News>24th AF members take part in 'speed mentoring' session
Photos
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas – Master Sgt. Victor Miles, a 24th Air Force knowledge operations manager, talks to a group of junior NCOs during a speed mentoring session in the Gateway Club here Jan. 18. The Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland Chief’s Group held a session for senior NCOs in December and the trickle-down mentoring will continue as the JBSA-Lackland 5/6 plans to offer the same mentoring session for Airmen here soon. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Scott McNabb)
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas – Master Sgt. Demetrious Booth, 343rd Training Squadron and a member of the JBSA-Lackland Top 3, watches the time before asking the members of the JBSA-Lackland 5/6 to move to the next table during speed mentoring at the Club Jan. 18. More than 30 mid-level non-commissioned officers took part in the mentoring opportunity. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Scott McNabb)
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas – Tech. Sgt. Angela Grice, 37th Training Support Squadron, asks a question during speed mentoring at the Gateway Club here Jan. 18. Two senior NCOs, including one from 24th Air Force, sat at each table and fielded questions from other NCOs for six minutes at a time. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Scott McNabb)
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas – Three 24th Air Force NCOs participated in a Joint Base-San Antonio-Lackland speed mentoring session at the Gateway Club here Jan. 18. The NCOs will provide the same mentoring opportunity for members of the JBSA-Lackland Airman’s Council in the near future. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Scott McNabb)
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas – Senior Master Sgt. David Kiesling, Air Force Telecommunications Monitoring and Assessment Program program manager, speaks to NCOs during the Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland speed mentoring here Jan. 18. Three members of 24th Air Force took part in the session. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Scott McNabb)
by Tech. Sgt. Scott McNabb
24th Air Force Public Affairs
1/27/2012 - LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Three 24th Air Force NCOs joined more than 40 others from Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland for a mentoring session mirrored after a popular dating tactic.
Speed mentoring is designed provide sound advice from senior leaders. The more junior members of the group rotate every six minutes to another table filled with two-to-three senior NCOs.
"There are a lot of NCOs with really good questions, job related and progression related, that they really want to get answered, but sometimes, just from visiting with some of them, they don't feel comfortable going to NCOs and senior NCOs within their organization," said Master Sgt. Victor Miles, a 24th Air Force knowledge operations manager. "Therefore, when they come here to speed mentoring, they get to ask the questions that sometimes they're afraid to ask, and they get a different perspective. Maybe they're heard the same thing over and over again and they want to hear a broader perspective."
The JBSA-Lackland Chief's Group provided the same speed mentoring opportunity for senior NCOs in December. Master Sgt. Demetrious Booth, 343rd Training Squadron and a member of the JBSA-Lackland Top 3, was a part of that session and went right back to the Top 3 asking to coordinate the same opportunity for technical and staff sergeants who belong to the JBSA-Lackland 5/6, a professional organization for staff and technical sergeants.
Tech. Sgt. Jessica Cruz, 624th Operations Center, encourages others in her unit to be a part of speed mentoring. She said the variety of career fields represented was a major benefit.
"Probably the best thing was that all of the mentors were from different career fields and could give you a different perspective even if you asked the same question," she said. "I learned a lot, met a few people I hadn't met before, and not only did I learn about things I can take back to my troops but things I can take back for myself. I learned a little bit about myself today."
Cruz said her last assignment was with multiple services, and she appreciated a Marine and two Army senior NCOs being available to take questions as well.
Staff Sgt. Esther Thompson, 343rd TRS instructor supervisor and president of the JBSA-Lackland 5/6, helped arrange the mentoring session and participated. She said she hopes other NCOs learned as much as she did and that she learned about the importance of standing out to go above and beyond.
"Something as simple as knowing when to be stratified on an EPR is extremely important, and most people don't know that or are not told that," she said. "I hope they took away great mentoring information, something that they can really use in their present and in their futures, some information that they didn't know before."
Thompson said the 5/6 will provide the same opportunity for the JBSA-Lackland Airman's Council, a professional organization for Airman Basic through Senior Airman, in the near future.
Booth said the goal of the speed mentoring session was to break people from their comfort zones. He wants others to understand the bigger picture of the Air Force.
"A lot of times we get into our small worlds just inside of our units, inside of our training groups, and we lose focus on the Air Force mission as a whole," he said. "So coming in here, these staffs and techs get to talk with senior NCOs from other career fields to see how they're doing things, how they're implementing processes, how the new direction of the Air Force is impacting their worlds. From the airman basic all the way through chiefs, we're connecting a cycle of mentorship and leadership across the Air Force."
