Army 360-Degree Analysis

Toxic leadership and climate defines the critical leadership problem within 4th ABCT. In conjunction, a lack of care for Soldiers and their families, favoritism, SHARP issues, and hazing have caused a unit to lose all trust in the previous Command Team. To combat these issues I will develop and implement my vision and a way ahead for the BCT using the 7 Step Model. Furthermore, I will focus on specific portions of the Rocket Model, Organizational Culture “Iceberg”, and correcting the Five Dysfunctions of a Team to solve the problem.

A new commander taking over the unit following COL Steele’s departure will have to establish a command climate that overcomes the current culture within the Rakkasans. The new commander must confer with his leadership team to determine what the issues are within the culture that leads to the unethical command. The first step should be to disseminate command climate surveys. The results of the command climate survey would help judge the extent to which soldiers assess the ethical situation

The principles of Mission Command are build cohesive teams through mutual trust, provide a clear commander’s intent, exercise disciplined initiative, use mission orders and accept prudent risk. Toxic leaders who micromanage subordinates disregard these principles. Their micromanagement hampers subordinate’s ability to conduct operations defined by mission statements. The move to make Mission Command a doctrinal part of the Army education system should go a long way to minimizing the effects of toxic leadership on operations and

Robert E. Lee once said of leadership, “I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself” (Jones, 1875). This is an instance where I believe that even though this idea or thought was mentioned many years ago, it still has relevance today. I do not have an exact date of that quote, but with General Lee fighting in the Civil War, I would imagine it came somewhere in the mid-1800’s (The book it is found in was published after his death). Our current military leaders need to listen to advice like this quote, get out and know the people they put in charge so they are better able to make decisions on who should and should not actually be leading.

Toxic leadership and climate defines the critical leadership problem within 4th ABCT. In conjunction, a lack of care for Soldiers and their families, favoritism, SHARP issues, and hazing have caused a unit to lose all trust in the previous Command Team. To correct these issues I will develop and implement my vision and a way ahead for the BCT using the 7 Step Model. Furthermore, I will place a great deal of emphasis on a specific portions of the Rocket Model, Organizational Culture “Iceberg”, and correcting the Five Dysfunctions of a Team

In your post, you describe how the command climate survey is not a requirement for battalion commanders and above. I believe that it should be a requirement that the battalion commander administer the command climate survey at least once a year. I also believe that the command climate survey have some form of impact on a commanders career. Right now as you have stated in your post, the survey is required only for the CIP inspection and the Quarterly Narrative and Statistical Report. If command climate surveys could influence annual ratings and promotions, I believe we may begin to see toxic leaders remove themselves before they gain significant rank. If this were a new policy implemented for the Army, I think that implementation

Throughout the history of the world, there has always been a struggle to be the most powerful country in the world. Many key aspects that go into deciding what countries are the most powerful; some of these aspects are having a powerful military, strong economy, large population and a powerful but strong government. Most key aspects of what makes a country strong are also the same the aspects that make up the operational environment variables. The United States Army breaks down the operational variables into Political, Military, Economic, Social, Infrastructure, Information, Physical Environment and Time (PMESII-PT) when evaluating the operational variables .

100 years ago JROTC was created in 1918, it began its relationship with the US Army with the creation of the Student Army Training Corps. The program was created due to America’s entry into World War I and ended shortly after the war did. In 1943 the relationship was rekindled with the creation of the Army Specialized Training program and was created in response to America’s involvement in World War II, the program also ended at the conclusion of the conflict it was meant to support. In January 1951, Northeastern University officially formed an ROTC department in support of the Army Corps of Engineers and Signal Corps, the first commissioning class graduated in 1955. Northeastern Army ROTC enrolled 886 men in its inaugural year, making one of the largest non-military campus programs in the nation, by the end of the decade, the program reached up to 2.800 Cadets.

Lieutenant General Anthony R. Jones investigated the possible involvement of personnel higher in the chain of command (Jones 2005). Lieutenant General Jones concluded that abuse ranged from inadequate resources, confusion about allowable interrogation techniques, conflicting “policy memoranda,” to “leadership failure.” Lieutenant General Jones also noted that “leadership failure, at the brigade level and below, clearly was a factor in not sooner discovering and taking actions to prevent” the abuses.

Leadership, according to the Army doctrine, represents individuals’ ability to influence people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improving the organization (“Leadership” FM 6-22). However, the varying characteristics of individuals that the Army attracts may instill this doctrine in many different ways, leading to different representations of leadership. Some individuals choose to lead their subordinate in a stern matter, only displaying matured emotions and a “tough-loving” attitude to guide them in the right direction. Others

As an officer in the United States Army, it has been imperative for me to understand every facet of leadership and why it remains important to be an effective leader. During this course, I have learned some valuable lessons about myself as a leader and how I can improve on my leadership ability in the future. The journal entries along with the understanding of available leadership theories have been an integral part of my learning during this course. For all of the journals and assessments that I completed, I feel it has given me a good understanding of my current leadership status and my future potential as a leader. All of the specific assessments looked at several areas in regards to leadership; these assessments covered several

There is no denying how our environment develops how we act and react in certain social parameters. As I started to look into what I wanted to accomplish during this week’s paper, I noticed how conformity is all around us, especially in the military. Now, we must not confuse conformity with compliance. Kenrick, Neuberg, and Cialdini (2015) note the difference between the two: “conformity involves changing one’s behavior to match the response or actions of others, to fit in with those around us,” and “compliance refers to the act of changing one’s behavior in response to a direct request” (p. 179). The one we are focusing on is conformity, where we are not given instructions, but adapting to our environment based on the non-verbal observations

The critical leadership problem affecting the ABCT climate derives from toxic leadership of the BCT command team. Careful assessment and thorough

The book Black Hearts opened my eyes to how leadership from a single Officer can have a grappling effect on such a wide range of soldiers from the lowest of ranks. One of the best takeaways from Black Hearts is to never do anything: illegal, unethical, or immoral. Although this is a easy statement to repeat, Black Hearts demonstrates the difficulties that lie behind these words. It has also painted a picture of how leadership can topple extremely quickly from a top down view. The Army is portrayed in a bad light throughout the book relentlessly. This is due to the concentration of poor leadership of the 1-502nd Regiment (Referred to as “First Strike”), a battalion of the 101st Airborne Division.

Managers are not only decision makers, but also exercise considerable influence through formal and informal communication, role modeling, and other powerful means (Nahavandi, Denhardt, Denhardt & Arittiguteta, 2015). There are different leadership styles to consider when placing a person in a position of leadership. Toxic leadership is a management issue that affects the organizational culture and employees job satisfaction. This type of toxic leadership exists everywhere, in both the military and civilian sectors of the world. The cultural mindset of these types of leaders has a lot to do with not being able to attain their self-awareness. This essay will explain the characteristics of a toxic leader, how toxic leadership is detrimental to the organization, and ways to overcome a toxic leader.