Aeronautics Star, Volume 6, Number 3, July/August 2004 Page: 2 of 8
This periodical is part of the collection entitled: Convair/General Dynamics Newsletters and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth.
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Formal, informal leaders need right skills balance
By Dain HancockLeadership has many meanings and perhaps dozens
of definitions. If you think about it, most of the definitions
of leadership have something to do with change. This
may consist of defining a new strategy that amounts to
a change.
Sometimes it is persuading others to change behavior
in ways that advance the goals of the organization, or
persuading a customer to make a decision that represents a
change. Sometimes a leader has to be observant enough to
recognize the need to change his or her behavior or focus
in some way. I, personally, have a very specific and very
simple definition of a leader that I have evolved from my
experiences in business: a leader is someone who causes
the right things to happen at the right time.
Management is a balancing act. As leaders, we often
have to find the ideal point of balance between different
trends and priorities. We must balance between short-term
expectations and long-term goals, between centralization
and de-centralization in our organizational structures,
between flexibility and stability in the way we accomplish
our work, between the need for complexity versus simplic-
ity in our processes or systems, and between many other
conflicting factors that we encounter in our jobs as leaders.
The right balance point between any of these variables can
change with time, and it usually does.
So management is not only a matter of finding the
balance point, it's a matter of finding the point of balance
that is most appropriate at a given moment. One of myfavorite analogies for the changes one experiences in
management is the pendulum: it swings in a broad arc, yet
it stays on a steady path. The pendulum adjusts itself
with time.
A good leader must be willing and
able to adjust with time, as well. The abil-
ity to find the right balance - or to lead
others to find it - is one of the key abili-
ties for people who wish to lead today.
This is an ability that usually comes with
experience and as a result
of possessing the quality that we often
refer to as "wisdom." Wise leaders under-
stand the need to continuously learn, and
they find a way to take value from every
experience they have - even the experi-
ences that are not so positive. A wise
person once said, "There are no mistakes, only lessons.:
Two other important traits consistent with effective
leadership are ethical business conduct and communica-
tion. Adherence to high standards of business conduct in
dealings with customers, suppliers, coworkers and all oth-
ers is a fundamental requirement for each employee. The
bar is raised even higher in the case of leadership.
The higher a person resides in the organizational
structure, the higher the expectations for his or her behav-
ior in regard to business ethics, valuing diversity, prevent-
ing harassment, and all other aspects of showing integrityin the workplace. Leaders must set the example for every-
one else and, therefore, have the highest responsibility.
Effective communication is the life blood
of any organization and is a critical skill for
every leader. It consists of articulating objec-
tives, giving feedback and direction, letting
people know their work is important and show-
ing them that they are a key part of the team.
Almost everything we do now is a team activ-
ity, in one way or another. Today's leaders often
function as heads of teams, and they have an
important responsibility to share information.
People in entry or staff-level positions
sometimes ask me what they can do to become
more visible and increase their chances of
moving up. At the same time, at the top of
the organization, the senior people are often
asking, "Who on this team can we depend on to get the
job done?" The answer to both questions is that those who
have consistently delivered on commitments have the best
chance of advancing their careers. Every organization has
its informal leaders, and they can be just as important - or
perhaps even more important - when it comes to inspiring
others and making the right things happen at the right
time. I encourage all who read this to pursue excellence
in leadership, no matter where your careers may take you.
Your contributions as a leader - whether formal or infor-
mal - are greatly needed.Lockheed Martin and STARBASE
inspire kids to live their dreams
By Sheri OppenheimerForget Microsoft Outlook. The first
thing these kids click on in the morning
is a flight control button that will land a
simulated space shuttle in from orbit.
Lockheed Martin supports the
interactive enriciihmen pi ograin,
STARBASE (Science and Technology
Academics Reinforcing Basic Aviation
and Space Education), which parallels
the Pentagon initiative to reach out
to at-risk youth. Throughout the year,
students from low-income neighbor-
hoods attend STARBASE camps to
learn the principles of aviation and
to practice team-building skills.
STARBASE deviated from its
normal programming to provide
Lockheed Martin employees' children
with the opportunity to participate in
the interactive program for two weeks
in June as athak-you for their support.
Every morning, campers reported
to the combination theater and flight
simulation lab at Dobbins Joint Reserve
Base in Marietta, where, through a
computer-based simulation of real-time
flights, instructors teach the children
how to fly helicopters and F/A-22s.
Throughout the week the kids learned
how to design their own airplanes and
conducted simulated test runs to see ifthose planes could fly. By the end of the
week, the campers were ready to launch
their own hand-made rocket ships.
"Lockheed Martin's coporate phil-
anthropic focus is on education, specifi-
cally ii the aeas of math, science and
technology," said Alyce Sarno, director
of Communications and Community
Relations at LM Aero-Marietta. "Our
partnership with STARBASE, teach-
ing these educational principles to
culminate in flight simulation, is a
perfect fit for our corporate goals to
instill a passion for these subjects.
"It is through these innovative
programs that area students can venture
to dream about their future, and hope-
fully work towards personal excel-
lence in their studies," Sarno said.
Throughout their programming
during the school year, the instructors
at STARBASE strive to teach at-risk
youth about teamwork, goal-setting
skills and the importance of a healthy,
drug-free lifestyle.
"We are here to give the kids
some kind of hope," said John McKay,
STARBASE lead teacher. "We want to
show them that here in this country you
can make it by using your own abilities."Photo by John Rossino
Local Marietta students fly F/A-22 flight simulation programs during the STARBASE academic
enrichment camp, where they focus on math, science and technology.STARBASE encourages young
girls who are interested in engineering
to continue to seek out information
about the field. One may think that the
small group of girls sitting in the back
of the bleachers felt out of place at this
boy-dominated summer program, but
these girls felt no hesitations. They
refer to themselves as "the girl squad,"
and consider themselves much "more
independent" than the loud boys.
The kids were excited to share all of
the interesting things they had learned
throughout the week. One student
learned that planes work well becauseof "Lockheed efficiency," and another
discovered that you "can't drop a C-5
off of a B-52."
At the end of the week's activities
when the instructor asked how many of
the children want to join the Air Force,
almost every camper in the room raised
his or her hand. Unfortunately, when
he asked how many of those future Air
Force recruits had barrel-rolled their
F/A-22s, the same hands went up.
These campers still have a lot to
learn. But STARBASE is a wonderful
place to start, giving a firm founda-
tion to their dreams of flight.Critical Behaviors are cornerstones of business success
By Susan MilesIn every role we have, there are certain expectations
for behavior - how we act in school to how we behave
during a worship service or at a movie, to how we relate
to parents, children, siblings and even strangers.
There are also expectations for behavior in the work
environment. Lockheed Martin expects its employees
to share certain core values: ethics, excellence, can-do,
integrity, people and teamwork. These values describe
our common shared beliefs about how we do our work.
LM Aero has defined a set of "critical behaviors"
that augment the values by describing what we should
do on a day-to-day basis to make ourselves and this
company successful. These behaviors, referred to as the
"ABCs, the Building Blocks of Success," are:*Accountability and Engagement
" Business-Based Decision Making
* Communication and Integrity
These behaviors are "the cornerstones for business
success and workforce vitality," according to LM Aero
President Dain Hancock.
The ABCs are based on input from focus groups
involving a wide range of employees across the com-
pany. The groups were asked, "What behaviors must we
continue, do more of or better in the future for LM Aero
to be successful?" The goal was to define behaviors thatwould set us apart from our competitors in defining who
we are and how we approach our work.
You will be reading and hearing more about the
ABCs in the future. The Workforce Vitality Survey that
was done in July will set a baseline for how well we're
using the critical behaviors, and you will see results of
that survey later in the November-December issue of
the Star.
Meanwhile, if you see a good example of the ABCs
in action, please let Communications know. You can sub-
mit samples online or by using a form that is available in
news boxes around LM Aero facilities. See the Critical
Behaviors Web site at http://communications.lmaero.
lmco.com/home/internalx/index.cfm for more details on
the ABCs.2
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Lockheed Martin Astronautics Corporation. Aeronautics Star, Volume 6, Number 3, July/August 2004, periodical, July 2004; United States. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1023894/m1/2/?q=%22~1~1~1%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth.