Page 130 - Never Fly Solo

SITUATIONAL AWARENESS | 103
their goals and what kind of challenges they are facing. Take
time to solicit feedback on yourself as a leader, coworker, or
peer. What would they like to see from you? Do the same with
your customers. Look for bottlenecks to productivity or cus-
tomer service challenges, and solicit your wingmen’s sugges-
tions on how to handle them.

• Walk the flight line. Get your hands dirty with your
wingmen. Spend time with them on the job and observe how
they do business. Ask questions about their work challenges
and their personal lives. Show them you care. We’ll discuss
this in detail in Chapter 10.

• Debrief your missions. After every critical mission, con-
duct a blameless, rankless debrief. Find out if objectives were
met, and analyze why they weren’t. Search for trends and
communicate these to the rest of your organization. Lessons
learned should not be kept solely within your squadron. Share
them openly with your other wingmen.

The seeds of trust are planted with communication, sown
through action, and nurtured with understanding. Going out
of your way to connect with your wingmen will result in trust-
ing, successful relationships that maintain situational aware-
ness when the skies are dark and the missiles are launched.
Don’t leave interpersonal connections out of your flight plan.