Army Leadership Qualities

A good leader in the United States Army is made-up of several different essential characteristics. As soon to become leaders in our profession, is our individual responsibility to know, understand and apply these characteristics in the way we conduct ourselves every day. Because we are the role models for soldiers to follow not only in our job but also in our personal life. Stewardship of the Army profession in one of these mayor characteristics of a good leader in our career. Being a steward of the profession, focuses in three mayor traits: character, competence and commitment.

1. Influential Soldiers that embody The Soldier’s Creed, Warrior Ethos, and their experiences are more apt to achieving organizational and operational excellence. Soldiers, leaders, and teams must seek individual and organizational improvement throughout their daily lives. Based on my experiences, I believe the elements listed below create and sustain a solid foundation that Soldiers, leaders, and teams should strive to incorporate.

Leadership goals should always contain methods of a continuous process of learning through education, training, and individual experiences that help ensure that the message will be communicated in a confident and competent manner when leading troops. Soldiers tend to follow leaders that demonstrate and live the Army values, while displaying their confidence in every decision that affects change. Leaders are not born as organizational or tactical leaders; but grown by their genetic determinism, which is inside and the characteristics they work toward; that mold is which type leader they will become. Not just anyone can lead; you must have the desire to lead, be willing to make the commitment to being a leader, and prepare yourself properly, then you have the desire to become a leader. (Fulton, 1995).

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.

Leadership development in the military is critical to its mission and objectives. Understanding and embracing leadership will foster an agile culture and facilitate attainment of strategic goals. People desire quality leadership to assist with achieving their goals, albeit personal or professional development. Having a clear vision and the motivation to perform at high-levels influences others to work synergistically together to achieve organizational goals. Insomuch, employees value being treated respectfully, fairly, and ethically. Leaders serve people best when they help them develop their own initiative and good judgment, enable them to grow, and help them become better contributors.

"Leadership is the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization" (Mills, 2013). The Army measures its leaders by their attributes and their core leader competencies. Also, a leader must be able to train, coach and mentor their subordinates. Additionally, the Army has three levels of leadership: Direct, Organizational, and Strategic. An effective leader understands and practices these qualities at an operational level.

My leadership philosophy revolves entirely around the Army Values. In every action I take as a leader, I assess whether or not it lines up with the Army Values and the potential impacts. I have had a variety of leadership assignments during my career, all requiring a different leadership approach, spanning from team leader through platoon sergeant. My conflict resolution skills have greatly evolved through my twelve years in the Army, from rudimentary conversations to in depth problem solving. My professional development has had a profound effect on my leadership abilities, from NCOPD’s to mentorship from senior non-commissioned officers (NCO’s).

My leadership philosophy is a direct result of a culmination of my experiences throughout my 16 year military career. My career has blossomed from being a young Soldier that was very unsure of herself and her future in the Army, to a prospective Senior NCO and AGR Soldier, eager to mentor her subordinates. My priorities as an Army Leader always begin with the Commander’s intent and the unit’s readiness in mind. It’s important to understand your Commander’s intent and ensure that while you’re carrying out your tasks, you are abiding by Army Regulations and living the Army Values. I believe if you lead with this in mind a follow a few other guidelines, you will be a successful leader and your Soldiers will follow you anywhere.

Leaders are look upon as role models as they guide us with their motivating, influence to accomplish tasks. There are a lot of leadership styles; when leading, it is based on the situation. When I was in the military, I encountered with many different styles of leadership. A leadership that I considered meaningful is a Transformational Leader. The transformational Leader in the military with their inspiring charisma of motivating, influence creates a visualized path that produces energetic characteristics that inhere to new changes, developments, and possibilities.; by demonstrating authority, the Transformational Leader in the military utilizes their power to inspire and motivate people into trusting and following their example; this as

Leadership is not a position I strive for but one that I find myself in. By living the Army Values and gaining confidence through experience, I have come to find that I have more responsibility, not only to myself, but to others who have come to trust me. General Colin Powell has 18 lessons in leadership principles, there are a few that stand out and have helped to prepare me for my new position as a Warrant Officer.

Officers of my unit will have maximum time to accomplish their duties; they will not have to accomplish mine. I will earn their respect and confidence as well as that of my soldiers. I will be loyal to those with whom I serve; seniors, peers, and subordinates alike. I will exercise initiative by taking appropriate action in the absence of orders. I will not compromise my integrity, nor my moral courage. I will not forget, nor will I allow my comrades to forget that we are professionals, Noncommissioned Officers, leaders!

I will not demand anything from my Soldiers that I’m not doing myself. I want from my Soldiers to seek growth, counseling, and to stay hungry for success. I want them to carry themselves with honesty and have the trust to come to me with any problem regardless of how bad the problem is. This is the base to create transparency between me and my Soldiers to better assess them and lead them towards growth. Such approach will ensure they understand that I’m fair when evaluating them against their peers and denote where improvement needs to happen.

After 18 years as U.S. Army team member, I have developed a core set of values which I consider integral to the success of the Army. The United States Army is a value based organization. In order to ensure continued success, every member of the Army team needs to ask themselves, "Do I live by my values and making decisions consistent with these values when interacting with those around me?" Everyone has their own values, but as a member of the Army team our values, should nest in the Army’s core values of Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage to ensures mission accomplishment. We are all volunteers, so we want to be here. Every day we will strive to do our very best in support the Army soldier and mission. As a leader, all members of the Army team are important and essential to the success of our mission. These members include our Active Duty Military, our Civilian and Contractor colleagues as well as their families. I cannot over emphasize the importance of quality leadership. What fosters a good working environment is recognition of success, and discussion to rectify sub-par performance. I will provide a vision for where we are going and what we are trying to accomplish. In that effort, I believe in regularly scheduled performance counseling sessions to cover the good which should be sustained as well as the areas which need improvement.

Army leaders, no matter what level they are, which unit they belong to or what their job entails always have to keep learning new and additional skills of leadership as they gain more experience and increase the ranking structure. The majority of the greatest leaders of today and yesterday started at the bottom working their way up gaining expeirience and the loyalty of their men resulting in making them a better leader.

Leadership can be defined in many ways. There are countless documents, regulations, manuals and such defining what a Leader should be and citing of numerous examples. Developing proper leaders is oftentimes just as well documented in methodological ways that almost seem rote and excessive to the point of being overdone. Of course leaders can be developed through institutional and self-developmental practices, and those can often be regimented forms of education. The experiences though that shape an individual and their leadership style can never really be duplicated. Whether through the experiences of training, misfortune, success, or even the experiences of combat, it cannot be truly copied. Even with identical experiences, no two people will ever see it the same exact way. We do not want or need leaders that are all carbon copies of one another. We need dynamic leaders that can think individually and can bring their own perspectives to the table through their own individual experiences. Combat time and fighting on the battlefield provides some of the most rudimentary form of experience through first hand exposure. It is important that through these events, individuals and leaders take away experiences and lessons learned that will enable them to become an even more dynamic and developed leader.