Episode 52: Leadership Development Lessons from a Combat Veteran with Fighter Pilot Kim "KC" Campbell

Embracing Only

In this episode, we have the pleasure of interviewing retired Air Force Colonel, Kim "KC" Campbell, a fighter pilot who served in the Air Force for over 24 years. During her service, she flew 1,800 hours in the A-10 Warthog, including more than 100 combat missions protecting troops on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Kim was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for Heroism after successfully recovering her battle-damaged airplane after an intense close air support mission in Baghdad.

As a senior military leader, Kim led hundreds of Airmen both at home and abroad, and enabled them to succeed in their missions. She knows what it takes to be a successful leader, to inspire and empower high-performance teams to achieve success. Kim is passionate about leadership and feels strongly that leaders earn trust by leading with courage and connecting with their team.

In this episode, Kim shares her combat experience and leadership lessons that will motivate and inspire your team to be more confident when faced with adversity or uncertainty. She provides practical ideas and examples to improve trust and help your team prepare to face challenges in their personal or professional lives. Kim emphasizes the importance of preparing, practicing, and planning for contingencies to ensure we are able to respond in the face of adversity. And if we make mistakes or fail, then we need to fail forward by learning from our mistakes and figuring out what we can do better the next time.

Through her new book, Flying in the Face of Fear: A Fighter Pilot’s Lessons on Leading with Courage, Kim shares distinctive leadership techniques and principles different from what you might find in most leadership books. She teaches how to cultivate a wingman culture on your team, develop a fighter pilot mindset for failing forward and embracing risk, and create your own flight plan to find balance and fulfillment. Join us as Kim shares military combat stories and fighter pilot lessons learned that will provide the skills you need to prepare for adversity and debrief for success.

The key takeaways from this episode are:

• Fear is a natural response to stress, and it's important to face it in order to come out stronger on the other side.

• Effective leadership involves building trust, showing vulnerability, and listening to team members at all levels.

• Visualizing, rehearsing, and practicing for difficult situations can help create positive outcomes.

• Leaders should strike a balance between a strong overarching mission and clear, achievable goals for each team member.

• Leaders should encourage a culture of constructive feedback and dissent, cultivate self-awareness and self-care, and foster a culture of mutual support and recognition.

You can purchase Kim’s book using the link below, https://amzn.to/3kwA4zq

About Embracing "ONLY"

Welcome to Embracing Only, the podcast dedicated to empowering women in the workplace by sharing inspiring stories from diverse women who’ve defied the odds in their careers.

Each episode spotlights women in leadership, providing insights into their journeys and the leadership skills they’ve developed along the way. With a focus on career development for women of color, we offer actionable career advice for women to help them navigate challenges and thrive professionally.

Join us as we create a supportive community for women to rise, claim their power, thrive as "an only" in the workplace, and lead with purpose.