“The four words (and the principle tenets of my command philosophy) are: INTEGRITY … FAIRNESS … MOVEMENT … RESULTS.” 100 Years of Statehood Greatness Teach Us Four Words Guide Your Inner Leader to Greatness!

The Oklahoma Air and Army National Guard, with close to 10,000 members and their families, is a huge and diverse organization that plays an important part in the defense and security of the United States of America and the State of Oklahoma.
The challenge to any large enterprise, like the Guard, is that not one member of our Guard family fully knows or can comprehend the particulars of what each of us contributes to the success of the Guard.  And yet we must mold those particular contributions into an efficiently coordinated and synchronized effort to accomplish our mission.  How do we do that?  What do we expect of our leadership in their efforts to get us there?  How do we know when we have arrived?  What do we do after we get there?  These are difficult questions, but to help answer them I have developed a leadership command philosophy that I would like to share with you. If it doesn’t work for you, then I challenge you to develop a better one for yourself.  And if yours works, share it with me.
What follows is probably nothing new or revolutionary, but rather an attempt on my part to condense literature and material into four simple words that guide me in command of your Oklahoma National Guard.  The words are simple, but the context and variances of their application is immense.  Think of using them not as an end in and to themselves, but use them as part of a never ending continuum, each enhancing the other, each working in concert with the other to make us better.  The four words (and the principle tenants of my command philosophy) are:  INTEGRITY ….. FAIRNESS ….. MOVEMENT …. RESULTS.
INTEGRITY:  Personal integrity of our members preserves the integrity of the institution and the integrity of the Guard.  No one wants to belong to an organization unless they can believe in the mission of the organization and the means used by the organization to accomplish that mission.  Integrity implies adherence to a set of values, a strong character.  Adherence to values implies adherence to standards and we have plenty of standards in the military to give us guidance. But we need personal standards, too, standards that are compatible with our professional endeavors.  We must live the warrior ethos, not just on drill weekends, but all of the time.  If we expect our soldiers and airmen to adhere to standards and values then we, too, must adhere to those standards and values.  It is time for all of us to walk the walk.  Integrity requires a constant self evaluation, because if you don’t constantly evaluate yourself, others certainly will.
FAIRNESS:  We are an organization replete with rank and structure.  And certainly military custom requires the appropriate rendering of military courtesies, the following of lawful commands and working within the chain of command.  But underneath all the trappings of rank and military customs, we need to remember that there remains a person, another human being.  We will treat each and every member of the Oklahoma National Guard with the dignity and respect deserving of a fellow human being.  We will discipline when discipline is necessary, but we will do so with dignity and respect and with the professionalism so characteristic of our chosen profession.  We have many processes in place to ensure the fair treatment of our members, but it still takes fair minded people to run those processes as they were intended to be run.  Recognize that everyone is important.  Everyone has an important job to do if we are to be successful in mission accomplishment.  Every job is just as important as the next.  Give our people the tools, equipment, resources and authority to do their job and hold them accountable and responsible for their success or failure.  Trust our people to use their knowledge, expertise, skill, training and work ethic to get the job done.  Give them the opportunity to excel.  Recognize that the opportunity to excel is accompanied by the possibility of failure.  Promote and reward people in our organization on the basis of merit, what they have done for the organization and what they can do for the organization, rather than on the basis of personal   friendships.  Our people simply want, and deserve, to be treated fairly.
MOVEMENT:  A stationary target on the battlefield draws fire.  If we stand still, we will eventually get hit.  If our organization is not constantly moving forward, we are missing opportunities and will eventually be hurt.  More importantly, our soldiers and airmen will suffer.  We will continually strive for improvement in all that we do.  We will engage constant action toward short term goals and once successful, reload for another target, another goal.  Continuous accomplishment of our short term goals will lead to the long term desired effects of our strategic plan.  Frequent re-evaluation of our strategic plan and short term goals will ensure a path to continued success for the Oklahoma National Guard.
RESULTS:  I want results and I want good results and I want them today, not tomorrow.  We have many objective tools to measure our success (or failure).  We have audits, exams, inspections, JRTC rotations, Operational Readiness Inspections and Unit Compliance Inspections, qualifications, check rides and flight evaluations, strength reports and credit card delinquencies reports, just to name a few.  These certainly help us measure the results of our endeavors and can be valuable tools as we measure how well we are accomplishing certain aspects of our mission.  But the true measure of whether we are successful in the accomplishment of our missions can best be seen in some subjective analysis.   Every one of our mobilized soldiers and airmen answered the call to arms.
We may just be the best national guard in the entire nation.  I think we are, but there are probably 53 other states and territories out there that still aren’t convinced.