In this Q&A Session with Joseph Frankie, He discussed his leadership in a program aimed at improving maintenance and repair processes for aviation assets in South Korea. He led a comprehensive assessment, involving specialists from various fields, to prioritize and address necessary changes. The plan, developed with input from multifunctional experts and stakeholders, resulted in significant cost savings and operational improvements within months. Key to success was effective communication, prioritization of impactful actions, and adapting business processes across multiple locations. This experience highlights Frankie’s ability to lead diverse, high-performing teams and implement strategic solutions in complex environments.
Joseph Frankie’s Key Project
We started the interview by asking, “Can you share a key project where you successfully led a high-performing team, highlighting your leadership skills?”
Joseph Frankie replied, “I was tasked to find new and better ways to support aviation assets in South Korea. This was a program consisting of a number of projects to improve maintenance aviation supply items and the selective repair of major components in South Korea as opposed to sending those components back to the United States.
The first thing that occurred was an assessment had to be performed in all those respective areas. Once that was done the assessment of all these items needed to be prioritized from A to Z. The assessment involved specialists from a number of different areas-repair parts, transportation, accountability and the manpower necessary to accomplish the tasks at hand. All the stakeholders that received support were included and we used the multifunctional experts to devise a draft plan that could be distributed and commented on. After accumulating all the feedback, a more formal plan was put together informally briefed to all the multifunctional experts and subject matter experts that had knowledge of all the challenges we were trying to solve. Once again, the plan was revised and brief to senior leadership since the plan required an investment in order to invest in capital items, and specialized repair parts, new tools, sets, kits and outfits. Our plan was approved, and the funding was put in place and over the span of 6 to 12 months. The net result was the plan paid for itself in about four months of production and the return on investment was more significant than we had originally planned.
The key was to do the things that would provide the most immediate impact since we couldn’t do everything. As the executed plan saved more and more maintenance and supply dollars, the second-tier priorities were funded overtime. One of the drivers for success was the communication up and down the line so everyone had the same common operating picture of what was going on. This made it easier to adapt the changes and change business processes which were located in four areas in South Korea and two areas in the United States.
The changes included new transportation models for use in South Korea, additional Korean contractors, and US contractors.”
Building Culturally Collaborative Teams
The Worlds Times: With your global experience, how do you build teams that effectively collaborate across diverse cultures?
Joseph Frankie replied, “I think the first part of this answer is about listening. If you have multiple ethnic cultures involved, you need to do a lot of listening. If you listen you will have a better understanding of how those cultures think, act and react to situations.
In the example above we were working with South Koreans, US civilians in Korea, US civilians in the United States and at times with people in Germany.
As a leader, it is incumbent that you understand the communication and feedback from the various stakeholders and ensure each is heard and understood. The way I did this is that I would ask for a brief back on what these teams heard, what they were doing and what my expectations were. I believe this helped significantly and set the tone for how the various teams would interact with each other. Naturally, challenges occur, and you listen, get to the bottom of it and sort it out.”
Insights from Joseph Frankie
The Worlds Times: As a mentor, how do you identify and develop top-tier talent aligned with organizational values?
Joseph Frankie replied, “I have done a great deal of mentoring. It is very easy to identify leaders that are aligned with organizational values. They are the leaders that follow the rules and know how to bend the rules with permission from leadership.
Usually, my mentoring involves helping the mentees with areas that they aren’t as strong as you would like them to be. I will frequently provide advice on technical areas that they should pay more attention or various books that would enhance their knowledge of assets, practices and or people. I did my best to provide 15 to 30 minutes at the end of the day to discuss what went on in their world and the challenges they wanted to discuss.”
Successful Project Completion
The Worlds Times: Can you discuss a project where you mitigated significant risks and ensured successful completion?
Joseph Frankie replied, “Yes, I can. We had another significant business unit that had to move aircraft, support equipment to a Port of Departure for overseas movement of the business unit. The Port had limited facilities marshal the aircraft, disassemble major components, box them, move them to a shrink wrap facility and then move the aircraft to sterile staging areas for loading on a roll-on/roll-off ship for overseas movement.
The landing area for the aircraft was only large enough for two aircraft at a time; the port limited the total number of personnel that could be in port area.
The business unit did not have all the required personnel to prepare for the movement and handle all actions at the port and perform other required departure activities. So, my business unit became the lead to facilitate their departure. To mitigate risk, technical crews had to be cross trained on disassembly, shrink-wrapping and staging as they may be doing different activities. The status of each airframe and its flow through the 9 step process was reported to higher authorities every two hours until the loading of the ship was complete.
Mitigating risk was accomplished by:
- Cross training
- Teaming crews
- Coordinating with port supervisors
- Contracting billeting and ensuring all personnel ate the hot breakfast provided.
- Creating a stage-by-stage communications system that informed all key stakeholders the status every 2 hours with a common operations picture.
- Provided leadership to check and ensure all safety protocols were followed.
- Make a workable plan given the port constraints on personnel and area to work with at the port.
At the time, this was largest operation of its kind, done without injury or minor damage to aircraft and equipment ($1.5 Billion) that filled a ship.”
Bridging Career Gaps through LinkedIn Coaching
The Worlds Times: How do you help Individuals Bridge the gap between their current standing and career goals through LinkedIn coaching?
Joseph Frankie replied, “Everything begins in the beginning. In order to help an individual they have to be able to define exactly where they are right now. Sometimes that requires some assistance to make sure we both have a common operating picture of where the individual is. Once you define where they are, you start on where they want to go. This means what do they want to achieve, and this is different for every individual. For example, some people are looking to land employment because they’re unemployed. Some want to move out of their current situation to something similar or different. Others are looking to change sectors, pivot or start merchandising their entrepreneur side gig. With those two points defined you can start working with the individual to help them build their LinkedIn profile to get them from where they are to where they want to go. It involves a process and naturally this means work. In the end, you’re helping them build a LinkedIn profile that showcases them for what they are trying to achieve.”
Adapting Leadership for Diverse Teams
The Worlds Times: How do you adapt leadership approaches when working with diverse teams in private and public sectors
Joseph Frankie replied, “You will have diverse teams in both the public and private sectors. The private sector has its own culture just as the public sector has its own culture. It is important to know and understand both cultures since you will be working with diverse teams in both. The real answer is it is going to depend on the situation with the diverse teams on how you’re going to get things done. The way I accomplished this is do a lot of listening and ensure communication goes up and down the chain, so we all have a common operating picture of who’s doing what, how it’s done, when it’s reported. The better communication you have with all the stakeholders and team members will yield positive results. It is a leader’s job to continuously ensure this occurs.”
Staying Ahead of the Curve
The Worlds Times: As a perpetual student, how do you stay updated on industry trends and integrate this knowledge into coaching?
Joseph Frankie replied, “That is a very good question. The most important thing is to be continuously working in the industry with people. I not only coach but assist others with common problems in the employment environment. These challenges include communication, leadership, relationships, job descriptions, salary negotiation and manage expectations.
Sadly, I have counseled on manners, how to converse with supervisor/co-worker and behavior in the work place. As the industry morphs, things continue to change.
I also like to read articles, listen to others in the field and have interaction in podcast, radio and television appearances.”
Building Trust and Transparency
The Worlds Times: Can you elaborate on the strategies used to forge international banking relationships, especially in challenging environments like China?
Joseph Frankie replied, “This is a broad subject and probably worthy of a doctoral dissertation. I will share my experience and narrow it down a bit.
International relationships are the key and cannot be under stated. You really have to know the people you are working with because it is critical, and trust is key. In our case, one of principals had worked with our cooperative joint venture partner on a previous project in China and had full confidence, faith and trust in him and his team.
Second, in my view; you construct your deals in such a way that all are rewarded, positively or negatively, equally. This eliminates the need to re-trade since it is open and this is where you are putting a lot of trust on your international partner so you better know who you are dealing with.
If you have a good cooperative joint venture with reputable leaders involved, you can establish relationships funding sources based on their desires to fund various types of opportunities. Ours was water/wastewater plants and infrastructure so the various authorities had ways to repay for the infrastructure via their taxing authority.
During our time we used the Build-Operate Transfer (BOT) model, each project was a stand-alone entity, funding flowed-in and through appropriate banking system where all countries participating had banking relationships.
The drivers were transparency, proactive communication with all stakeholders and working issues as they arose quickly.”
Customizing Coaching for All Ages and Stages
The Worlds Times: With clients ranging from 15 to 84, how do you customize coaching for individuals at different professional stages?
Joseph Frankie replied, “Everyone is an individual with their own unique hopes, dream and desires. The first thing is to establish with them is where they are right now. This is the key so we are operating from a common baseline. This is straight forward.
Secondly, what do they want to achieve, e.g.; get in a program, land employment, get a scholarship, get an internship, change employment, get promoted, pivot, change sectors, etc.? Depending who they are, where they are, each is going to require unique strategy based on themselves. This is why the individual approach is better. One size does not fit all. Also, this requires hard work and detail. Basically, you need to tell story after story that you solve problems, make things happen where you can articulate what you produce relative to what you want. This is the strategy.
In the end your profile is an avatar of you answering the questions you will get in an interview process for what you want. Your quality content will rise up higher than your peer competitors in the search process. You want to be seen/found and get the message/call that you have piqued an interest of the right type of decision-makers.”
Final Thought
Lastly we asked, “Would you like to say anything else to our viewers?”
“Whether we like it or not, the marketplace becomes more global every day. Today, I have coached or assisted clients in 14 different countries from my office in Houston. I could not have done those 15 years ago. So, with each passing day you are competing in your industry not just locally or the US, but globally. We all search for opportunities. Searching for opportunities has been around since biblical times. The difference today is you can lay out what you do, how you do it, show you can produce, solve challenges and do all of that on your LinkedIn profile and you can be found by those searching for what you do, how you did it, and your niche expertise. The clients I have coached in those 14 countries found me. I did not find them. They found me because the content on my LinkedIn profile resonated with them and they sought me out. We all look for business, work, etc. Choose to do what you need to do so the right people can find you to solve their problems discuss opportunities and or offer you employment.” Joseph Frankie Concluded
Connect with Joseph Frankie III on LinkedIn
Visit JFIII Associates LLC to learn more about it
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