Joining Air War College ( Awc )

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.

The creed of the noncommissioned officer is a baseline for all noncommissioned officers Corporal all the way up to Sergeant Major, on how to conduct oneself in the leading of soldiers. It does not outline every single situation you may come into throughout your military career but if you live this creed then you should be set for success. In this paper we are going to take an in depth look into the creed and how you can apply every aspect of it to leadership.

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 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.

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).

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." Dwight D. Eisenhower This quote from Eisenhower rings true on many levels. During my career in the military and the private sector, I have been subjected to many different styles of leadership, good or bad. In my leadership roles I have attained, I tried to model leadership abilities by taking bits and pieces of previous leader’s styles and forming them into my own model. This has proven to work well as dealing with people from all different walks of life there is no one size fits all approach. In writing this paper, I will detail my own leadership platform drawing from the course material and various other sources. The goal of this paper is to show a solid understanding of the course teachings and perhaps give the reader a new found perspective on leadership.

As an officer in the United States Army, it has been imperative for me to understand every facet of leadership and why it remains important to be an effective leader. During this course, I have learned some valuable lessons about myself as a leader and how I can improve on my leadership ability in the future. The journal entries along with the understanding of available leadership theories have been an integral part of my learning during this course. For all of the journals and assessments that I completed, I feel it has given me a good understanding of my current leadership status and my future potential as a leader. All of the specific assessments looked at several areas in regards to leadership; these assessments covered several

In the assigned readings there three viewpoints about leadership are presented: transformational leadership; the warrior ethic; and a blending of transformational and warrior leadership. All three bring forth a number of differing opinions and perspectives on leadership and how it pertains to the CAF.

In my realization of my experience with the joining the United States Air Force Reserves. It has helped me to set up my life for the professional career structure and enhanced my knowledge base. The intense training that I have went through helped with respect, time management, and critical decision making process. Some training schools that I have gone for in my career field. My knowledge has developed within myself through the culture of the Air Force. It has allowed me to open my mind to unique situations. The Air Force has enhanced me towards my social networking capabilities. The fact is that joining the military, set life commitments to follow and learn by in many ways.

When I was a lieutenant, one of my mentors told me that the officers ‘job is first and foremost about leadership. For senior officers, then, one must say everything is about leading strategically. In order to be an effective strategic leader, my self-assessment has led me to focus on the following goals during this academic year at the Air War College (AWC): to improve my understanding of the strategic environment; to learn to be strategically relevant, to shape my ability to communicate effectively at the strategical level.

The Right to Lead Assessment Model (RLAM) is a useful construct for analyzing one’s own ability to lead at the strategic level in a Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental and Multinational (JIIM) environment. I will briefly describe key RLAM components, assess my personal strengths and weaknesses (in each component), and then prescribe a strategy to improve weakness while attending the Air War College (AWC). My overall objective is to have people follow me because I earned their commitment and confidence (also RLAM components) as opposed to automated, unearned respect associated with my rank or job title. The RLAM, which I use as a reflective self-assessment, consists of roughly 12 components. However, I focus on five of these components, which are most critical for strategic leadership: character, competence, personality, drive, and relevance. Character is the most important RLAM component.

I am Joseph Maruska, I am currently a Major in the United States Air Force. This essay will introduce you to my personal command philosophy. It will also summarize and analyze a brief interview recently conducted with a current squadron commander using my own leadership philosophy as a guide. Throughout this essay I will draw upon my own personal experiences and thoughts, lessons discussed throughout the Leadership and Command Course, as well the discussion with a current squadron commander. Leadership and command styles come in many different forms and there is not necessarily a correct or incorrect way to lead depending on your organization or current turn of events. This essay is simply my thoughts after being in the Air Force for the last eleven years.

My time in the military has shown me that I have a need for order and discipline. I want to instill this trait into my subordinates and affectively give them the tools to succeed and complete the mission both home and abroad. I lead from the front and never leave those willing to strive for betterment. My plan involves completing my degree and obtaining the knowledge level needed to effectively take care of and train my replacements in true values, pride in ownership and family values. A stepping stone is that anyone can learn from anyone, even if it’s what not to do. I challenge myself to right all the wrong styles of leadership that I have experienced throughout my career and be that exception to the policy/good ole boy club members. The Air Force can change with assistance from those willing to make the change. I have given blood for my countries ideals and know I will give my every effort to help produce the most capable and experience airmen for the purpose set by our CINC. I

I can relate to your post as I too am required to obtain my degree in order to be promoted. In the Air Force, degree requirements were formerly a prerequisite for officers. The promotion regulations for the enlisted force are changing. In order to be promoted to senior enlisted ranks, not only do we have to meet time in service and time in grade criteria, we have to complete correspondence courses (after technical school) and airman leadership, noncommissioned officer, and senior noncommissioned academy courses (which encompass hundreds of study hours) and take tests on all of the above to be granted the next level in specialty code and rank. In addition to these standards, we now have to obtain an associates degree from the Community College