Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Leadership course provides N.C. Guardsmen pathways to success

by Master Sgt. Patricia F. Moran
145th airlift Wing Public Affairs


12/16/2015 - CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Airmen and Soldiers from the North Carolina National Guard were given an opportunity to enhance their professional development by attending training held at the North Carolina Air National Guard Base, Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Dec. 11.

Two courses, Four Lenses & Enhancing Human Capital training was offered to technical sergeants through chief master sergeants.

Over 100 Airmen and 10 Soldiers from around the state attended the course with N.C. State Command Chief Master Sgt. Maurice Williams and N.C. State Diversity Coordinator, Chief Master Sgt. Salvatore Pecorella leading the way.

The Four Lenses course is an assessment tool designed to help participants discover individual personality styles, preferences and what motivates them. The principles learned in this course empower participants to better understand and work with individuals of different personality types by opening lines of communication and reducing personal misunderstandings.

By utilizing hands-on practical assessments, participants learn a better way to understand why people think, feel and act the way they do. This in turn will aid in learning better ways to interact with different personalities.

"It's not about you, it's about everybody. It's finding ways that will make your team high performers and being able to bring every individual to their full potential." said Pecorella.

Lt. Col. Kevin Basik, Air Force representative to the Secretary of Defense for Military Professionalism, traveled from Washington D.C. to talk with these guardsmen about better ways to interact both as a fellow airman/soldier and supervisor.

"Understanding how to communicate with Airmen is one way to be a successful leader," said Basik.

Each person completes a personality assessment. This assessment pinpoints a primary temperament which is color-coded as gold, green, blue and orange. After completing the color assessment, participants are divided into their color groups to complete an exercise designed to identify their common traits, which are then compared with the traits belonging to the other color groups.

"We all have a blend of each color, however each of us has one primary color that describes our values, shows the things that really motivate us and what sets us off," said Pecorella.

The Four Lenses course is about learning to adapt one's color-style with others and helps each individual to remain flexible and better able to compromise and reach solutions. This will result in achieving mission goals and conflict resolution that will help each person in their professional and personal lives.

Understanding why humans make decisions and how perceptions drive decisions is a vital requirement for leaders. The Enhancing Human Capital presentation deliberately offers and examines how professionalism is the bridge that connects our Core Values to the overall Air Force mission.

"It's the Airmen who accomplish the mission. There's a psychology associated with inspiring, engaging and elevating Airmen. This is an opportunity for us to focus on what connects with people, what moves people to action, and what helps leaders accomplish the mission. It is only through people that commanders can pull off a successful mission," stated Basik.

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