'Uncompromised Excellence, Mission Dominance!'

  • Published
  • By Col. Timothy Madden
  • 149th Fighter Wing

Gunfighter Vision

 

As Lone Star Gunfighters, our vision for our wing is simple…uncompromised excellence, mission dominance.  So what does that mean?

 

To me, uncompromised excellence is doing the absolute best of your ability to do the job or task given, with the resources available, in the time allotted.  It is not perfection.  It is aggressively pursuing perfection as best as you can.  It is a mindset we take on and weave into our DNA.  It is woven into our warrior ethos that we demand of ourselves and expect from our fellow Gunfighters.

 

Mission Dominance is the result of our uncompromised excellence.  We achieve mission dominance because we do our absolute best.  Mission dominance can be applied to any job in the Air Force – operations, maintenance, logistics, finance, communications, and on and on.  When we achieve mission dominance, we win for America.  And that’s why we’re here to begin with.

 

The goal of this document is to provide commander’s intent for uncompromised excellence and mission dominance.  I’m not going to tell you how to do your job…that’s your area of expertise.  My goal is to lay out what I expect as our standard of excellence in the wing.

 

I heard a great quote about leadership once that went like this; “do your dang job, and don’t be a jerk!”  Simple but relevant and true.  I expect each of you to learn and understand how to do your job.  You figure out what you need to do, get the training you need, and then go and do it to the absolute best of your ability.  That’s what success really is—knowing you’ve done your absolute best to become the best you possibly can.  Don’t wait for someone to tell you what to do - be a self-starter! 

 

Take pride in ownership!  Taking pride in ownership means you perform your job as if it was your very own business…because it is.  Pride in ownership means you are so proud of the product/service/job you’ve done that you would put your name on it.  If you can do that, you’ve hit excellence.

 

Striving for excellence sometimes means we take risks.  I encourage you to take risks – and to not be afraid of failure.  Failure is an event, not a person.  We must take risk smartly; we cannot break laws or get someone hurt.  How much risk is too much?  If the actions you take will be irreversible, break the law or cause injury or damage, then the risk is likely too much.

 

We have a rich heritage of a profession of arms.  We want to continue to grow that culture, and sometimes that may mean we need to change some things.  Hostile work environments, micromanagement, prejudice or any type of harassment is unacceptable and must be changed.  That said, if it ain’t broke, maybe we don’t fix it.  Keep the things that are working. Give each other the benefit of doubt; don’t assume you know what’s going on, but rather, ask questions.  Presume excellence out of each other—no one gets out of bed hoping they screw up royally at work.  So when you see someone misfire or make a mistake, don’t immediately cut ‘em off at the knees. Instead, know that they intend to do the right thing but might just need some coaching on what right looks like

 

Lone Star Gunfighters…uncompromised excellence, mission dominance.  It’s who we are.  It’s what we do.  Let’s get this done!

 

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