Commentary: It’s really about the core

  • Published
  • By Chief Master Sgt. Antonio Hickey
  • 100th Air Refueling WIng command chief
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  As a Command Chief, I frequently have the honor of speaking to our Airmen while participating in various panels and meeting with base professional organizations. One of the questions that typically comes up is what it takes to be a success in the Air Force. For the longest time, I fumbled with several different answers to that question while the best answer had been staring me right in the face.

The funny part is that the answer applied to not only our professional careers, but our personal relationships as well. The answer I should have been giving people all along was to live life by the Air Force's Core values. I'm not talking about just trying to follow the Core Values but actually making them a part of our personal and professional lives.

Think about Integrity First for a moment. Integrity brings to mind many things including the concepts of honesty, justice, openness and courage. Can you imagine another value so simple and yet so profound? From the Maintenance Superintendent signing off a red X, to the Airman Basic preparing food in the dining facility, we must trust each other in all things.

Over the years we have seen many examples of how individuals have violated our trust and sacrificed their integrity often resulting in a loss of confidence which is rarely, if ever, regained. The same can be seen in our personal lives as we apply integrity to our relationships with others. Whether we are talking about a spouse, family, or friends, most would agree that the relationship cannot survive if trust is lost due to a lack of integrity.

Moving on to Service Before Self, we're introduced to one of my favorite concepts - that of the servant leader. This value implies such things as duty, self-discipline and loyalty. Placing the needs of others ahead of your own self interests is an incredible value. We've all seen good and bad examples of this in all ranks. From the genuinely concerned supervisor who helps an Airman study CDCs on the weekend to the supervisor who gets upset because he or she has to help a subordinate on the line during an increase in production.

But when an Airman demonstrates true Service Before Self by placing the needs of others ahead of his own desires, it always inspires me.

This concept is incredibly important in our personal relationships as well. Selfless service will build strong relationships that will last a lifetime. Lack of some degree of selflessness, will undoubtedly destroy those very same relationships.

The Air Force was very smart in rounding out the Core Values with Excellence. Excellence In All We Do is the expectation of all Airmen. From the most trivial tasks, to the most complex procedure, we do it right the first time...every time. It is this value that makes us the World's premiere air, space, and cyberspace force. The bottom line is that we do not "settle" on mediocrity, ever. Can you imagine if we did?

You've probably run into a few people that did settle and you probably still remember what you thought of them. I'm sure you thought the same thing I did - definitely not someone I want to work with.

To take it a step further, what if we settled for mediocrity in our relationships and personal lives? Can you imagine how dysfunctional our personal relationships would be if we only gave enough to get by?

So the simplest answer to the question about what it takes to be a successful in the Air Force is actually the same answer to the question of what it takes to be a success in our personal lives. The answer lies in living your life according to a set of values. The Air Force has laid out what I believe are the most important ones in very simple terms with Integrity, Service, and Excellence. I promise you that if you live your life by these values, you will achieve success in not only your Air Force career but in your personal lives as well.