What a Senior Cadet, Two Chiefs, and Twenty Years Taught Me

Unspoken Behaviors of Officership

The double windsor knot. That was what a senior cadet taught me as I learned how to put together my service dress uniform for Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps at Detachment 027 at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. Fun fact: I was taught by a left-handed person, so that's how I tie it. Proper placement of my name tag on the coat, obsessively making sure my gig line was straight, and adding edge dressing to my shined low quarter shoes: these are also things I learned along the way that separated the good officers from the great ones. Now mind you, I was only a freshman in college and things like job performance and leadership character didn't quite enter my calculus just yet. However, the double windsor knot was introduced to me as a small indicator of someone who cared for attention to detail on the small things. Other cadets or officers may not notice, but for those that do, you'll earn a silent nod of the head and a "job well done" whispered as you pass by.

Over a twenty-plus-year career in the Air Force, I learned a ton of things along the way as an officer and now I just do them. Some of them were passed to me by senior officers with zero explanation, only a "that's just what we do." Some of them were passed to me from NCOs that I respected who told me stories of officers that they really didn't care for, so I aimed to not repeat the same mistakes.

Some of them came from family members where I accepted them as advice passed down, feeling I needed to represent the family name right. All of this advice shaped the officer I am today. I said this during my promotion ceremony: "It takes a lot of stripes, bars, and oak leaves to make this eagle."

I recently served as a senior advisor to our local First Term Officer's Course. This course never existed when I first entered the Air Force, but I'm glad it does now. Similar to the First Term Airman's Course for enlisted members, this curriculum is aimed at new officers who have arrived at their first duty station and are introduced to some of the basics of active duty. Junior officers are afforded the opportunity to speak with seasoned officers and enlisted members about a variety of professional development topics, from practical lifestyle resources to strategic planning at the wing level, and understanding the expectations of the enlisted force. Each day also has a senior enlisted and officer mentor, of which I volunteered for a day.

As I observed the first block of the morning, which was Financial Readiness, I wrote down some notes to share at the end of the presentation. Important topics like understanding your Leave and Earnings Statement, the Blended Retirement System plan, and not abusing your Government Travel Card were covered with speed but with enough material that I felt the audience of young lieutenants had enough to make smart choices.

I asked for a few minutes at the end of the block to share my thoughts, and I'd repeat the same process for each block during the day. Seeing my opportunity to share with this audience the things that officers should be taught as they first enter the force, here's what I started off with:

Do not sign up for cups or napkins at the unit potluck. Always sign up for a protein. You don't need to cook it, you just need to bring it. If you start this habit early in your career, it will become easier along the way. Show some class and opt to contribute something that is more substantial to the event.

Needless to say, they were immediately caught off guard. I'm sure they had enough positive reinforcement throughout the course. I wanted to share some cold and honest truth. I continued to share more "unspoken behaviors of officership" to the small crowd, and putting specific emphasis on the "you must" list compared to "you should" list. If the FTOC program was already providing them all of the official Air Force information they needed to know, I felt it was my responsibility as a senior officer to ensure they knew the unofficial information as well.

Both my grandfather, a retired Chief Warrant Officer 4 in the Coast Guard, and my father, a retired Chief Master Sergeant in the Air Force, taught me a few of these as I grew as a young officer, and I didn't question any of it. Who was I to question two individuals who achieved the highest rank of their formation? I just did it because they told me to do it, and I can honestly say these details probably helped me earn street cred from my teammates more than I knew. You won't lose anything by doing these behaviors and going the extra step or two. This list isn't exhaustive and you may have personally heard conflicting guidance from your mentors. This is reflective of my journey. Try everything yourself and see what happens; at least you'll learn something!

Don't buy yourself out of Pie in the Face. If you were popular or unpopular enough for people to pay money to shove a pie in your face, give the people what they want. If you buy yourself out of the situation, that is just bad form as an officer. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Participate in unit events, no matter what. Presence means something. If one of your troops is celebrating or graduating from something, you better be in attendance. If you can't make it for a legitimate reason, you should pay for their tickets. Better yet, you should pay for their tickets anyway.

Wear shined leather shoes with your blues. You have those in addition to your corframs, right? And you shine them, right? You will immediately stand out from your peers in the most positive way possible.

Don't ever say "I'm just a Lieutenant." We can see your rank; we already know you're a lieutenant and a young officer. But that sounds like you're abdicating your rank. Don't. You completed some form of training to get here, so act like an officer and get to work. Excuses won't help you, they will only hurt you.

Develop your own leadership philosophy. At first, you can probably borrow someone else's and try to emulate it. My grandfather's model is "Organize, Supervise, Deputize." But eventually you should build your own. Make it memorable, not long. Make it personal, and actually live it.

Try hard, but don't be a tryhard. Everyone can tell the difference between putting forth actual effort for the selfless benefit of the team and taking actions to gain self-notoriety. You know, those guys and gals who are gunning for Distinguished Graduate from day one. Don't be that guy or gal.

You must know the rules to break them…but only if your rank and authority allow you to do so.

Leading is AFSC-agnostic. You will grow at the margins of your experiences, so seek a wide variety of them. They won't just land in your inbox.

Always wear long-sleeve blues under your service coat. I don't care if it's hot. This is our professional uniform, so look professional. And throw on some cufflinks.

A universal role of an officer is to be a "Translator." Be able to translate your team's contribution to the mission at large. You need to be able to connect the dots so that your team understands their importance to their daily duties. If you can't translate it, your team will have an even harder time understanding why they are following you in the first place.

Drop a comment if you've been mentored with an "unofficial behavior of officership."