The Role of a Strategic Leader in an Organization

Mission command belongs to the Army’s list of seven war fighting functions. While the other six of the Army’s war fighting functions specifically align to the application of combat power, mission command applies to leadership and its application. Mission command redefines the old construct of C2, command and control, by morphing the ideology into two distinct thoughts, the art of command and the science of control. Although mission command is a relatively new concept, it’s principles and application transcend time. This paper examines General Robert E. Lee’s application of the mission command principles at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Vision is defined that the ability to anticipate the future and communication that image to others (Harmic et al., 2014). Visionary leaders are the individuals who are not only big thinkers, but also a master of knowledge and own the ability to see alternatives to current thinking on a given issue. They have ability to fore see, set priorities, participate and prepare well for early in the changes process, before change occurs and set the stage for the events that follow. They also provide the guiding principles, positive directions and inspire their followers to reach the ultimate goal.

An Army Leader is able and willing to act decisively, within the intent and purpose of his superior leaders, and in the best interest of the organization. Army leaders recognize that organizations built on mutual trust and confidence, successfully accomplish peacetime and wartime missions.” (2006, P. Viii). Balance molds a leader and in turn, an effective leader is a proactive person who works a whole lot smarter. President George Bush (1997) states, “Leadership to me means duty, honor, and country; It means character and it means listening from time to time.” (Adrain, p. 35).

Ability to manage is another way a leader manifests and influence it subordinates. A leader must be a person that possess the following characteristics.

Grojean, Resick & Diskson (2004) suggest that leaders are responsible for facilitating their follower’s to become capable and guide them to improving their capabilities and strengths. Differentiating between different leadership styles can be done in a number of ways. It was determined that the traditional styles of leaders include authoritian (autocratic), democratic, permissive (laissez-faire) and bureaucratic (Viinamäki, 2009).

Leaders are some of the most influential individuals in any society. They have the ability to influence those around them with various leadership styles including coercive, authoritative, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and coaching. Effective leaders consistently adapt to the environment around them to either enhance or correct any situation facing them. Within these leadership styles the most effective style has been considered that of the authoritative style. This style brings individuals together, builds self-confidence, and easily adapts to the environment around it.

Leadership involves providing purpose, direction and motivation to subordinates to accomplish the mission. It is evident with the years of battle that General Robert E. Lee’s engaged in that he possessed the ability to motivate and inspire troops. In the black powder era of warfare, command remained very much personalized. The generalship of Robert E. Lee, an excellent Confederate general during the American Civil War, is arguably the greatest single factor in keeping the Confederacy alive during the years of the Civil War (Lee, Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia). On the contrary, General George Brinton McClellan participated in only one battle for its entirety, The Battle of Antietam. Therefore, this battle must serve as measurement of his leadership capabilities. Throughout this paper, I will compare and contrast the leadership of both of these Generals as it pertains to the

Thirdly, a good leader inspires risk taking and learning by setting the example. Winning companies embrace risk taking and learning. If somebody fail in it, we can talk about it openly in order to show that it is OK to take swings and miss, as long as we learn from it. Grossman emphasizes that it’s really important to him is people who have takes risks. Adding that

Mission command is a critical part of leadership. Commanders drive the operations process and are the most important participants. Analyzing a commander’s effectiveness in the six principles of the operations process will help to assess how effective a commander is at using mission command properly and how it affects the outcome of the battle. This paper will analyze Chief of Staff von Moltke’s ineffectiveness in the principles of operations during the First Battle of the Marne.

A leader has to get people so excited about their vision that they take ownership of the vision. Communication of the vision must include the people. It has to be a shared vision. Words are important because words matter. Words that ring of metaphors and images which people can identify with triggers their imaginations and they begin to see in their minds the benefits of the vision. The leader should exercise some charisma by showing

Niccolò Machiavelli was brave enough to give the leaders of his day a how-to guide. In this work, The Qualities of a Prince, we are given a point-by-point description of what a leader should do to effectively lead his country. Machiavelli explains that, because leadership is (obviously) a position of command, "[war] is the only profession which benefits one who commands. " (p. 33)

Visionary: This style is most appropriate when an organization needs a new direction. Its goal is to move people towards a new set of shared dreams. “Visionary leaders articulate where a group is going, but not how it will get there – setting people free to innovate, experiment, take calculated risks,” write Mr. Goleman and his coauthors.

Visionary leadership is also recognized as a companion to charismatic leadership. (Conger and Kanungo , Shamir et al). Westley and Mintzberg explained visionary leader in short process.

In order to achieve the vision, the leaders leave no stone unturned; they readily take up personal risk, may even incur huge costs and many a times have to engage in activities that force them to self-sacrifice things to achieve the vision. These leaders take good care of their followers by showcasing a sensitive attitude by taking into consideration perception of others abilities and responsiveness to their needs and feelings. And lastly, these leaders have an unconventional behavior that is perceived to be novel and something that counters the norms.

Leadership is a complex subject, but for our purposes can be defined as the act of one person influencing another person or group of people towards a common purpose that is beneficial for both the leader and their followers. Many approaches have been taken by academics in attempting to understand what leadership is at its core. Useful information has been unearthed by studying leadership qualities in individuals and by studying the dynamic between leader and follower. However, the abstractness of these studies left researches at somewhat of a loss for practical and relevant information, that is until research began on the observable behavior of leaders. The Style Approach is a useful way to look at the leader-follower relationship because it incorporates elements of behaviorist psychology and applies them to the study leadership as a phenomenon. The goal of this essay is to use observable behavior in the context of the Leadership Grid to determine the best course of action for leadership in any scenario.