Lack Of Leadership In The Military

I agree with your comment where you disagree with the author that he "dogs a lot on America and their lack of leadership." I believe that we do have great leader, but the only problem is that do not know how to work with each other. Our country is divided in two parties and both side have some great leaders and in order to run this country, I believe that great leaders from both side must work together.

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).

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the real world consequences of when Army leaders become complacent dealing with foreign national soldiers, and the day to day operations while in a combat theatre. To gather lessons learned from the example discussed in order to lower the probability of a reoccurrence among the force. Through the example demonstrate the need for Army leaders to constantly fight against complacency, and the extreme importance that leaders know their soldiers, and place their soldiers’ needs before their own. The scenario discussed was a real incident that took place in Iraq in 2009, at a Coalition Outpost (COP) approximately 30 kilometers south of Mosul, in a city called Hammam al-Alil.

The Marine Corps has 11 Leadership Principles. Of the eleven, there is one that states, “Seek Responsibility and Take Responsibility.” This is instilled in every Marine from Private (Enlisted-1) to General (Officer-10). Throughout the Bible, God placed responsibility upon His people and expected them to act accordingly. However, He did not punish the son for the father’s sin and vice-versa. There were times in the Old Testament that this occurred. For example, with Achan (Jos. 7:14-15) when he stole spoils from battle, did not confess it, and he along with his family was killed. Another instance happened when the accusers of Daniel and their families were thrown in the Lion’s Den (Dan. 6:24). Sande states, “Another way to avoid responsibility for our sins is to shift the blame to others or to say that they made us act the way we did.”

One of the profound challenges that the United States of America faces today is poor leadership. I’m not just speaking about the President of the United States, but all those that are leading our great country. Our leaders today have poor communication skills, self-serving nature, poor character nevertheless they are not looking forward to helping the United States of America.

You bring up many valid points in your post. I too have seen a number of quality soldiers exit the Army only because of toxic leadership. In my experience, it only takes one toxic leader a short period to destroy the motivation of a quality soldier. Some of the people I have seen leave the Army were under the impression that Army leaders have changed over the years, and this is simply the new environment within the Army and Special Forces. At this point, it was too late to convince them to come back. They had already made up their mind that they were going to get out and find a better job without all of the frustrations. I like your concept of raising quality leaders from within our ranks in order to avoid the toxic leadership

Module 6 described the concepts of Leadership and Followership as key in being a successful and effective leader in today’s Air Force. The two concepts go hand in hand, as each contains a level of power and influence needed by the other. From this module, I found the Followership concept to be of most importance.

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.

The #1 cause of failure in this organization is that ownership has failed to establish distinct boundaries between personal interests and corporate interests.

I define leadership as being able to efficiently and effectively accomplish tasks with the resources that have been given to you; all the while maintaining an esprit de corps. The leaders that best demonstrated what “right looks like” when it comes to leadership was MMNCM Jim Lucky and LCDR Michael Siedsma. Jim and Mike were the Engineering Department Master Chief (EDMC) and Engineer Officer (ENG), respectively, at my last command. While attached and under their tutelage, I was shown what effective leadership can do. They were able to take four different personalities, four different leadership styles, and four different maturity levels and combine them to make NORTH DAKOTA’s Engineering Department the best that I have ever served at. I don’t believe that I will ever serve under the same awesome leadership again in my Navy career. Although that does make me a little sad, it has motivated me to emulate that style to those that I lead.

While working as a Training Sergeant at Ft. Knox for 3 years, I was exposed to numerous challenges in projects. Numerous discussions with senior leadership to provide an effective business solution and improve it over time were one of the key things to deal with. Last fall, I was working with my commanding officer, one of the leaders of my unit, whom is in charge of an immense amount of data about our operations.

Dysfunctional leadership suffocate others with coercive power and ego, are unpredictable, and often lack self-awareness about their dysfunction (Shuck, Rose, & Bergman, 2015).It has an emphasis on selfishness, as its primary focus is on the leader’s goals and objectives contrasted with the needs of employees and the greater social organization. The impacts of dysfunctional leadership are felt in the outcomes of the organization that undermines the quality of life for individuals who are could either be internal or external to the organization and undermine their fundamental objectives. Undesirable organizational consequences are the result of a dysfunctional leader behavior and vulnerable followers working together in an enabling environment.

I can reflect with much pride where these two children are today; how they have developed spiritually and academically, and to think God used me to help lay the foundation is eternally rewarding. But as with any good deed done, there is always a negative folks will attempt to label your efforts with, mine wasn’t any different.

Job involvement is the degree to which an employee is engaged in and enthusiastic about performing their work. Employee engagement is the heightened emotional and intellectual connection that an employee has for his/her job, organization, manager, or coworkers that, in turn, influences him/her to apply additional discretionary effort to his/her work. An ‘engaged’ employee will understand and agree with the objectives of your business. They will come to work feeling motivated and energised but unfortunately that’s about it. ‘Engagement’ is the result of a passive acceptance of company values and objectives. It helps increase productivity, to a point. The next step that every business should strive towards, is ‘involvement’. An involved employee will take an active role in the business. They will implement new initiatives, take ownership of himself and actively participate in driving change.‘Involvement’ is the active pursuit of these objectives. An involved employee will help drive the organization forward and add value to your business. Businesses like Google, Ford, and Wal-Mart and tackling slackers with new and creative ways to get more involved employees.

Dale Carnegie (2012) teamed with MSW Research and surveyed 1,500 employees to better understand the key drivers of employee engagement. Based on their findings, the key drivers for engagement included an employee’s relationship with their immediate supervisor, a belief in senior leadership, and pride in working for the company. The attitude and actions of the immediate supervisor can enhance employee engagement or can create an atmosphere where an employee becomes disengaged. Saks (2006) also supported these findings in his research as he found that engaged employees are more likely to have a “high-quality relationship with their employer leading them to also have more positive attitudes, intentions, and behaviors” (p.613).