Accepting squadron command at the end of the month!

[BFreemanMA]

Hello everyone,

I'm very excited and honored to announce that I will accept command of my squadron at the end of this month. My wing commander and outgoing commander have given me lots of insight, guidance, and advice. I was looking to extend this advice-giving to the Internet. To anyone who is a past, present, or future commander: what advice would you give an incoming commander?

[lordmonar]

Congrats....best job in CAP.

You will love it.
You will hate it.

But it is worth it.

[Eclipse]

Congrats....best job in CAP.

You will love it.
You will hate it.

But it is worth it.

+1 - The only job where you can really make a difference.

Advice-wise, chart your path and stay on it, even in the face of naysayers and "we never did it that way before".

Take the things your unit is doing well and continue them, while looking at the places where you can make things better.

Day 1 make it clear that everyone's job is open, and make the changes necessary.

Solicit the input of your staff, look to the next echelon for mentoring and guidance, but in the end remember that you are the
Commander, a unit is not a democracy, and it's impossible to make everyone happy.

[EMT-83]

Congratulations Brian. It seems like only yesterday that you were a wide-eyed newbie at SLS.

You'll do just fine; you have some good folks up there at Westover.

[THRAWN]

Congrats....best job in CAP.

You will love it.
You will hate it.

But it is worth it.

+1 - The only job where you can really make a difference.

Advice-wise, chart your path and stay on it, even in the face of naysayers and "we never did it that way before".

Take the things your unit is doing well and continue them, while looking at the places where you can make things better.

Day 1 make it clear that everyone's job is open, and make the changes necessary.

Solicit the input of your staff, look to the next echelon for mentoring and guidance, but in the end remember that you are the
Commander, a unit is not a democracy, and it's impossible to make everyone happy.

Can't say much more than this. It is the best postion that I held in CAP and even now, a decade plus after I surrendered my flag, I still use the lessons that I learned. Best of luck to you and your squadron!

[FW]

Congrats!  Westover Sq. has a great history, and, at least one former MAWG/CC come from it's ranks.  Make the most of your term.

[Al Sayre]

Congratulations and condolences!  Best job you will ever hate at times.  Remember, if you want to fix a flat tire, you have to get close enough to turn the wrench. You've just been given the lug wrench...

[Майор Хаткевич]

Congrats on getting the (IMO) scariest gig in CAP!

[jeders]

Hello everyone,

I'm very excited and honored to announce that I will accept command of my squadron at the end of this month.

Congratulations.

...what advice would you give an incoming commander?

Run...run now and run fast. 

Seriously though, everything that Eclipse said above. Don't be afraid of tough conversations and hurting people's feelings, but always keep in mind that we are all volunteers and can only deal with so much. Also, everyone in the squadron is going to look to you for answers, don't be afraid to ask others for help, be it your staff, higher echelons or even here.

I aged several years in the 14 months that was my first tour as commander, but I wouldn't have traded that experience for anything in the world, except maybe a longer tour.

[Private Investigator]

Hello everyone,

I'm very excited and honored to announce that I will accept command of my squadron at the end of this month. My wing commander and outgoing commander have given me lots of insight, guidance, and advice. I was looking to extend this advice-giving to the Internet. To anyone who is a past, present, or future commander: what advice would you give an incoming commander?

Congratulations. You can not make everyone happy so do your best. You will make mistakes but learn from them. Cadets always remember their Squadron Commander even 20 years later. Most important have fun with it.  :clap:

[LTCinSWR]

Congratulations - it is the best job in CAP. Think of yourself as a gardener: you prep the soil (sounds like that has been started for you), plant the seeds, cultivate and water and hopefully, yield a bountiful harvest in terms of lives positively affected. If you are working for the members and the organization, it can be lots of fun, even with the hours you will put in.

[Майор Хаткевич]

Hello everyone,

I'm very excited and honored to announce that I will accept command of my squadron at the end of this month. My wing commander and outgoing commander have given me lots of insight, guidance, and advice. I was looking to extend this advice-giving to the Internet. To anyone who is a past, present, or future commander: what advice would you give an incoming commander?

Congratulations. You can not make everyone happy so do your best. You will make mistakes but learn from them. Cadets always remember their Squadron Commander even 20 years later. Most important have fun with it.  :clap:

For good, bad, or ugly: Rummings, Danley, Elfstrom, Eclipse, Murph, PWK-GT, Dempsey. Only had 1 CDC, current CC.

[BFreemanMA]

Thank you all for your insight and advice. My "civilian" job is as an 11th and 12th grade English teacher, so I have loads of experience in herding cats. However, I am looking forward to, as many of you put it, sowing and reaping the effort.

Thanks for the well-wishes and support!

[Spam]

Planning.
My first CC gig was reactive mode, all the way; I was told if I didn't take it, the unit would be shuttered (what emotional blackmail) and a few months later we got hit with a four month flooding DR mission (1993, MOWG). React, react, react... so, I determined years later in command #2, I would get inside the OODA loop of CAP and prevail (Google OODA loop and tactical fighter workload... a good AE topic).

- A Plan = a strategy PLUS a schedule. You need both or you are just a scheduler, not a leader and manager.

Why you must learn to plan in CAP:
We're all volunteers, so you need to plan for "graceful degradation" of staff availability by always having a backup plan or backup instructors built into your plan.
You must coordinate with other organizations and not look stupid/aimless.
Motivation: professional meetings attract and retain members, and spur of the moment, ad hoc meetings give poor quality and execution by comparison.
You must design training time to meet training needs per your training plan.
The planning cycle pushes you to think strategically and focus on aiming for success, vice just showing up.


How to plan strategically in CAP:
Form your command team (which may be key positions like your DA/DP, your CDC, your DO, and your LG), then:
- Analyze your teams performance (brutally honestly, but without offense)
- Flow down your boss' goals (Group and Wing)
- Set your goals and own them (communicate), both minimum and stretch goals
- Set a long range strategy
E.g. we want to field 2 fully qualified aircrews at SAREVAL, starting from scratch
Long lead = need x months + y AFAMs + z training events per month to get there.
- Start a routine with a staff planning cycle, for example:
APR staff: update the APR plan, review 2ndquarter performance/progress
MAY staff: update the MAY plan, discuss and set goals for 4thquarter
JUN staff: update the JUN plan, draft 4thquarter plan for JUL/AUG/SEP.

Long Range Planning
Start with:
Wing Calendar
Your Unit training plans (if you don't have any, stop here and write them)
Process:
Block out and be sensitive to holidays
Insert Wing training events and draft dates
Insert recurring event dates (such as monthly safety briefings, Inspection prep, Encampment prep, lead time workups for FTX/SAREXs, etc.)
Insert recurring suspense items as meeting drivers (e.g. Monthly vehicle reports, AE plan, finance plan/reports due dates).
Post this long range plan on your website and at the unit.

Quarterly and Monthly Planning
Using the long range plan, build:
Your 3 month draft plan
Fill out events on a standard monthly meeting cycle
Populate class/briefing topics and assign an OPR
Plan weekend events with an assigned OPR
Pick a backup project officer, always! (a good practice is to have a backup, and also good training for him/her).
At each months staff meeting,
Go over the next months plan
Get a progress update from the assigned OPR
Assign resources as needed (money, training material, etc).
Answer questions and gain consensus
Adjust the plan to reality

[Eclipse]

^ Lots of good advice up there.

If your members don't know what you're doing next week / month / year, they can't make time and decisions
about what they want to do.

[Walkman]

I'm 11 days from finishing my first year in my first command. A big lesson I've learned is the importance of having the right staff. Good deputies and c/CC's are a gold mine and will make your life infinitely easier, while the wrong people in place will make you life miserable.

[Spam]

Soooo, Brian, how does it feel (assuming you've accepted the colors)?

V/R,
Spam

PS, Kristian, thanks for your service!

[BFreemanMA]

Sorry, forgot to check this thread after my last response!

So far, things have been going fantastically. In my interview with my Wing Commander before I was offered command, I produced a command plan and a vision statement for where I saw my squadron in the future. My first month of command has involved implementing my plan (a la Spam!) and sitting down with the primary in each duty position to discuss my goals for the squadron and their own goals for their directorate. Then, we created SMART goals that clearly outlined what the directorate wanted to accomplish, when, and how. This also included what the primary needed from command staff to make their goals happen (which was good to have when setting up my own plan!).

As many have echoed, having an excellent staff is key and I am both honored and blessed to have an amazing staff. I expected pushback on a couple things like SMART goals and mandating class Bs or corporate-equivalent during our staff meetings, but everyone has been professional and excellent.

As far as feelings go, it doesn't feel too terribly different than when I was a "line officer." I tried to do as much reading on volunteer leadership as possible, which has gone a long way in reducing my nervousness and uncertainty. It is weird for me to not be the one who leaps up to solve a problem or plan an event and I find myself mentally saying, "You're in charge of the bigger picture now. Let your staff execute the plan. Trust them!" a lot to remind myself of my role.

Long story short, it is an immense responsibility to be entrusted with countless dollars of USAF and corporate-funded equipment and to execute our three missions responsibly, professionally, and with expert precision, but I wouldn't trade this job for anything in the world!

Until my tenure is up, of course! But, by then, my replacement will be trained and ready to accept their own command and I will be honored to see the cycle continue.

In case anyone might be interested, I have attached the worksheet I'm using. Forgive the formatting as I was using OpenOffice, but it's been working very well for me. Anyone who feels so inclined has my full permission to use it.

[Eclipse]

It sounds like you're off to an excellent start!

[Spam]

Sounds like great work.  Now of course, you've heard the military aphorism, "No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy", right?  (Von Moltke).

That's where the "graceful degradation" (as opposed to system crash) comes in, when volunteers have to prioritize life over CAP, and where good units lay in backups ahead of time "just in case".

I've told my cadets (and officers) for years now that they need to keep a sense of priorities: faith, family, and work (school) must come before CAP or any hobby, and that they have to coordinate in CAP to ensure that we have coverage for when members need to properly drop out of the picture to take care of priorities.

Best of luck to you sir... make sure your troops get "paid" for all that good work!

V/R,
Spam