By Jacqueline M. Tiso, Founder and CEO of JMT Consulting Group

I had the privilege of attending the ITA Spring Meeting and hearing a wonderful keynote speaker, Lt. Col. Rob “Waldo” Waldman.  His topic was based on his business leadership book, Never Fly Solo, and was around the idea of leading with courage while understanding that we all have and need wingmen.

Now this is not the slang definition of “wingman” that guys may use when going out, but rather the definition used by pilots, which most of us have probably heard because of movies such as Top Gun.  And I suspect most of us have never really thought about with it truly means.  I especially didn’t put it in the context of business, but it is certainly true.

Whether we think of business or our personal lives, we all have people we depend on; those who support us and look our for us, our trusted and reliable partners…our wingman.  Of course, my first thought around this, was on a personal level – my husband, Gary, is my wingman.

I then thought of JMT and our entire team.  On a team level, the characteristics of a wingman include disciplined training, dedicated teamwork, courageous leadership, and unwavering trust – and that is certainly the JMT team.  Our mission is to support our clients, who are exclusively not-for-profits, and these very characteristics are the core values of JMT. Our mission is to help nonprofits achieve their mission and we work hard every day to be their trusted and reliable partner: to be their wingman.

The nonprofits we serve are certainly wingman to the people they help and serve.  It’s a great thing to be a wingman, so think about who you are a wingman for and who’s your wingman.  Then go out and “Kick It Up!” as Waldo would say.