Team of teams Published April 14, 2017 By Chief Master Sgt. Scott McCalla 20th Mission Support Group SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. -- What an incredible time for amateur and professional sport teams, especially in North and South Carolina. The men’s Coastal Carolina University Chanticleers baseball team won the National Collegiate Athletic Association World Series, the University of Clemson Tigers won the National Collegiate Athletic Association football championship, the University of South Carolina Gamecocks women’s team and the University of North Carolina Tar Heels men’s team won the NCAA national basketball championships. Congratulations to them all. Did you ever wonder what makes the difference between good and great teams? In my opinion, it is team dynamics and perseverance during key moments of an event. As a coach or leader if you can “effect” team dynamics at the lowest level, you can build upon them to increase effectiveness and efficiencies at the top of an organization, producing highly productive units. A team is stronger than any one individual’s efforts. Use your team’s dynamics to increase efficiencies during leadership and change management endeavors. The tool to conduct this change is “transformational leadership.” In the October 2015 Air Force Handbook, transformational leadership is made up of four components: individualized consideration (nurturing,) intellectual stimulation (thinking,) inspirational motivation (charming,) and idealized influence (influencing.) A transformational leader provides followers a vision and inspiration to complete the mission. Leaders nurture followers by acting as mentors or coaches to help them establish short and long-term goals. During intellectual stimulation, the leader values the subordinate’s rationality and intellect, seeking different perspectives and considering opposing points of view. Proactive leaders should encourage members to participate in professional development reading lists to stimulate the human thought process to renew and encourage, innovation, creativity and efficiencies. After a member reads a book, encourage them to share their gained knowledge with peers in the work center and inspire intellectual thinking amongst unit personnel. Inspirational motivation involves using leader behavior to develop and communicate a vision. These visions catapult performance expectations to inspire followers to provide extra effort to achieve the leader’s vision. When leaders utilize idealized influence, they use their influence to be charismatic, demonstrate a positive role model and “walk the walk.” Transformational leaders exhibit high levels of moral behavior, virtues and character strengths, especially strong work ethics which create positive work environments. These leaders represent the organization’s values, beliefs and purpose in both words and action; top leaders must communicate the vision and clearly define the mission up and down the chain of command to establish strategic leadership. Within the 20th Fighter Wing, the mission is clearly expressed by the commander, Col. Daniel Lasica, and the identity of the 20th FW as the Shaw Weasels is understood, from its history as an attack fighter program during the Vietnam War to its mission today. Shaw Weasels prepare, employ and sustain combat ready suppression of enemy air defenses and F-16 Fighting Falcon airpower and deliberately develop combat ready Airmen to win our nation’s wars. The wing exists to defeat our nation’s enemies, secure our homeland, our fellow citizens and our noble way of life as our Air Force’s core SEAD wing. As teammates, 20th FW Airmen are wingmen, leaders, warriors and followers of character and family. The 20th Fighter Wing excels in transformational leadership. From the top down, team members embrace change to improve the installation while performing the mission and demonstrating Air Force core values of integrity first, service before self and excellence in all we do. In the book, “Team of Teams, New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World” author Retired U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, relates lessons he learned during his service in the Army especially in wartime Iraq and Afghanistan and applies them to the civilian corporate workplace. In establishing the team of teams, McChrystal used strategic thinking models to increase effectiveness and efficiencies in the workplace through small teams with “modern or scientific management” while reducing manpower and increasing worker’s production results. Effective coaches or leaders motivate and empower members to make key decisions at the lowest level possible while performing at an increased production level. Once the work center achieves results at an increased production level then a sense of pride and ownership becomes actualized and a sense of success and significant achievement is realized. A recent example is under the leadership of the 20th Communications Squadron and the base’s synergized efforts as a team of teams to pass a Command Cyber Readiness Inspection with an “Excellent” rating from the Defense Information Systems Agency. As I travel around Shaw Air Force Base with senior leaders, I see many great teams accomplishing incredible achievements while serving our nation. In my opinion, Team Shaw is a team of teams, diverse with Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and civilians. There are many geographically separated locations Team Shaw is responsible for around the world, achieving global reach and global power while protecting national security interests. I am very proud and glad to serve with you, the team of teams, at Shaw AFB.