. I was able to see this mission statement hold true throughout many different teams that came together over the course of my time there. I watched as her leadership skills allowed the base honor guard to become bigger and better. We got more and more detail assignments, on and off base and became a shining example of military pride and discipline. She perpetuated us so far forward that the Air Force Honor Guard actually came out to train us.
The pride and sense of teamwork that she was able to instil in us is the reason that many of us still reminisce about our time at the Nellis Air Force base honor guard with a great amount of respect and admiration.
References:
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (Sixth Edition ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA, United States: Sage Publications, Inc.
PSU.edu (2014) Lesson 4 Commentary; skills approach models; three skills approach, Pennsylvania State University, retrieved from: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/su14/psych485/002/content/04_lesson/04_page.html