Decision Making Methods Among Senior Leaders

Independent of the Army and country you serve, leadership is always an important subject. There are many civilian books and military manuals talking about leadership. The United States Army divides the subject leadership in three levels. These levels are Direct Leadership, Organizational Leadership, and Strategic Leadership. In this paper, the focus will be only about the first two levels. According with you rank, you will work more in one of these levels. Because of that, most part of time there is not much interaction between higher-level leaders and lower level leaders. Despite the limited interaction between higher level leaders like Brigade commanders with the lower level leader like company commander it’s not affect a satisfactory mission accomplishment.

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).

Being a leader is always a challenge, and assuming a new command is challenging. There are a lot of expectations to me as a leader. The organization has selected me to a new position, and they believe I fulfill their standards for their leaders. The organization trust and expect me to lead, develop and achieve. My superiors and subordinates have a lot of expectations. They expect me to lead them in the best way to solve our assigned missions. In my new assignment as commander of 4th Armor Brigade Combat Team (ABCT), the main critical leadership problems are the lack of cohesive teams, ethical and work standards and the level of stress. I will through analyze explain and defend my selection of critical leadership problems and apply a model for solving them, including implementing and measuring my vision as the new brigade commander.

Every leader is different and does things in a unique way that seperates them from their group. Some will take action immediately and others will take the time to think about a decision. There is no right or wrong approach as long as they keep in mind of who they are leading and what they are doing. Leaders are there to guide and motivate people, take control of a situation when no one else will, coach others and so much more. They know how to take risks and explore, they seek continous improvement and build great teams. When solving a

Successful leadership on a battlefield can be measured in different ways. It is possible for a good, successful leader to lose a battle. Conversely, it is possible for an ineffective leader to win a battle, given the right circumstances. What distinguishes a successful leader from an unsuccessful one is his/her ability to oversee an operation using effective mission command. In ADP 6-0, mission command as a philosophy is defined as “as the exercise of authority and direction by the commander using mission orders to enable disciplined initiative within the commander’s intent to empower agile and adaptive leaders in the conduct of unified land operations” (ADP, 1).

Most decisions are made with analysis, but some are judgment calls not susceptible to analysis due to time or information constraints. Please write about a judgment call you’ve made recently that couldn’t be analyzed. It can be a big or small one, but should focus on a business issue. What was the situation, the alternatives you considered and evaluated, and your decision making process? Be sure to explain why you chose the alternative you did relative to others considered.

It is widely known that in the military you are assigned a great amount of responsibility at a young age and early point in your career. This amount of responsibility is far greater than a civilian would be assigned at the same age. When put in these leadership positions you rapidly acquire skills to care for, make decisions, and earn trust. On my first deployment, our Helicopter Assault Force consisted of two 47 crews decentralized from our higher command. Our senior ranking officer and Air Mission Commander was often just a Captain. Our Flight Lead was typically a W3 or W4 and was the primary decision maker when it came to mission analysis and courses of action development. It was our Captains job to ensure the risk levels were acceptable and sell our mission to higher command. With well-trained commissioned officers and extremely knowledgeable flight leads, we were able to operate with extreme efficiency from a decentralized location from higher command. Additionally the well-defined Commanders Intent and Key Tasks enabled us to meet both the ground force Commander’s goals and our higher command’s

Commanders at all levels face increasingly challenging scenarios as the operational environment changes. Some instinctively motivate and empower their subordinates to think and act independently, thereby influencing actions during combat. However, those who understand the commanders' activities of mission command will influence not only subordinates, but the outcome of the battle as well. Mission command is the exercise of authority and direction by the commander using mission orders to enable disciplined initiative within the commander’s intent to empower agile and adaptive leaders.1 Commanders who understood the importance of mission command was Major General Horatio Gates. General Gates at the Battle of Saratoga successfully

Maj. Gen. “Fighting Joe” Hooker demonstrated an excellent example of failed mission command during the Battle of Chancellorsville in April 1863. He had thought he would defeat General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia by maneuver beginning in Chancellorsville as he pushed Lee toward Richmond. His commitment toward his own plan for Lee’s response would overshadow his operational planning and ultimately lead to a mission command failure at Chancellorsville despite outnumbering Lee’s troops 128,000 to 60,000. Through decentralized execution, Hooker could have empowered agile and adaptive leadership to operate under uncertainty, exploit opportunities, and achieve unity of effort. Instead, he failed in exercising at least four principles of mission command. He did not provide a clear commander’s intent, create shared understanding, exercise disciplined initiative, or accept prudent risk.

Leading from the front is the best way to implement Commander 's intent. According to The Army Doctrine Reference Publication 6-0, “The Commander drives the operations process through Understanding, Visualizing, Describing, Directing, Leading and Assessing the operational environment” Army Doctrine Reference Publication (ADRP 6-0, pg. 1-4) (2012). The Command Sergeant Major and Sergeant Major both echo the Commanders directives in driving the operational environment. The Command Staff is to provide timely and effective reporting to the Commander providing a more in-depth analysis. As a senior NonCommisioned Officer (NCO) representing the command, the Sergeant Major (SGM) has high regard with Unit command and subordinate unit Soldiers. The SGM has influence in the Command Staff to drive and verifying timeliness of staff reporting. I will support Mission Command using my influence as a Sergeant Major in planning, problem-solving, assessing, motivating, and echoing the commander’s intent throughout the command.

The timeliness and accuracy of decision making comes over time. Seasoned leaders respond to issues with a calculated cool because of years of experience. A key to military officer development are its structured leadership opportunities. General Savage spent many hours in the copilot seat before he sat in the pilot seat. A key to his decision making process is the introspection he developed from watching and being mentored by officers senior to him.

Military leaders make decisions and solve problems every day. Some need a decision quickly while others can take time. The US Army has several decision-making methods to assist leaders. The Army Problem Solving Model (Process) is a systematic approach to identifying the best possible solution to an issue or problem and a deliberate method of decision-making. (FM 6-0, 2009) Leaders use it to solve a problem when time is not critical and they can put some thought into different solutions. The solution must be objective and based on facts in order for the decision to be relevant and practical. The Rapid Decision Making and Synchronization Process is a decision-making and synchronization technique typically used during the execution

Great insightful point about how necessary it is to have a leader being actively involved and communicating with the whole team to make the plan successful. Another point when a leader is communicating is to be calm, calmness is contagious, if an Incident Commander is calm it will transmit to others. Also, they need to listen! If they are talking too much they are not listening, important information is constantly coming over the TAC channel, if they miss it, it doesn’t benefit anybody, and regular situational reports are needed to make sound tactical and strategic decisions. You have a bright future ahead of yourself, you are demonstrating qualities of leadership and will be successful when you decide to go down that road, use

The United States Army has implemented models called the Troop Leading Procedures (TLPs) and the Operations Process in order to facilitate a commander 's capacity to effectively and efficiently organize a task. When these models are executed together, they create a framework for leaders at various levels to excel in any situations they might encounter. Understanding the significance of the relationship between these models requires an in-depth understanding of each of them specifically. Each step of the Troop Leading Procedures contains numerous factors which reflect upon the other steps as well as the entire Operations Process. Likewise, each aspect of the Operations Process profoundly influences the decisions made throughout the TLPs. When applied together correctly, the Operations Process and Troop Leading Procedures provide a structure for strong and adaptable operational leadership.

Leadership, accountability, efficiency, morale, and a sense of order all depend upon your chain of command. Why it is important to follow proper instruction procedures in the military is for many reasons. As military personnel, it is our responsibility to not only follow instruction/orders, but to execute the command. Not following orders can result into consequences not only for the personnel whom committed not following instructions, but also it can put others at risk too. Like your NCO in charge of you, to your Team Leader, to your Platoon Sergeant, to your 1st Sergeant, to your Company Commander, to your Brigade Commander, and so on. Not only can your NCO in charge of you, your Team Leader, your Platoon Sergeant, your 1st Sergeant, your Company Commander, and your Brigade Commander could all get into trouble for your actions of not following direct instructions/orders. But some may lose rank in the process including the personnel whom didn’t follow the specific instructions/orders giving by a personnel higher rank than those individual personnel. Also when you are down range deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, and other combat places we have our units fighting the war at, not only can a personnel lose rank but in fact not following directions/orders you could get a personnel fighting alongside of you in the war killed in combat but you as well. Try to explain to a spouse, or a