Army Leadership

You can ask ten different Soldiers what an Army leader is, or what they believe a good Army leader is. It will not matter the rank, time in service or the maturity level of that Soldier because more than likely you will get ten different answers. Everyone has their own opinions on what an Army leader is, or what they believe a good Army leader is. By definition leadership in the Army is the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization (ADRP 6-22, 2012). There are three leadership competencies that make an Army leader; leads, develops and achieves.

One important expression for army leadership is BE-KNOW-DO. Army leadership begins with what the leader must BE, the values and attributes that shape character. A leader can think of these as internal and defining qualities possessed all the time. As defining qualities, they make up the identity of the leader. Values and attributes are the same for all leaders, regardless of position, although refined through experience and assumption of positions of greater responsibility. For example, a sergeant major with combat experience may have a deeper understanding of selfless service and personal courage than a new soldier.

The United States of America has the greatest Army in the world. This is possible because the Army develops the great leaders. To be a successful leader, one must fully understand how all three levels of leadership operate. The three levels of leadership outlined by ADRP 6-22 Army Leadership are direct, organizational, and strategic. Non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and officers alike have the responsibility to lead Soldiers regardless of the level they may operate. A leader’s rank does not classify what level of leadership they work in, their position does.

Although the meaning of leadership has many interpretations, DuBrin gives the fundamental definition. Military leaders are some of best leaders to study because, in order to be successful, they must

Leadership is a significant role model for everyone who needs to lead and create the future in a very successful way. But in order to be that great leader based on my experience. I value three characteristics that I believe everyone should have to be a successful leader. And to me; communication, conviction, flexibility. To me, these traits can be seen developed through the leader way with the followers and the followers satisfaction with the leader him/herself.

Leadership has been one of biggest themes of learning while beginning our Army career. We are taught that this is one of the touchstones of the Army profession. Leading a group and defining a vision is leadership.

Delivering concrete purpose and feasible objective motivate the organization, showing remarkable ability brings subordinates respect, and good relationship between a leader and his subordinates is essential for increasing reliability and keeping authority. Trust, which is a core of unit’s activity, will be developed through these actions and a leader must do the best he can to build trust with his soldiers. A commander is a lonely person and nobody helps him to develop. A leader must keep developing himself and showing good performance in order to gain success in future

Leadership is the measure of one’s ability to influence others to work to achieve a goal. I say that it is the measure of one’s ability because, a leader will always be judged and when described, will normally have an adjective prior to the word leader. Some examples are: He was a good leader or He was a horrible leader and could not lead ants to a cookie crumb. Influencing people is the primary purpose of a leader. To influence people, one must realize that every person is different and has their own motivating factors. In order to know what a person’s motivating factors are, a leader must know his people. Though, in this course it is said that the Coast Guard has leaders and managers, I would argue that to be a leader in the Coast Guard, one must also be a manager. A good leader could lead a group of people right off of a cliff, but should be able to manage the situation, circumstances and resources, so as not to lead his/her people off of the proverbial cliff. This can be seen in Leading Chiefs that do not manage their personnel allowance list (PAL), leading their unit into a very unnecessarily difficult transfer season.

Nowadays, leaders has one important function in any organization, mainly in the Army. For this reason, it is necessary understand the dare to them in switch of the junior leaders for the senior leaders, changing their attributes and confront other challenges. Knowing their strengths and weakness, leaders in any level serve as a mirror. On that account, they need focus on the objectives, and develop good communication skills in order to transmit their advices and orders. Furthermore, leaders can work training new soldiers to be leaders in the future and to having an effective organization climate. Thereby, a leader has to understand his purpose and confront the issues during the shift of the direct leaders to organizational leaders.

Leaders help themselves as well as their followers to do the correct things. They set bearing, form a moving vision, and make something new. Leadership is about mapping out where you have to go to "win" as a group or an association; and it is alert, energizing, and rousing. And a good leader should have several important attributes. (Bennis, 1990)

The Webster Dictionary defines leadership as an office or position, the capacity to lead, the act or an instance of leading (Inc, 2011). Leader is defined as; a person who directs a military force or unit, a person who has commanding authority or influence (Inc, 2011). The Army defines leadership as the process of influencing people by providing purpose,

Leadership can be described many times with one word. When most people think about what leadership is, it is always going to be related to the field they are working or familiar with. Most people, who have or had a military background, would immediately think about authority or rank. While others who have a business background would probably think of words like impact and prestige.

Over the past few decades, leaders take an essential role in accordance to success, efficiency, and performance of their staff. There are copious and varied definitions regarding the perception of a leader, in addition to the term leadership. A leader has attributes of character, presence, and intellect. It shapes how an individual behaves and how leaders perform. Leadership attributes are internal to a leader. Not only, have these attributes included a large array of characteristics such as values, habits, motives, competencies, styles and even skills. These characteristics emphasize good interpersonal and communication capabilities, which is also obligatory in the military.

Leadership is the measure of one’s ability to influence others to work to achieve a goal. I say that it is the measure of one’s ability because, a leader will always be judged and when described, will normally have an adjective prior to the word leader. Some examples are: He was a good leader or He was a horrible leader and could not lead ants to a cookie crumb. Influencing people is the primary purpose of a leader. To influence people, one must realize that every person is different and has their own motivating factors. In order to know what a person’s motivating factors are, a leader must know his people. Though, in this course it is said that the Coast Guard has leaders and managers, I would argue that to be a leader in the Coast Guard, one must also be a manager. A good leader could lead a group of people right off of a cliff, but should be able to manage the situation, circumstances and resources, so as not to lead his/her people off of the proverbial cliff. This can be seen in Leading Chiefs that do not manage their personnel allowance list (PAL), leading their unit into a very unnecessarily difficult transfer season.

Army leadership begins with what the leader must BE -- the qualities, values and attributes that a leader needs to have. The foundation of a leader's ability to lead is his character. He needs to be aware of his personal values and align them with the organization's values. The Army's values include loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage -- the same values that all other leaders need to possess in