Module Six: Leadership And Followership
After reviewing Module Six “Leadership and Followership”, the concept that I felt was most important was Diversity Awareness. The reason it is the most important is because when everyone joins the military, every person does not necessarily know, where the person standing next to them are from or what type of culture they grew up in. With that being said, Diversity Awareness is important because we have to educate ourselves and our Airmen to identify and respond to the requirements of different individuals, which is diversity awareness. By doing so, we grow working relationships which affect the efficiency of a person, the duty that they are undertaking and ultimately the mission.
An Airman I had once met told me she was an Israelite and
had went to her supervisor and requested to wear a hijab. Apparently, he never encountered a request like that, so he told her to “look it up, I don’t think that’s allowed”. Him telling her that, did not foster an environment of acceptance of others religious beliefs, thus leading her to not want to go forward with her request. It also hindered their supervisor/subordinate relationship because she now had a lack of respect for him, which showed through her work ethic and attitude. This negativity spread throughout the work section all because he failed to recognized Diversity Awareness.
Creating an atmosphere that supports diversity may be easier said than done when dealing with individuals who may not know anything about someone’s race, color, sex, national origin, religion, and so forth. So as a leader it is my obligation to make sure my people understand things they may not share in common with others and creating a better work setting. However, before I teach everyone around me, I will have to develop myself first by doing more research. When I get back to my work center, this duty may require more than just a staff meeting, however it could start with that. This would be something educational that everyone from subordinates, to peers, and even supervisors would be able to benefit from. I will start with introducing the Chamorro culture, which I chose because this is the population we mostly have in Guam and this is where we live. One thing that is common in Chamorro culture are elders are highly respected and part of displaying that is by kissing their hands. This is done because it is believed that by doing this you will gain some of that elder’s wisdom. If an Airman did not know that and a Chamorro was to come up to them and take their hand, it could lead to them pulling away which is disrespectful.
We have a lot of Chamorro’s who work within our facility, by me educating my team what is not acceptable and what is, this will improve the relationships around us by supporting other individual’s ways. The implications of not cultivating a diverse setting, would be a decrease in my work sections productivity, causing tension and decreasing mission effectiveness. This could also affect their lives outside of work because our likeliness of interaction with Chamorro’s are high. Starting with this culture and every so often introducing a different one to my team, I will educate myself and them on different types of people and this will make us better, more well-rounded Airmen.
If that Airman’s supervisor would have done some research, beginning with the Air Force Instruction and a bit more about his Airman religion itself, he would have learned more about her by learning more about the religion. I believe he would have realized it is allowed. It just takes a bit of leg work and his relationship with his Airman and their work center would not have suffered. My Airmen, peers and supervisors will be able to recognize, respect, and respond to differences amongst others within our society with our exercises, unlike the supervisor mentioned above., by educating ourselves which will continue to increase diversity within my organization.
An Airman I had once met told me she was an Israelite and
had went to her supervisor and requested to wear a hijab. Apparently, he never encountered a request like that, so he told her to “look it up, I don’t think that’s allowed”. Him telling her that, did not foster an environment of acceptance of others religious beliefs, thus leading her to not want to go forward with her request. It also hindered their supervisor/subordinate relationship because she now had a lack of respect for him, which showed through her work ethic and attitude. This negativity spread throughout the work section all because he failed to recognized Diversity Awareness.
Creating an atmosphere that supports diversity may be easier said than done when dealing with individuals who may not know anything about someone’s race, color, sex, national origin, religion, and so forth. So as a leader it is my obligation to make sure my people understand things they may not share in common with others and creating a better work setting. However, before I teach everyone around me, I will have to develop myself first by doing more research. When I get back to my work center, this duty may require more than just a staff meeting, however it could start with that. This would be something educational that everyone from subordinates, to peers, and even supervisors would be able to benefit from. I will start with introducing the Chamorro culture, which I chose because this is the population we mostly have in Guam and this is where we live. One thing that is common in Chamorro culture are elders are highly respected and part of displaying that is by kissing their hands. This is done because it is believed that by doing this you will gain some of that elder’s wisdom. If an Airman did not know that and a Chamorro was to come up to them and take their hand, it could lead to them pulling away which is disrespectful.
We have a lot of Chamorro’s who work within our facility, by me educating my team what is not acceptable and what is, this will improve the relationships around us by supporting other individual’s ways. The implications of not cultivating a diverse setting, would be a decrease in my work sections productivity, causing tension and decreasing mission effectiveness. This could also affect their lives outside of work because our likeliness of interaction with Chamorro’s are high. Starting with this culture and every so often introducing a different one to my team, I will educate myself and them on different types of people and this will make us better, more well-rounded Airmen.
If that Airman’s supervisor would have done some research, beginning with the Air Force Instruction and a bit more about his Airman religion itself, he would have learned more about her by learning more about the religion. I believe he would have realized it is allowed. It just takes a bit of leg work and his relationship with his Airman and their work center would not have suffered. My Airmen, peers and supervisors will be able to recognize, respect, and respond to differences amongst others within our society with our exercises, unlike the supervisor mentioned above., by educating ourselves which will continue to increase diversity within my organization.