Herwig-Mendoza earns PACE Leadership award with round-table format

  • Published
  • By John Ingle
  • 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs

SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas – People often think to be able to make their mark in this world, they have to do something grand, something attention-getting or life-altering.

But some of the greatest achievements come from the smallest of things.

Herwig-Mendoza earns PACE award

Audrey Herwig-Mendoza, right, wears a "Little Choices Matter" bracelet on her left wrist as she talks to 363rd Training Squadron instructor Staff Sgt. Guin Duprey during a round-table discussion on Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, June 21, 2018. Herwig-Mendoza, Civilian Mentoring Board president and an 82nd Training Wing Training Operations Faculty Development instructor, was named a Profession of Arms Center of Excellence Leadership Impact Award recently for creating a round-table discussion that promotes open discussions on a variety of topics in an environment in which participants are asked to listen, think critically and form their own thoughts on the subject. (U.S. Air Force photo by John Ingle)
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Audrey Herwig-Mendoza, an 82nd Training Wing Training Operations Faculty Development instructor, wears a rubber bracelet on her arm as a daily reminder that regardless who people are or their position in life, they can be an agent of change and inclusion. The bracelet simply reads, “Little Choices Matter.”

“I’m a big believer in servant leadership,” the 2017 Profession of Arms Center of Excellence Leadership Impact Award recipient said. “Regardless of your rank, your position, your title, you can stand up and make change happen.”

Herwig-Mendoza began making small changes roughly a year ago when, as a member of the Civilian Mentoring Board, she heard another civilian employee on base talk about a need for a sort of round-table discussion in which people could openly talk about different topics. That’s when she began looking into starting a program at Sheppard AFB that took on the form of a Socratic discussion in which participants joined in open-ended dialogue that required the members to listen to others, think critically and form their own thoughts on a subject.

As an instructor, she said lecturing can often have an impact. But it’s priceless to truly connect with other people in the round-table setting, especially when those in the discussion are military or civilian senior leaders. Herwig-Mendoza said many on Sheppard normally don’t have the opportunity to sit down with leadership in an environment where communication barriers are removed and a true, open conversation can take place.

It’s in those settings, she said, where the end goal of creating the session comes to fruition as people invest in others and get to the grassroots effort of servant leadership.

“While I could sit up there as a professional educator, as an officer of the board, I could lecture and people might listen,” she said. “But, by being able to sit down in a Socratic method, it allows people to take on that ownership; it allows people to be acknowledged; it allows them to be heard, and most people just want to be heard.”

The topics of the round tables are random in that they tend to be responsive to what’s going on at the time. For example, the first topic came from a commander’s call hosted by 82nd Training Wing Commander Brig. Gen. Ronald E. Jolly. Herwig-Mendoza said the general encouraged members of Team Sheppard to be bold and innovative in what they do.

That spawned the questions, “Do people know how to?” she said. The round-table discussion focused on how to be bold and innovative in the workplace.

Other discussions have been relatively more simplistic and focused on areas such as time management, life hacks and, most recently, servant leadership.

Herwig-Mendoza said they are working on making the round table program mobile so as to meet people where they are, especially as work areas prepare for inspections as well as manage reduced manning levels. The program, in essence, would continue to be responsive to the needs being heard around Sheppard and take the sessions directly to those people.

Seeing this program and others grow in topics, diversity, people attending and organizations morphing them into their own is exciting, Herwig-Mendoza said, and her goal is to see the programs be inclusiveness to others instead of unit- or office-specific. She said the program works because of its open nature and because different perspectives on issues are heard.

The next step, she said, to keep the momentum going is adapting to the culture and needs of people seeking the program versus maintaining the round table discussions as-is.

“It’s so easy to maintain, but you’re going to have a greater impact by adapting and listening to the feedback,” she said. “How often do we hear that when people give feedback it’s not going to go anywhere? I’d like to prove them wrong. We’re listening.”

Herwig-Mendoza said another mountain she’d like to conquer convincing people that inclusive means civilian and military. She said although the name of the program contains the word “civilian,” it is open to Airmen, too.