Squadron Officer School Expands Senior Mentor Program

Squadron Officer School (SOS) is tapping into the rich anddeep pool of experience around the Air University campus to enhance theleadership education and personal growth of the next generation of leaders atMaxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.

What was up until recently an academic requirement givingsenior leaders less than two hours to share with students their perspectives ondecades of experiences and lessons learned, has transitioned into thefull-fledged Senior Mentor Program, connecting students and mentors multipletimes throughout the 6.5-week school.

The school has the capacity for about 700 captains and civilians per class, and the class is broken down into four squadrons, with about 10 to 13 flights per squadron. Under the new mentor program’s construct, each flight is paired with a volunteer senior mentor, typically in the rank of lieutenant colonel, colonel or civilian equivalent, from across Air University, 42nd Air Base Wing and other academic and operational organizations at Maxwell.

Major Johann Pambianchi (left), B-20 Flight commander, 31st Student Squadron, Squadron Officer School, introduces Lt. Col. Duane Richardson as the flight’s senior mentor, Nov. 13, 2019. Image credit: US Air Force

The mentors are asked to dedicate as much time as their andtheir paired flight’s schedules allow to engage with the students, which hasbeen averaging nearly five hours each class. The time mentors spend with thestudents is much more than the previous 1.5-hour academic requirement tagged onto the end of each class right before graduation.

“SOS students and senior mentors have both benefited from aprolonged relationship during and across several classes now, allowing for morediscussions and better mentor-class relationships,” said Maj. Johann Pambianchi,B-20 Flight commander, 31st Student Squadron, and co-lead for the mentorshipprogram.

During their time with students, mentors are encouraged tooffer their perspectives and lessons learned on a specific topic being coveredin the classroom, whether about leadership, ethics, personnel processes andissues, or management functions. They’re free, however, to also delve intosubjects not centered on a specific lesson’s objective.

“We have used a combination of both bringing in my flight’ssenior mentor for specific lessons and bringing him in when our schedulesalign,” said Maj. Jannel Black, F-71 Flight commander, 33rd Student Squadron.“Because we have hosted multiple sessions with him, the flight talks moreopenly and is willing to ask specific, and often challenging, questions,knowing he’s a straight shooter and will provide them an honest answer.”

Honest answers and free and open discussions are key tomaking the program succeed, as is a willingness by both mentors and students tolearn from each other.

One graduated SOS student said that while she appreciatedand gained valuable insights from her flight’s mentor, she also would likementors, as senior leaders, to remain open to gaining new perspectives on“communication and resiliency.” She and her peers, she said, are growing up inan Air Force that is increasingly constrained by resources and are being askedto come up with innovative solutions to address some of those constraints.

“Young officers are being taught to test the status quo andbe creative in order to do more with less,” said Capt. Allison Anderson, themilitary personnel flight commander at Aviano Air Base, Italy. “Therefore, wewill get intensely frustrated if we are met with resistance at the top for new,perhaps risky, ideas. It is up to senior leaders to be courageous enough totake those risks in order to foster innovation.”

Anderson’s expectations are not lost on one senior mentor.Additionally, he believes it’s critical that senior leaders seek to be mentorsto junior officers.

“I feel the best benefit for the senior mentor is stayingconnected to the tremendous captains that we have, who are feeling the brunt ofthe Air Force’s operations tempo, balancing being tactical experts whileentering into the rigor of flight command,” said. Lt. Col. Nate McClure, aninstructor for the Leader Development Course for Squadron Command at the Ira C.Eaker Center for Leadership Development. “In addition, these captains are oftenthe ones with recent marriages and young children; how they are taken care ofduring this critical time sends them on a path of staying with the Air Force orleaving, if we don’t value them.”

SOS faculty say that based on the feedback they’ve beenreceiving, the program has proven valuable for both students and mentors.

Of equal value is the effect the program is having inadvancing the objectives of one of the Air Force chief of staff’s strategicfocus areas: revitalizing squadrons and strengthening squadron leadershipteams.

“The initiative enables a symbiotic relationship between twodistinct generations of officers, a relationship in which each side benefits,”said. Lt. Col. Jon Slaughter, commander, 31st Student Squadron, and whooversees the program. “The senior mentors are offered perspectives that willhelp them be better group and wing commanders, and the mentorship provided tothe captain and civilian students helps them be better leaders at the squadronlevel.”

Source: US Air Force