This is the next part in Ace Castle’s valuable guest post series. Ace is a a career Coast Guard pilot and MaxDisclosure reader. We truly appreciate his insight.
This is the fourth part in a series explaining my tips to quickly become a successful public affairs officer. In this article, I will tell you how humbleness is critical to being a good public affairs officer and leader.
In my last installment, I spoke about the importance of confidence. Although valuable, to be an effective PAO, you must temper your confidence with humbleness to find an ideal equilibrium between the two. Being truly confident will allow you to exude humbleness, and visa versa.
No one likes an arrogant person (except for the girls I unsuccessfully tried to date in high school). If you are too cocky, people are not going to help you when you are in a bind. Nor will they go out of their way to invite you to meetings, give you credit, or assist you in any way.
But people will bend over backwards to help a humble, competent person. Humble leaders are well-liked and enjoy their job more because people appreciate them. Here are four tips to utilizing humility to be a great PAO.
Humbleness gains trust
You are probably aware officers have a reputation for being arrogant. But public affairs officers should be capable of communicating effectively to gain trust and buy-in for their ideas – they do this by exhibiting tact, a selfless attitude, and a friendly demeanor. These are all traits of humility.
Enlisted workforce relationships
All enlisted personnel are keenly aware of officer behavior. But senior enlisted have the relationships and influence to negatively or positively impact your reputation and ability to be effective. They have access to senior people and lots of influence over those more junior, where they can make comments and suggestions to directly impact your work, happiness, and success; especially if you are a junior or midgrade officer. If you are as cocky as Tom Cruise in Top Gun (or in real life for that matter), you will face difficulties.
Side note: If you are ever asked if you were prior enlisted, it’s a compliment … unless the person asking just thinks you look really, really old for your rank.
Ask questions
When you are new to a job or unit, ask lots of questions. This is the quickest way you can learn and catch up to where you need to be. Some folks believe they don’t need to ask questions to anyone junior in rank, and these people are missing out on so much great information, tricks, hacks, and are overall lessening their effectiveness as a leader.
Gain Insight
Coast Guard aviation excels at crew resource management, and this includes the most junior person feeling comfortable and empowered to be bold, accurate, and concise to tell the most senior person in the aircraft when they are jeopardizing the safety of the crew. Pilots must make junior members feel comfortable to speak up, and they do that with their attitude. Humble leaders will have the advantage of people of all ranks and statuses warning them if they are going in the wrong direction and will open up to these leaders with ideas that only they have the influence to actualize. Do not underestimate the power of a humble, approachable officer.
Next Steps
What do you think about this article? If you believe it is a waste of time, I challenge you to reflect on what you read above, compare it to your relationships with your colleagues and subordinates, and try to adjust just one thing. Try it for a week and see how you feel and how others react.
If you think everything in this article is common sense, then it sounds like it belongs in MaxDis and hopefully reading it gave you some reminders of how to do things better.
If you have any feedback or suggestions, I’m all ears and would love to hear what you have to say. Please leave a comment below, Tweet me @Ace15Ace, or hit me up on Woof.
(Photo from U.S. Coast Guard District 7, DVIDS)
