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Gen Mattis Leadership Traits

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Leadership: General James “Mad Dog” Mattis
Leaders and leadership are what an organization or group needs in order to be successful and effective. The definition of leadership according to the text is “the use of power and influence to direct the activities of followers toward goal achievement” (Colquitt, LePine, & Wesson, 2017, p. 467). Within an organization or group a leader can exhibit many different styles of leadership or a combination of styles in order to be an effective leader. While there is no true recipe on how to become an effective leader, there are some key characteristics and traits that all leaders exhibit. The emergent leader is linked to numerous traits, which are conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness, extraversion, …show more content…

Marine Corps four-star general. Gen Mattis worked his way through the ranks. After graduating from Central Washington University at the age of 18, Gen. Mattis enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, where he would be commissioned a second lieutenant, O-1, in the U.S. Marine Corps. Throughout four decades Gen. Mattis would learn the leadership traits and characteristics that would ascend him to his current rank. Through every rank of O-1 to O-10, Gen. Mattis was placed in a leadership role where he commanded and led Marines into battle:
He led an infantry battalion in Iraq in 1991, an expeditionary brigade in Afghanistan after the 9/11 terror attack in 2001… and led all U.S. Marine Forces in the Middle East as Commander, I Marine Expeditionary Force and U.S. Marine Forces Central Command (U.S. Department of Defense, 2017, para. 2).
It takes a lot to be a leader, and it takes even more when the lives of the leader’s subordinates depend on the decisions he makes. Gen. Mattis is a successful leader because he exemplifies and lives out the leadership traits and characteristics of a compassionate and effective …show more content…

Mattis is seen as a successful leader, he like all human beings has his weaknesses. As Gen. Mattis was promoted through the ranks, he tried to stay out of the public eye and media because he felt that his main concern was the mission and training Marines. However, as general in it is inevitable to stay out of the media because many questions arise when it comes to military tactics and rules of engagement. At times Gen. Mattis has been verbally aggressive and hostile, which is consider neuroticism or negative affectivity. Neuroticism as negative affectivity is a “dispositional tendency to experience unpleasant moods such as hostility, nervousness, and annoyance”(Colquitt, et al., 2017, p.277). As a leader having low neuroticism is essential; however, when situations get tense this trait can be disregarded. For instance, Gen. Mattis has been ridiculed as a leader for saying violent and non-sympathetic words. In a interview Gen. Mattis said "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet" (Fisher, 2010). While he is a combat veteran that has been to war multiple times Gen. Mattis has been rebuke a number of times for his aggressive and hostile nature. While these events have been displayed in media, Gen. Mattis stands by words and is not ashamed of what he

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