My Personal Critical Assessment Of The Air War College ( Awc ) Course

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.

This was one of my greatest accomplishments that I have achieved in my life. The roles of a Flag Party Commander from the views of an outsider are commanding and taking lead of many parades. Through leading the members of the Flag Party, I have not only gained the trust and the ability to lead the members, but I have learned to lead myself and take full control of my life. Also, I learned that leading with care, passion, and positivity is in my opinion the most effective method to lead. The last idea that I have learned from being the commander is that it is not just about being the best, but it is to lead others with motivation, being another cadet's role model, feeding people ideas and let them create their own, and taking the extra step to be the best person that you want the others to see you

For the next 10-15 years, leadership development is critical within the military. Training to develop agile leaders will yield a competitive advantage within both private and public organizations. Importantly, leadership training should mirror as if one would fight in the new Era International Security Environment. Such tenacity will confront limited engagements in the next 10 years, plus a great deal of offensive operations in the 15 years. Therefore, trained leaders are flexible to their changing missions, roles, and responsibilities, thus are more adaptive to compelling new conflicts.

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.

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.

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

My personal experiences of leadership started when I was younger, roughly 7 years old, I was elected the captain of my travel soccer team. At the time I didn’t think much of it, nor did I have any extra duties that I was explicitly told that I needed to perform. Later throughout the season, I started to notice my teammates mimicking my styles and techniques and I highly enjoyed this feeling of being looked up to. I didn 't realize until years after that the recognition and pride I felt was leadership. This privilege of being captain was the first time I had realized that people weren 't necessarily following my actions because I was extraordinarily skilled, but because I provided this role model status with my confidence and encouragement. Some of the most valuable leaderships traits that I acquired and fortified are:

Believe me, being a leader is not an easy job. If you can accomplish all these things then you can be a true leader. From my own experience, being a captain is not easy. Even I struggle with these qualities. The pressure of being a leader of is overwhelming, and takes hard work to accomplish. “Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile,” by Vince

One of the toughest group settings I have ever found myself in was Air Force ROTC Field Training. Field Training is a 5 week course for young college students in the ROTC program to learn how to become officers in the US Air Force and particularly how to lead people in a field setting. Our textbook defines leadership as the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of goals (Robbins & Judge, 2009, Ch. 12). Now, imagine yourself dropped into the environment I was put in. I am one of 400 or so cadets in this encampment, over one thousand miles away from my home. My only communication with my family or the outside world is via hand written letters. It is the middle of the Summer in Southern Alabama, and the heat is so intense it was melting the shoe polish off of my shoes. I am constantly being yelled at by military drill instructors about all of the things I am doing wrong. And now, I am suddenly tasked with being the flight commander for the 20 other cadets in my flights that all come from different backgrounds, and all of whom I am meeting for the first time. In this research paper, I will talk about a few of the core concepts that I feel I applied very well to help me be the best leader I could be in this situation.

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 main points of this article relate to the changing nature of warfare (think terrorism and advancements in technology) and the adjustments military leaders are obliged to make. Hence, according to the article, leaders must: a) be trained in critical thinking skills; b) be "committed to life-long [and self-directed] learning"; c) be willing to take the initiative to "diagnose" their goals, needs,

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.

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

As a Senior Human Resources Officer and a Leader in the United States Army, I found this class not only to be very informative, but very useful for future practice and application. Through the myriad of different leadership theories and approaches, I have developed a better understanding of the historical, political, social, cultural, psychological, and organizational contexts in which leadership occurs. I am knowledgeable on several ways to identify personnel who may be make for better leaders using the Trait Approach, Skills Approach, and Style Approach. I am also able to better match leaders with subordinates by using the Situational Approach, Contingency Theory, and Path-Goal Theory. Finally, and probably most importantly, I have