Personal Narrative: Chief Dave Cannons

When establishing a goal plan and putting steps in place to reach those goals, I must ensure that I have the proper support and resources. It is important to have people to rely on, share similar experiences with, and receive advice from. My former Chief Controller and mentor, retired CMSgt Dave Cannon is whom I feel is the best person to ask for that support. As a Chief who spent 30 years in the Air Force and as my first Chief Controller, he posses all of the leadership traits that I strive to emulate, he is who I look up to as a leader. Chief Cannon was my facility manager for the first four years of my Air Force career. I have yet to meet a leader in my chain of command who demonstrated all three adaptability elements, and was excellent at adjusting his leadership styles and FLRD behaviors as needed. He played the role of a facility manager, a leader of Airmen, a family member, and a friend. He was always adjusting, knowing what hat to wear depending on the situation. He is the type of leader I strive to become. The person that I chose to share my development plan with is my husband. Being that he is the person that I come home to everyday,
To ensure that I am receiving all of that from them, I must first inform them that I am trying to grow as a leader. Also, I must let them know where I fall short and ask them to provide me with feedback on how they feel I could improve. Once those guidelines are established, I will ask them to provide me feedback when they feel that I could have done something differently, and ask them to let me know when they have seen a positive change in me. Lastly, I must regularly engage with them and seek out that feedback. I will discuss with them issues I have encountered and ask them how I could have handled things differently in relation to the changes that I am trying to