The Art of Communication

The following file shares, verbatim, 19 messages I sent each month from May 2022 through November 2023 to approximately 2,000 people across the Air Force, who had influence and impact across the entire 700,000-person enterprise. It was important to me, as I covered in Chapter 9 “Word Wise” in my book, that everyone I was leading, influencing or impacting, heard from me directly on a regular basis. I thought deliberately and deeply about each month’s message. In most of the messages, I incorporated a history, business, or leadership lesson directly tied to the subject matter for that particular month. My key goals were to provide useful information, inspiration, and often a call to action. It was also important that there were strategic threads tying these together as supporting our operational requirements. The content and communication is, of course, focused on U.S. Air Force definitions and details. The primary purpose for sharing these messages is to show and support how leaders can, and must, engage their teams with relevant, relatable, and resonant insights and information. These are shared here to provide examples of how to engage those we lead with inspiration, information, and insights supporting our collective outcomes and objectives.