The skills required to conquer adversity and emerge stronger and more committed than ever are the ones that make for extraordinary leaders”. This quote summarizes Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas theme in their article “Crucible of Leadership” in support of the fundamental objective of this assignment.
On 7 December 2008, 82nd ABN DIV Forward Support Company, distribution platoon was involved in a safety accident, adjudicated as operator negligence resulting in the death of a 22 year old soldier from Irvine, California. Furthermore, this tragedy was not only a failure in leadership, applicable training (i.e. certification) and wrong equipment more importantly, this challenge has prepared me for the operational unknown throughout my military career. For that reason, this formative event is deemed as my crucible experience and inspired a pendulum shift across the military, reinforcing the importance of safety mechanisms in garrison and deployed operational environment.
In 2008, I was a newly promoted distribution platoon leader assigned the prestigious 82nd ABN DIV. My unit was on orders, as replacement sustainers for the 10th Mountain Division from Ft. Drum in Afghanistan. During the pre-mobilization stage, significant operational challenges were identified however, overlooked by the CoC in preparation to assume the responsibility for theater sustainment and distribution throughout Afghanistan.
More importantly, to set the conditions for reception staging onward
The article Crucibles of Leadership explains the reasons behind the success of some leaders in comparison to others, despite having similar vision and knowledge. The authors Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas conducted a research involving more than 40 top business leaders, who shared their stories about facing all these turbulent and unexpected experiences, which the authors of this article call “crucibles”. The growth of real leaders is a steady process and the authors have presented it step-by-step. The common aspect that Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas have found from interviewing these business people is the fact that they all found positives from the negative events and circumstances, learned from their mistakes and that
In the Leadership Challenge, 4th edition, it is Kouzes & Posner (2007) intention to present a road map for individuals to follow on their leadership journey. The authors stress that “leadership is not a gene and it’s not an inheritance.” Leadership they assert is “an identifiable set of skills and abilities that are available to all of us” (p. 23). They make clear that the “great person” theory of leadership is “plain wrong.” Leaders are our everyday heroes who do extraordinary things on a regular basis (p. 23).
I believe that leaders must accept the crucibles and acid test so that they can identify their value, and accomplish their great dream and tough missions. As the author of the “Crucibles of leadership” mentioned that leaders should equip with the following essential skills, namely, “engage others in shared meaning, a distinctive, compelling voice, integrity, and adaptive capacity.1 We know how these essentials important, however, we don’t understand how to obtain these elements as well as how to employ them, because the overconfidence always blind us. Thus, people who desire to become the leaders need to go through the crucible test.
The topic of leadership continues to attract several theoretical arguments as the practice of leadership varies depending on a variety of factors (Loveridge, 2014). However, the contributions made by John Wooden in transforming leadership are impeccable, with his many years as a basketball coach earning him admiration and success in equal measure. John Wooden, therefore, explains how leaders can get the maximum potential out of their followers through enhancing the individual abilities and shaping the personal efforts in a manner that guarantees personal peak performances and subsequent improvement of team or organizational performance.
Safety First is a phrase most have heard throughout their career, but what impact does that have when there is an increase of safety incidents on base? Newly appointed safety officers inherit any outstanding safety challenges as well as any benchmark programs that brings safety to light. However, if the program is broken the safety officer must utilize the skills harbored within assigned personnel to make a difference for the betterment of the wing. As the new wing safety officer, I have been tasked to eradicate the trends in safety mishaps and make sure there is a process in place to prevent future occurrences. This paper will outline an
were dedicated to the response. Lead the S3 shop integration of SC HART training events into a mutually beneficial staff training event for staff USR validation. During this rating period 2-151st forward recovered back to home station, I provided rear coordination for the reception and recovery of all personnel and equipment from their assignment. I planned and coordinated all facets of the battalion’s participation in Patriot South Exercise a National Guard Bureau Joint Service Multi–Agency response to a DOMOPS exercise, a first of its kind conducted at Gulfport, MS. I spent countless hours in the logistical planning and development of events scenarios for a battalion sized Aviation Task Force. I worked with planners from other services for over a year out in the development and execution of the safe and successful employment of our Aviation resources from SC. As a result over 150 hours were flown in transit and execution of Patriot South Exercise I worked with B/2-238th GSAB in the implementation of the Pre-Mobilization training horse blanket for that unit allowing for a success mobilization arrival at Ft. Hood. Concurrently I coordinated for the A/111-th GSAB return back from their mobilization, resulting in over 60 personnel being REFRAD along with all
The authors of the book The Leadership Challenge are regarded as the prominent leadership scholars and educators in the U.S.. Kouzes is the Dean’s Executive Professor of Leadership of Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. Posner is the Dean of the Leavey School of Business and professor of Leadship at Santa Clara University. They have been together produced a lot of award-winning leadership books, among which The Leadership Challenge has won both the James A. Hamilton Hospital Administrations’ Book Award and the Critics’ Choice Award. Kouzes & Posner are also the developers of the Leadship Practices Inventory(LPI), a list of questionnaire for evaluating leadership behavior, which is one of the worldwide frequently used leadership assessment tools. The most distinguished honor that both Kouzes & Posner have received is the Management/Leadship Educators of the Year by the International Management Council. They then joined the team of 50 top leadership educators of the nation. Kouzes & Posner are not only studying and researching leadership, speaking actively at universities, leadership conferences, and seminars, but also conducting programs of leadership development for more than a hundred of national & multi-national companies.
In chapter one and two of Resilient Leaders, several scenarios are discussed of how leaders effects an organization or a group of individuals. The chapters also demonstrated how leaders have a challenging occupation, but they utilize every circumstance as a learning experiences. This paper discussed three concepts that include tribulation, character, and selfless services.
Considering the Skills approach it suggests that leadership is not only about innate characteristics. Several skills and abilities which can be learned and developed helps a person to become a better leader.
SPC William Little distinguished himself and his command during Battle Command Staff training at Fort Jackson, SC as he received the ‘Iron Soldier’ award. He has served as a Rigger for about four months and managed to pack almost 1,000 chutes, supporting a joint-level enabling operation.
I’ve had the opportunity to work in both Strategic and Tactical Commands which really spoke to me about this command was the chance to combine my experience I gained from several of my most recent assignments. First with 106th Signal Brigade, as the Senior Technical Warrant Officer and Network Enterprise Support Team (NEST) leader for a newly activated Strategic Signal Brigade. Therefore, my efforts contributed to the development and implementation of an assistance team training and certification program. However, my technical skills and sound leadership were the driving force behind my superior COMSEC support to various sites throughout the brigade area of responsibility. As a result of my extreme dedication and forward thinking, we successfully passed six out of six audits from the Communications Security Logistics Activity.
Creighton’s (2007) statement early in the article about how today’s successful leaders do not fit the stereotype of highly visible, nationally recognized, risk-taking, or charismatic individuals seems like such a simple idea, but has so many applications. He dared to say that good leadership is not aggressive and quick, but thoughtful and quite.
Lead, follow, or get out of the way. Those are words my father used to tell my sister and me as we were growing up. Leaders will pave the way for success for others and foster relationships along the journey. The purpose of this paper is detail the five practices of extraordinary leaders, review my leadership philosophy, assess my leadership abilities while incorporating key learnings and application from previous modules within the Applied Organizational Leadership program.
The situation at the XYZ Air Base Wing Safety Office is gravely desperate; the safety team has atrophied to an ineffective group of four personnel who are unable to employ “Safety First” as a culture for the Wing. Moreover, the group is unable to collectively attack and resolve any safety crisis such as the one we face now. Four lives within the Wing have been lost due to the absence of a “Safety First” culture. I am the newly appointed Wing Safety Officer whom Colonel (Col) Ellen Parker has tasked with correcting the current trend of poor driving safety that resulted in 15 recent traffic accidents (to include the four lives lost). In this paper, I will analyze the former Wing Safety Officer’s – Captain (Capt) Carl Matthews – leadership
The authors argue that leaders who are open to learning from their mistakes, problems and failures, become stronger, better leaders. They gain followers’ trusts, who are eager to produce their best work. Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas were surprised to find out after interviewing more than 40 leaders from top business and public-sector, that all of them had endured traumatic experiences (crucibles‖) that transformed them by forcing them to question who they were and what was important or gave them new insight into the people and organizations they were trying to lead. The authors believe that there are four essential skills associated with this capacity to learn from experience: 1) ability to engage others in shared meaning; 2) a distinctive and compelling voice; 3) a sense of integrity; and 4) adaptive capacity. Having a plan for personal growth require us to harness the crucibles that life sets in motion to examine our principles, values, to question our assumptions so we can proactively seek new opportunities to learn and grow from what life throws at us.