Module 5: The Adaptable Leader

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.

The intention of this paper is to introduce my leadership philosophy. I will start off defining leadership as well as explaining my leadership philosophy. I will then share a summary of an interview with a Squadron Commander about a difficult situation that he needed to use his philosophy to work through and analyze how my philosophy applies to the same situation followed by a brief summary.

In addition, this document will highlight the importance of an effective leadership style, focusing on the proper use of intelligence assets and the welfare of soldiers in order to accomplish the mission during war.

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.

This concerning issue is apparent between the total force leadership and the subordinate commands. It can be felt at the operational level with the advent of a new evaluation form that encourages more competition among Airman for promotion. The purpose of the assessment is to capture the workers’ job performance over a course a year to compare ratings with others in and outside of a career field. This systemic problem is only exacerbated by ignorance of the issue or intentionally disregarded. Whatever the case the sense of individualism is embraced where team effort is preached. For example, at my rank I have to withhold my intentions when it comes to professional development and volunteer opportunities so I can stand out more for the sake of promotion competition. In addition, there is another arbitrary test that is used to measure your ability to lead and influence others in the Air Force. This test is a replacement for face-to-face training for personnel to learn these interpersonal skills. This unnecessary examination puts another obstacle for the airman that care more about the mission than studying a 1400 pages’ worth of material to prepare for such

This Chapter is more specific about the importance of developing personal adaptive leadership practices. Learning to understand your internal and external personality and leadership traits will go a long way in terms of foster creativity, boldness and a clearer understanding of the insides and out of your own system.

Given the opportunity to take command of a Remotely Piloted Aircraft Attack squadron actively engaged in combat is truly humbling, and standing on the shoulders of giants, now is the chance to test whether training, examples, both good and bad, and a lifelong building of one’s philosophy is enough preparation to meet that test. My leadership philosophy is one of proactive engagement, continual process/self-improvement, honest feedback, and 360-degree accountability. On Col Waddell’s continuum of Leader Behavior, my leadership style trends toward follower-dominant but not as far as TQM. I present ideas and problems, get suggestions and ultimately make the calls.

Being a leader in today’s United States Air Force is more than supervising subordinates or leading a project or program. A leader is someone who influences others to achieve a goal, they are typically men and women, though not perfect, strive to display ethical behavior, virtues, and character strengths in their actions as they battle their own vices and idiosyncrasies (crse 15). Not only must all Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) posses these abilities, they must be able to articulate them and pass them on to their subordinates, mentoring future generations of Airmen to strive to be better than they are today. Today, I believe I am on the right path as a leader; ensuring tasks are completed on time and encouraging, and utilizing my subordinate’s

Leadership, according to the Army doctrine, represents individuals’ ability to influence people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improving the organization (“Leadership” FM 6-22). However, the varying characteristics of individuals that the Army attracts may instill this doctrine in many different ways, leading to different representations of leadership. Some individuals choose to lead their subordinate in a stern matter, only displaying matured emotions and a “tough-loving” attitude to guide them in the right direction. Others

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.

It is important for a leader to understand that completing essential tasks to meet mission goals, personal development, and providing future leaders the tools to procure success are all equally important and should be balanced. Times may call for one responsibility to be a higher priority that the other, so it is imperative that leaders are able to differentiate what skills apply to certain situations. “Strategic leaders, for example, must control personnel development, evaluation and certification, and assignment and utilization processes in ways that motivate aspiring professionals as they progress through a career of service,” (TRADOC, 2010). The cycle of learning, training, and accomplishing goals creates a culture of duty-oriented Soldiers with dedicated character and leadership

Self-development is an essential part of mission success and the welfare of the unit. A mission’s success predicates itself on the effective training of each individual. This training is not confined to military training. For example, I am pursuing an M.P.S in Cybersecurity. Doing so provides me with a better understanding of my role as a 35Q in the Army. It also allows me to train my soldiers better. All levels of leadership should

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

Field Manual (FM) 6-22 defines leadership as “the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improve the organization”. The objective of this paper is to communicate my leadership philosophy of how I hope to lead the Soldiers within this organization. To fully understand my leadership, I will provide you some background on who I am and how my leadership styles have developed:

Beginning in boot camp and continuing throughout my career, I’ve seen the Coast Guard promote the leadership model to be: “You” influencing “Others” to achieve a “Goal”. With all the different ways leadership can be defined, this simplistic model which has been permanently engrained in my thinking definition still rings true for me. As such, when defining my own personal definition of leadership, I align it to this same model. More specifically, while I support the fact that leadership involves influencing others to achieve a common end I propose that is not the whole story. Leaders must not be stagnant in their vision and must lend themselves to the possibility they may have to adjust their leadership styles depending on the goal. The best leaders are the ones that understand their own personality traits as well as those traits of the people they are trying to lead.