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RAF LEADERSHIP Below is an extract from Leadership: An Anthology. It comes from the chapter on ‘Vision and Decisiveness’ but could just as easily be used as an example in many areas of leadership. WO Pittock’s story could sit as an example of Mission Command or of the ethical dilemmas that so often face our people, of courage and determination or of leading by example. The reader could measure the story against the core values of the RAF – RISE - or the Attributes for RAF Leaders. The explanation of one of those Attributes is included below for consideration. WO Andy PITTOCK Recounting an incident at Kabul airbase in Afghanistan, where he was Chief Fire Officer during Operation Fingal. He was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery following the incident. From an RAF Leadership Centre Interview 2004 My section was responsible for providing for fire cover at Kabul, but a lot of our time was spent on non-fire duties: force protection and guarding issues and so on. The setup at Kabul had a military area and a non-military side but the fire section was located next to the non-military activity. On the day in question a situation had been brewing throughout that day as no aircraft had taken off for the past few days and a crowd of people had gathered on the dispersal and were becoming very agitated. Late on in the day the Minister for Transport and his aide had been shown to an aircraft that was ready to depart and the crowd became very rowdy in response to this, firing into the air and shouting. They crowded round the aircraft, which already had its engines running, and then a few of them managed to break into it, attacking and killing the Minister for Transport and throwing his body in the back of a taxi. On seeing this, his aide and another man began running away across the dispersal pursued by the rioters. All this activity was taking place outside our area of responsibility and I had received orders in the build up of the situation that we were not to get involved but, as the events escalated and the crowd moved closer towards us, I saw that action was necessary. I formed my manpower into a line and although we were only 12 people we were of course armed and so immediately looked quite threatening. At that stage in my mind we were purely acting as a deterrent and guard for our area of responsibility but fairly quickly the two men who were fleeing from the crowd saw us and started running towards us. I had to make a decision then and there as to what to do and in my mind it stopped being a decision based on areas of responsibility and became a moral decision where people’s lives were at stake. I shouted orders to move forward, by this stage there was only about fifty feet between the crowd and us but we managed to surround the two men and get them to safety. I think the sight of, albeit a small number, but a group nevertheless, of military well disciplined personnel advancing in a well ordered manner was enough to ensure the safety of the two men in danger. The situation had the potential to escalate further and become quite nasty but once we moved forward in a decisive way, shouting orders and making a stance we were lucky and they backed down. The following paragraphs are intended to expand on the issues behind this Attribute for RAF Leaders and are not comprehensive. They should be regarded as a guide. It should also be noted that adherence to the Attributes will not make a leader; they are the contribution that the RAF requires of its leaders. They complement those that the Defence Leadership and Management Centre identify for those at the Strategic level in the Services. Warfighter, Courageous Being a warfighter first is important, as it is the core business of the RAF to exploit the air environment for military purposes. All RAF personnel must be focussed on the organisation’s core business - to create precise campaign effects at range in time. There are more than 60 different career specialisations in the RAF used to provide expeditionary air power and every person engaged in those specialisations must contribute to the precise campaign effect at range in time that is required – in other words, they must be a warfighter. To do that well they will have to be highly skilled in their specialisation but focussed on the purpose of the RAF. They must all be military minded with a knowledge of air power and air warfare and of a determined fighting spirit, able to overcome the adversity of circumstance that any member of the RAF may be called upon to face on operations. The teams the RAF sends to carry out its mission cannot afford to have members that are unable to look after themselves in the field or unable to defend themselves should either circumstance be necessary. Furthermore, traditional RAF distinctions between those who fight and those who support are breaking down. Not only is the “support space” vital to the “battle space” but so is the “business space,” for example by providing urgent operational requirements. NEC and the advent of UCAVs bring personnel who are remote from the actual battlefield into direct contact with it. The need to understand the people ‘at the other end of the technology’ and to build trust within the extended teams to carry out the RAF core business has never been so great. Physical courage is necessary to face the circumstances of operations whether that be the lonely ‘2 o’clock in the morning’ courage or the maintenance of the esprit de corps of the close-knit team. The moral courage required of RAF leaders is linked to the integrity and ethics that all personnel need to have to be part of a fighting force. Those that live the core values of the RAF will find the moral courage to do the right thing. That moral courage supports the trust that is vital to building effective teams both in the immediate environment and in the wider defence community. Without the deep and enduring trust, both up and down the command chain, Mission Command cannot work. A person with moral courage must understand and have confidence in their own moral framework and be able to recognise and intervene appropriately in, for example, harassment incidents. They must be able to provide constructive dissent at any level while understanding that, once a decision has been made, no matter what that is, they must assume personal responsibility for its implementation. This display of loyalty will be vital to the retention of team cohesion. They must have the strength of character to not give in to morally unjustified actions. Those who have moral courage will not only take responsibility for their own actions but also for the situation around them. They will act rather than avoid what may be uncomfortable. They will do the right thing rather than the easy thing. They will not abrogate their responsibility as a leader. Moral courage is linked to humility – the courage to admit one’s own mistakes and learn from them, to know one’s own weaknesses and be able to work to improve them. A leader with moral courage will have the humility to know and acknowledge that results are the achievement of the team even if the leadership of the team created the cohesion and vision that inspired it. Finally, moral courage is linked to emotional intelligence – the awareness of others as well as self-awareness.