LOOK BEYOND JOB TITLES A second leadership principle I dug up was recognizing that people are more than just a job title. Te Army once trained me to be a pilot, but I’d like to think that the sum of my professional experiences equates to more than just being able to take off and land a heli- copter. Tere are several important professional
skills that transcend any
specific job. Remembering an employee’s birthday is a skill. Keeping your email inbox organized is a skill. Delivering a quality presentation is a skill. Recogniz- ing that each member of the team has abilities and experiences that extend beyond his or her basic job title can assist in solving complicated leadership challenges, and creatively employing those experiences paid dividends for my contracting team.
Most of my team had never participated in contracting operations in the post- award phase of operational contract support. But had I placed the burden of mission execution on those with the post- award experience, I would have induced burnout in the few with experience and lost the motivation of the rest of the team. Job title just isn’t enough to go on when applying personnel resources to a prob- lem. I had to think creatively about the skill sets that each team member brought with them and determine how to leverage that skill set in the context of our post- award contracting mission.
For example, NCOs have a great deal of experience inspecting their Soldiers to ensure proper training. Tat same skill translates well to making sure that a contractor’s operations conformed to a performance work statement require- ment. DCMA members, with experience validating the specifications of equipment coming off a production line, have a very transferable skill set of ensuring that a
A TIGHT FIT
SSG Patrick Kennison performs quality surveillance on a shuttle bus contract in Kuwait. With a complex variety of experience and skill sets on the team, the author trusted the basic leadership principle that everyone wants to add value and leaders simply need to position them to do so. Massey started by rotating team members through different assignments, to learn where they performed best.
contractor’s quality systems will generate positive results for the government.
CONCLUSION ACC’s force restructure will alter the way we provide contracting support to the force. It will also require leaders who are critical thinkers and can build teams rapidly and effectively. Revisiting basic leadership principles and applying them to a complicated problem was crucial to helping me develop an effective team capable of meeting an important opera- tional need in Kuwait. Te classroom provides us with the basic concepts, but the value of that education is in our abil- ity to use critical thinking skills to apply those concepts to real-world challenges.
It’s no longer a question of when Army leaders will have to operate under significant personnel and budget con- straints—that challenge is already upon us. To succeed in this new frontier, lead- ers will have to fall back on some of these
basic leadership principles
as
lines of
legitimate authority are blurred, as the joint force becomes more prevalent and as we work more closely with allied part- ners. Contracting teams will continue to become more complex, and leaders must know how to think critically without overthinking: Te solutions to the most complex leadership challenges often lie in basic leadership concepts.
For more information, contact the author at
robert.p.massey4.mil@
mail.mil.
MAJ ROB MASSEY serves as a contracting team leader for the 726th Contingency Contracting Team
with the Army
Contracting Command – New Jersey at Picatinny Arsenal. He has an MBA from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester and a B.S. from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He is Level I certified in contracting.
ASC.ARMY.MIL
89
CONTRACTING
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