Army Professional Values

The Army is one of the nation’s most highly regarded institutions in America. This is due largely to the work ethic and the servant leadership qualities of the Non Commissioned Officer (NCO), which are the backbone of the Army. The term sergeant comes from the French word for servant. It is the type of leadership that all NCO’s should aspire to if they want to lead at any level. Servant Leadership is a term that seems like an oxymoron to most but it directly correlates to the Army Values and Soldier’s Ethos. This paper will examine the qualities and characteristics of servant leadership. How they relate to the army values and warrior’s ethos, and how this type of leadership can benefit the army. Finally, I will give examples from history of the leaders that modeled servant leadership.

Turn on the TV or read a newspaper and it won’t be long before you hear or read about a high ranking military member being charged with or facing allegations of misconduct. As a result of recent headlines, we as a military organization are losing the sacred trust invested in us by the very people we are in uniform to protect, the American people. This includes the young men and women who will join our ranks on a daily basis. We as a professional organization need to bring about a cultural change, a re-calibration of sorts, within the ranks of our Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers. Only after we realign our leaders can we begin to eliminate the ineffective leaders and nurture a new professional organization, one that can rebuild

Army culture has a profound effect on professionalism. It is defined by the shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that endure over time despite personnel changes. The levels of Army culture are Artifacts, Espoused Beliefs and Values, and Basic Underlying Assumptions. Artifacts are what Soldiers see and hear while part of an Army unit, and they remind Soldiers of their profession. Espoused Beliefs and Values are what the Army says is important, which its Soldiers, especially its leaders, must exemplify through their actions in order to promote consistent professional behavior. Basic Underlying Assumptions are ideas that have become so widely accepted that they are rarely questioned, and thus, they can readily reinforce

The Department of the Army Senior Leadership recognized that we have neglected our professional standards. Therefore, they requested an analysis and renewed focus on its understanding and demonstration of the Army’s professional criteria. This white paper is the initial product, which lays out common concepts such as attributes of the profession, culture, Army Ethic, and the civil-military relationship that the Army will use to begin the conversation.

The Army Profession works with expert knowledge to assure the nation’s security. Being an expert at their job will lead them to earn the trust of who they are serving through their ethics, because our expert work is vital to society there is a trust between the profession and society (An Army White Paper, 2010). That trust is earned by effectively and ethically applying military expertise on the American society’s behalf, and by ensuring that members of the Army Profession continue to serve honorably. There are five essential characteristics of the Army Profession: Military Expertise, Honorable Service, Trust, Esprit de Corps, and Stewardship of Profession (An Army White Paper, 2010). Trust is the foundation of the Army Profession and the

Professionalism is very essential to any profession to include the military. The involvement in wars around the world is the most challenging issue that our Army is facing which requires discipline, dedication, and skill. Professionals must be able to produce effective and expert work. Professionals must conduct themselves ethically to earn the public trust, for example the concept of U.S. Army’s professional Ethic was created based on trust of the American people and civilian leaders.

Doctrine and training practices have changed to improve through lessons learned and time tested methods. We as volunteers create a sense of identity with one another through training and shared experience to build a community within the Army. We learn as a group to overcome obstacles, rely on each other in field environments and build a team from a small group. Basic rifle marksmanship also sets the Army aside as we must be proficient to complete the training required of us. “A sense of community broadens Soldiers identity by developing the I into the we.” (Putnam, 1993). We learn from our leaders the ethics and creeds that inspire us and make us want to succeed and become leaders and mentors for future generations. “Leaders at all levels can set the conditions for ethical and virtuous behavior is rewarded and unethical behavior is punished. Leaders can also create normative pressures to align ethical behaviors by communicating the values and ideals of the unit that all Soldiers are expected to honor”. (Brown, 2005). Leaders at all levels must foster a climate of shared beliefs that honor the Army

As leaders in this environment, it is implicit that we maintain the trust of the force no matter what your MOS may be. We are all soldiers first, live by the Army values, and assist our subordinates in their mastery of being a professional soldier. The leader must balance the culture of the military with the needs of the professional development of their soldiers. The leader must build and maintain the trust of the personnel in and build ingrain in them the stewardship of their profession, fostering growth and further development. They must be taught to balance the often-changing needs of the army with that of their profession. The skills of the profession require an expertise that endures through changing climates the trust, loyalty and character of the leader requires flexibility but at the same time an unwavering commitment to service.

Among the challenges faced by the Unites States Military today, none are more common than the task of giving troops the knowledge needed to balance loyalty to their peers and loyalty to a unit or organization. This is not strictly a military issue however with the special focus that society places on the military, members are held to a higher ethical standard when it comes to placing loyalty and "doing the right thing".

The Army today is a profession that is in transition, a profession that will be in peril if we do not adapt. The Army has gone through transitions in the past that have caused it to become less of a profession if not to be even considered just another job and after ten years of war we are at another crossroads in our profession (Army, 2011). Just as failure to adapt can lead to failure on the battlefield it can lead to the failure of the Army as a Profession. The Army must continue to shape its own future as a profession or it will cease to become one. For the purpose of this paper, I will discuss three main factors that will help the Army maintain its status as a profession; its unique skill set, its ethical foundation, and its service to the people.

The key attributes of the Army Profession are trust, honorable service, military expertise, stewardship of the profession, and esprit de corps; they distinguish and build up the Army as a military according to ADRP 1, The Army Profession. The difficulties of fighting, an impressive and dangerous adversary, in an unfriendly and uncertain environment, physical and mental weariness, detachment from friends and family, and unknown anxieties wear on even the most experienced Army professional; therefore esprit de corps is the most important.

The Army’s leadership concept hinges upon its leaders being able to develop and maintain trust with their seniors, peers and subordinates. In the realm of the Non-commissioned officer, the need for trust cannot be overstated. When NCOs are able to create an atmosphere of trust they are endowed with freedom from their seniors to accomplish their missions, respect from peers enabling cross-unit relationships, and a willingness from subordinates to follow no matter what the mission. In order for NCOs to achieve this kind of freedom to lead, they must first understand the need for trust. After that, NCOs must know how to build trust. Finally, NCOs must know how to identify and combat toxic leadership styles.

Those military officers who are destined to become a leader are trained within the organization for the most effective use of manpower and resources. The Army uses a philosophy of leadership developed over the last several decades by subjecting Army personnel to the philosophy of command. This philosophy is stemmed from the “Golden Rule” of leadership. One’s values, ethics and virtues are needed from the beginning and are continual resources for making a good leader. One the basic comparisons between the military and higher education leadership is the progression of one’s ability to have a “vision” to complete the mission or operational responsibilities (Beach, 2015; Martinez, 2011).

I agree with you that we as military leaders have to develop the trust of our troops as the trust of the public in order to be effective in our jobs as leaders. Dishonesty or unethical behaviors within our leadership indeed have great affects in our way of accomplishing our mission. I believe that order and discipline within the military is on of the outmost important components of military leadership. Most importantly whenever any act of dishonesty or unethical behavior occurs within our ranks we must be swift, diligent and without hesitation and reservation or rank or position take action in order maintain our ethical behavior leader principle.

Collapse of trust is easy, but reconstruction of it is difficult. When I was infantry company commander in Japan Army, the unit’s situation was terrible. I assigned as a commander in August, 2014, a soldier in this company committed suicide four months before. The cause of the accident was not definitely known, but it was certain that this unfortunate incident had seriously affected a unit and brought depressed feeling and mutual distrust among the company, and reconstructing this unit was my top priority issue. Commander is always concerned about everything of unit, and building trust with their soldiers is especially important. However talented, intellectual and