The Team Redstone leadership development program, managed by the Aviation and Missile Command, was praised July 13 by an Army officer as one of the best training programs for the next generation of the Army's civilian leaders.
"I'm seriously impressed by this program. I've never seen a program laid out that has the construct and framework to invest in our civilian workforce as this one does," Col. Robert Rasch told the 49 employees representing 18 Redstone Arsenal organizations who are participating in this year's Leader Investment for Tomorrow (LIFT) program. His comments were made during the 11th annual LIFT Leader Forum at The Summit.
Rasch served as a project manager for the Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space and in the Pentagon as the chief of staff for the Assistant Secretary of the Army of Acquisition, Logistics and Technology before being assigned to AMCOM as its first military deputy to the commanding general. He has had plenty of opportunity to review the Army's leader development programs. Although many of these programs are in place for Soldiers, there are very few for the civilian workforce, he said.
"I have 27 years in the Army and over four years of that time the Army has invested in me by putting me in leadership development programs," he said. "Practicing leadership is important. I cannot understate the significance of what you do as leaders."
Rasch, who spoke about leadership as the forum's keynote speaker, was among a variety of leaders who spoke to the LIFT group during the day-long forum. The forum's theme was "Leaders of Character for a Lifetime of Community Service."
"You've taken the first step in saying 'I want to lead and I want to develop myself as a leader,'" Rasch said, adding that is important in an Army that includes a combined active duty and Reserve force of approximately 1 million relying on the support of a civilian workforce of 330,000. "For every three Soldiers, it takes one of you doing yourr job to enable those Soldiers to do their's, three Soldiers out there crossing the wire to go out on patrol … The Army needs innovative and creative leadership and I think this program is critically important for that."
As an Army officer, Rasch said his toughest leadership challenge was making the transition from leading Soldiers -- where he was the technical expert -- to leading groups of civilians at the PEO-Missiles and Space who greatly surpassed him in technical knowledge. In those situations, he said, "you fall back on what you know -- basic leadership principles. There's no way I'm going to be a sensor expert or an engineer. But, I can figure out what's important to that engineer and what motivates that engineer. That's where you fall back on leadership skills."
Referring to American military hero retired Gen. Colin Powell and to leadership lessons found in the military science fiction novel "Ender's Game," Rasch said as employees grow into leadership roles they should be aware of what works and what doesn't work for them, they should listen to those around them and they should pay attention to details.
"Senior leaders who take the time to listen are gathering information to make a more informed decision as well as telling their employees that their input is valued … We learn from our environment, both positives and negatives," he said.
Rasch recalled a situation where he learned the "caring factor" importance of leadership. At the time, he couldn't keep Heidi Schyu, then the Assistant Secretary of the Army of Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, on her schedule because of an unscheduled and lengthy stop she made to speak one-on-one with a group of employees.
"We missed our original flight. But before we got home I was already receiving emails from employees commenting about how she took the time to talk to them. It's critical as a leader that we take the time and show our folks that we care," he said. "Leadership is about understanding people. We're all different. We all bring something different to the effort. Leadership is not about science or math, it's about understanding people. Leadership is about how you convey decisions, how you communicate and how you motivate people to execute decisions."
To the three Cs of leadership -- character, competency and commitment -- Rasch would add trust. And, trust is a two-way street built on leaders who care for their employees and their organizations, and who understand their own values, their employee's values and their organization's values. Rasch's personal values are family, loyalty, integrity, personal courage and balance.
"I want to talk about the balance piece," he said, referring to the tendency for leaders to experience burn out. "It's important for leaders to know when to take a knee, to take a rest, to do things that demonstrate they are well-rounded. We need you not just near-term as a leader but we need you long-term as a leader."
Among the other leaders who spoke at the Leader Forum, Brian Wood, director of AMCOM G-3 (Operations), told the group his most important lesson to share with them is to "always do our best, even when you think no one is looking. Somebody is always looking."
The forum also featured leadership lessons from Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle and Madison Mayor Troy Trulock.
Battle told the group that leaders aren't born, they evolve as they take on challenging projects. "Every time you work on something different it involves a different aspect of being a leader. And, as you evolve as a leader, you need to know what your moral code is, what right looks like … and you need to be ready for change, grabbing that change and moving forward."
Trulock shared the acronym TEAM with the students, saying he follows it principles every day. T is for coaching/teaching; E for empowering; A for accountability and M for motivation. "I live by the saying, 'It's really nice to be important but it's really important to be nice,'" he said.
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