Category: Leadership

Most Requested Briefs

Own Your Inbox

15 Years in 45 Minutes

Three Slide Presentation Concept

Leadership Briefings I’ve Gathered

Amazon notes – Working Backwards

Building High Performing Teams

Organizational Culture

Drink TEA Serve TEA

Lessons from Command – Padgett

CPTS Operating Instruction

Time Management – Gilchrist

Congrats You’ve Been Selected for Command

Ideas for Comptroller Command

Reflections on Command – Minken

Thoughts on Budgeting

  • The concern should be to make the budget as realistic and accurate as possible because a reasonable budget based on a reasonable plan encourages reasonable performance
  • A budget is a measurement tool; accountability, discipline and reviews are necessary for control
  • A budget requires complete participation by all levels of management
  • Large variances between planned performance and budget objectives indicate a weakness in one or multiple areas:
    • Poor estimates
    • Poor feedback and lack of timely, corrective action
    • Ineffective management policies concerning budget maintenance
  • Know your operation. Know the people in your operation. Seek feedback. Experience your mission hands-on.
    • Don’t gloss over this. Get to know each of your missions intimately
      • How many supplies does each unit have available?
      • Where are the supplies stored? Are they controlled? Are folks scraping by unnecessarily?
      • Do you have excess between units that could be shared?
      • Who is actually watching the cable TV? Are we driving every vehicle on the GSA lease? Who is using the MiFi and why?
      • How many people are under each cost center? Have you done a cost per person analysis on things like TDY or GPC? Are there outliers? Why might that be (rank, job, special equipment, specific conferences/training)?
      • Is your unit deploying this year? If so, when? Will that cause your requirements to increase or decrease? Both scenarios are plausible, but not possible.
  • Do you know how your budget was determined? Could you explain it to the Wing Commander?
  • How are you evaluating performance? What is the benchmark?
  • Have you created a feedback loop with your managers? Periodic budget reports should generate feedback on performance variance against budgets
    • For feedback to work properly, it should be regular, expected, consistent and timely.
    • The best feedback loop is to sit down monthly with each cost center manager to review the budget-to-actual variance report.
    • Constantly incorporate changes. Budgets are living, breathing documents.
  • Find the right balance. Generic or vague estimates are worthless. But the cost benefit analysis must be reasonable. Commanders can’t know every single detail months in advance, but should be able to provide enough of an outline to “frame out” a budget.
  • Initiate Responsibility Accounting. Responsibility accounting means structuring systems and reports to highlight the accountability of specific people (cost center managers). Individuals within each organization must be empowered with both the budget and authority to execute their mission. One without the other is pointless.
  • Separate your budget into fixed versus variable costs. This greatly reduces the number of lines to review.
    • Unfortunately, fixed costs, because of their apparent static behavior, are not always reviewed regularly and critically to determine reasonableness. These are your biggest cost drivers; give them the attention they deserve each year.
    • Variable costs like GPC and travel are the areas to scrutinize most closely. Rarely does a “copy/paste” budget hold up to close scrutiny.
    • One major concern of relying upon historical budgets as a basis for future prediction is that a unit may be perpetuating past inefficiencies.
  • Relationship of Cost to Review Frequency (insert graph)

CFO Academy Leadership Certificate

Advance your career and the DoD mission – take advantage of the extended application deadline to August 13 for the Fall 2021 term

Don’t miss out! The CFO Academy is seeking applicants for its Fall 2021 CFO Leadership Graduate Certificate program. This program will help prepare you to lead within and across organizational boundaries by leveraging knowledge of federal budgeting, financial accounting and reporting, data management and analytics, risk, internal controls, and audit for strategic advantage. 

A component of the College of Information and Cyberspace at the National Defense University (www.ndu.edu), CFO Academy courses align with the competencies specified in DoD Financial Management Certification Program and provide accredited, graduate-level education in the leadership of resource management – critical learning that directly supports the DoD mission to make efficient and effective use of financial and other resources.

Application Instructions: https://cic.ndu.edu/Admissions/Application-Instructions/

Why you should pursue this opportunity

Students earn this certificate by successfully completing these five robust courses:

  • White House, Congress, and the Budget
  • Data Management Strategies and Technologies
  • The Future of Federal Financial Information Sharing
  • Risk Management, Internal Controls and Auditing for Leaders
  • Strategic Performance and Budget Management

For more information, please visit: https://cic.ndu.edu or email CICOSS@ndu.edu

To apply online: https://cic.ndu.edu/Admissions/Apply-Online/

The Myth of Creativity

The Myth of Creativity (Manager Tools)

  • “How are you so creative?” … It’s my job.
  • Creativity is on your performance review
  • Reading, friends, podcast-writing material is everywhere
  • You’re trying to solve a problem, the blank page
    1. Decide on a problem
    2. Research the problem
    3. Try to solve problem
  • Skills, whatever they are, and knowledge, whatever it is, can be learned
  • If you want to be more creative, then you have to practice being creative
  • Anything, however mysterious it seems right now, can be learned

Judgment Matters, Not Memory

Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld stated, “Everyone complains of his memory, and no one complains of his judgment.” We focus on the wrong thing.

Memory is easy; write it down. Facts are free and fast. Every byte of humanity has been indexed and is searchable. Let the silicon handle recall. Focus your matter on higher-order tasks.

Judgment is what you get paid for. It’s how we value people. Jobs, Musk, and Bezos assessed situations, made predictions and took action. Each had limitless opportunities, but judgment narrowed their vision.

Memory is not a skill worth improving. The world’s collective knowledge sits just beneath your fingertips. Making your dent in the universe requires creativity and discernment.

Improve your judgment, increase your value, enjoy your life.

Everything Seems Stupid When It Fails

Fyodor Dostoevsky said it and he’s right. Decisions are made in the context of their time. Decisions and context cannot be uncoupled. I can’t point to a single decision I ever made with the intention of failing, yet in hindsight, I look back on hundreds of blunders and wonder how it could have gone any other way.

Was I in a hurry? Had I fallen for the sunk cost fallacy and doubled down? Was I biased by consistency syndrome? Was I hungry? Was I tired? All of the above?

Decisions make sense at the time, otherwise, it would have been done differently. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Reflect. Learn. Move on. And hopefully, we don’t repeat the same mistakes. But God willing, you will make more mistakes. Else you’re dead.

Make bets. Better yet, make predictions. Rather than money, stake reputation by putting it in writing. We are horrible predictors, but it is a skill worth developing because it hones our analysis skills and forces accountability. Build a public track record and learn from errors in judgment.

Don’t hedge. I have a bad habit of saying things like, “Mahomes and the Chiefs are a better team, but Brady’s track record speaks for itself.” I can’t lose. Either way, I look like a genius.

That’s weak sauce. Instead, be bold. Make predictions. Grade your homework. Rinse, repeat.

No Wasted Footsteps-Nick Grossman

Originally posted by Nick Grossman on his blog

All highlighting is my own.

This summer, we moved into a new house. Moving is a lot of work. As part of moving out of our old house, we got rid of a lot of junk that we had accumulated over the years. We ended up working with the amazing Dave O’Rourke of Spaceback. As Dave and I were loading a huge junk pile into his truck, he said something that really stuck with me — he said: “in this business, you can’t waste any footsteps”. Meaning, there’s a lot to do, lots of things to lift and move, and you need to be smart and efficient with your energy.

As I am now moving items around our house, and carting empty moving boxes and miscellaneous trash out, Dave’s words have been sticking with me. If I’m going to the basement, grab a box to take to the trash. If I’m going up to the second floor, grab a bag or a box or an item that needs to go there. Going back to the first floor? Grab something that needs to go there. No wasted footsteps.

This is good advice for moving a bunch of stuff around, but it’s also good advice in general. And it’s been on my mind, as of course moving to a new house means that you tend to fall behind on other things (like work and email). So the same approach of no wasted footsteps could (and should) be applied to digital life. Get the thing done that you need to get done right then and there, don’t waste any footsteps walking around empty handed. The folks that I work with that seem to be most productive and efficient seem to take this approach, and I’m going to try to keep it front and center myself.

AF FM Civilian Development Team (DT) Feedback Webinar

FM DT co-chairs, Maj Gen James D. Peccia (SAF/FMB) and Mr. Richard K. Hartley (SAF/FM), along with CMSgt Kendall C. Briscoe (SAF/FM), invite you to join them for the Summer 2020 Civilian DT Feedback Webinar.

Topics covered include:
• Development Team (DT) Overview
• AF Board Results
• Lessons Learned
• Way-Forward for AY22 Applications

When: Monday, 21 September 2020, 1300 CST

Where: Microsoft Teams link:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_Y2Q5ZDVjZjgtNDk5ZC00NzZmLTlhNDYtZTg3ZmIxY2U0M2Q3%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2221acfbb3-32be-4715-9025-1e2f015cbbe9%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%229b31c4ec-efa9-4429-96f9-6df0cadb5c88%22%7d

+1 571-388-3904 United States, Arlington (Toll)
Conference ID: 773 124 725#

Heroes are near future versions of you

Getting older and Googling your hero’s age let’s you in on a dirty little secret. Most aren’t much older than you. This became tragically evident this week with the passing of Kobe Bryant. I grew up idolizing his work ethic and mamba mentality, yet we were only six years apart.

Why is that? Because if they were any older their message wouldn’t resonate. The distance would be too great.

Our favorite artists conveyed their experience and hard fought lessons learned in ways we could relate to. Our parents and teachers were trying to teach us those same lessons, but the generational divide got in the way.

Why does this matter? Because you are someone’s hero. You just don’t know it. A near-peer or subordinate is looking up to you right now. Your message resonates, because you have been where they are and made it through. You survived and that gives them hope.

Real heroes don’t wear capes. They work in cubicles, wear uniforms and make PBJs before school.

Someone is watching you. What are they seeing?

Senior Leader Webchat with CMSgt Kendall Briscoe

In November 2019, CMSgt Kendall Briscoe conducted a Facebook LIVE session where he gave an overarching update on a multitude of issues facing the FM Enlisted team and our Air Force. This is a must listen for both officers and enlisted.

Fast forward to about the 8 minute mark when the briefing actually begins.

Video Link

CET Credit Link

Highlights

  • 8 min – The FM Our Air Force needs overview
  • 12 min – AFIPPS update – Go live date pushed to Jan 2022
  • 14 min – Manpower study, Oct 2022
  • 17 min – AFIPSS way ahead
  • 19 min – Changes to tech school curriculum
  • 24 min – Resource Training Center (RTC) & Finance Information Collaborative Space (FICS)
  • 27 min – Silver Flag update
  • 34 min – FICS
  • 39 min – Culture of Training
  • 43 min – Resiliency
  • 45 min – Q&A from Airmen – Artificial Intelligence/Bots, Business Intelligence, Power BI