Reflection Paper On Leadership

The book Black Hearts by Jim Frederick is an in-depth narrative about the 1st platoon, Bravo Company 1-502nd Infantry 101st Airborne Division deployed to Iraq in 2005. The leadership failures documented in this book range all the way from the general officer level down to the lowest private. LT general Ricardo Sanchez failed to understand the climate his command group was entering as they were deployed into Iraq. From then on the entire leadership failures continued to compound upon each other with improper time to plan. It is customary to have a six month lead time to have a proper battle hand off when preparing to take over an AO from another unit. To compound this problem, the entire time the 502nd was in pre-deployment training, they

The book Black Hearts opened my eyes to how leadership from a single Officer can have a grappling effect on such a wide range of soldiers from the lowest of ranks. One of the best takeaways from Black Hearts is to never do anything: illegal, unethical, or immoral. Although this is a easy statement to repeat, Black Hearts demonstrates the difficulties that lie behind these words. It has also painted a picture of how leadership can topple extremely quickly from a top down view. The Army is portrayed in a bad light throughout the book relentlessly. This is due to the concentration of poor leadership of the 1-502nd Regiment (Referred to as “First Strike”), a battalion of the 101st Airborne Division.

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 4th ABCT has numerous issues preventing the BCT from regaining past title as one of the best BCT in the division. However, I quickly realized in my assessment prior to taking command that this is directly linked to the previous command team. The climate has become extremely toxic to the point that primary staff officers are ready and willing to quit or resign their positions. The BCT is over worked, overloaded, and poorly led by its leaders causing an increase in DUIs, domestic abuse, and multiple divorces. Furthermore, there is a lack of commitment to the men and women within the BCT from their leaders, which stems from the poor ideals portrayed, threw the previous BDE CDR and CSM. Moreover, hazing, favoritism, and sexual misconduct have driven a deep divide within the BDE. One of the key components that I noticed was a lack of commitment to the Soldiers and leaders at all levels

Leaders are look upon as role models as they guide us with their motivating, influence to accomplish tasks. There are a lot of leadership styles; when leading, it is based on the situation. When I was in the military, I encountered with many different styles of leadership. A leadership that I considered meaningful is a Transformational Leader. The transformational Leader in the military with their inspiring charisma of motivating, influence creates a visualized path that produces energetic characteristics that inhere to new changes, developments, and possibilities.; by demonstrating authority, the Transformational Leader in the military utilizes their power to inspire and motivate people into trusting and following their example; this as

Poor leadership, or the more widely known phrase “toxic leadership”, has been a topic of concern throughout the history of the Army. The Army’s recently published leadership doctrine says that, “Army leaders motivate people both inside and outside the chain of command to pursue actions, focus thinking, and shape decisions for the greater good of the organization.” (ADP 6-22, 2012) There are many examples of leaders in recent years that have been relieved due to negative effects on their organizations. Poor leadership is commonly portrayed by telltale characteristics of those in leadership positions, revealed by detrimental effects on subordinates and mission accomplishment, and must be addressed through consistent education and

It was in this environment that Kunk started belittling and micromanaging his company commanders and sowed the seeds of mistrust between the different companies and the headquarters unit. In defense of Kunk, the mission he received was going to be one of the most difficult missions during the Iraq war. Upon reaching their area of operations and conducting their battle hand-off, the problems already started to arise with Bravo Company. A majority of their leadership was wounded or killed in action, creating a power vacuum and a domino effect which were exacerbated by Kunk’s actions. Instead of providing support to his wounded company, Kunk belittled them and blamed them for the hardships that had befallen their comrades further driving a wedge of mistrust between Bravo Company and the head quarter’s element. Even with frequent changes in leadership, the casualties and problems continued to rise for Bravo Company, and living conditions for the soldiers reached deplorable levels. Being short-manned stretched the already limited resources causing personnel levels to be recklessly low for the various tasks the company received. This lack of men and lack of leadership cultivated the perfect environment for heinous criminals to act on their impulses. Company commanders complained, psychiatric evaluations were completed, recommendations were made that went unheeded and problems still

Toxic leadership and climate defines the critical leadership problem within 4th ABCT. In conjunction, a lack of care for Soldiers and their families, favoritism, SHARP issues, and hazing have caused a unit to lose all trust in the previous Command Team. To combat these issues I will develop and implement my vision and a way ahead for the BCT using the 7 Step Model. Furthermore, I will focus on specific portions of the Rocket Model, Organizational Culture “Iceberg”, and correcting the Five Dysfunctions of a Team to solve the problem.

Toxic leadership as defined by Wilson (2014) “is a combination of self-centered attitudes, motivations, and behaviors that have adverse effects on subordinates, the organization, and mission performance”. NCOs, just as civilians, range from poor leaders to excellent leaders; but when does poor leadership become toxic leadership and what causes this toxic leadership? Not every soldier is born to lead. Some soldiers are bad decision makers, poor time managers, or just unable to inspire confidence in their fellow soldiers. There is nothing wrong with being a follower if you are a competent individual who can perform the given tasks. A NCO who cannot step up and lead is not a toxic leader, they are a bad leader. With education and training NCOs with poor leaderships skills develop into competent leaders.

In the book this was a constant and consistent factor and an obvious hint as to what to expect further along in the chapters which was a vicious tailspin out of control. Chapter 8 talked about a series of communication break downs. LTC Tom Kunk, the commander of the 1-502nd infantry regiment, set the standard of how the communication was going to exist within the platoons. The book talked about how he would lose his temper at his soldiers regardless how minor the issue. You could leave your weapon unattended or leave trash on the ground either way he would confront you in the most unprofessional way about it. This made his whole leadership style completely ineffective. I personally understand how much this can influence a soldier especially those who are still trying to figure out their leadership styles. If this is the only leadership style you deal with on a regular bases after a while it will start to become the standard for you. LTC Kunk being the commander of the regiment should be demonstrating better discipline and restraint. Instead this makes him appear to have no self control. He should have been setting the standard in a more positive way on communicating with members of the platoons, and creating a more cohesive environment. There were many other leaders in the platoon who made similar mistakes. This example doesn’t just apply to this particular situation but can also result the same in a family. If your mom and dad are constantly bickering and your always

From the battalion level to the company level the leadership from the top started to makes its way the individual squad members. As 1st platoon continue to have their struggles with the leadership they begin to also have them with the battlefield. The constant stress from the leadership began to build up and continued to build up with the environment they were set in. A lot of the company commanders became passive leader not knowing what to or did not want to do anything that would get on LTC Kunk’s bad side. CPT good did show signs of stress in some of his decision making one in particular cost him the lives of his men. The platoon leader of first platoon LT Britt was an enthusiastic leader who everyone in his platoon respected but later feared for his life before dying to IED. The platoon sergeant seemed to take everything well even with the lack of sleep and supply. The squad leaders

Why do toxic leaders develop within the Special Forces (SF) community and how would I deal with the problem within 7th Special Forces Group? There are two reasons toxic leaders develop within the SF community; or any community for that matter. One being the 10% rule, and the other, leadership failures. The only way to deal with the problem, without undermining the system already in effect, is to prevent it from continuing to happen. These measures of prevention include reevaluating the following; counseling, annual evaluations, and how we promote.

Soldiers feel unit leaders would make bad decisions in combat due to the micromanagement in the company and the Commander does not listen to recommendation from unit leaders.

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.

What defines leadership? There are a number of definitions of the meaning of leadership including but not limited to the theories of leadership and how leadership should work. In my opinion, every individual has different ways of confronting situations and there is not one leadership style or theory that will be flawless for any given situation. However, to be a successful educational leader, it is crucial to understand and be familiar with the various theories and styles of leadership as well as our personal tendencies to nurture a personal leadership style. Despite the method used to confront a situation, it’s the outcome of success that will determine which leadership style or theory should be used. The following