The Signal Corps Basic Officer Leader Course As A Potential Pilot Organization Essay

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.

This paper on Leadership will compare the primary differences and characteristics between the tactical leader and the organizational leader. I will provide you with the basics for development, characteristics, and the fundamentals that help guide and influence each leader’s style and how they influence Soldiers to follow them. Leaders at all levels demonstrate their values, knowledge, skills, and abilities in many different means and methods in

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

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.

Toxic leadership has been a growing problem in the Army for years. In the last ten years, the Army has started to conduct research and think of solutions to toxic leadership. A toxic leader is a leader that is self-serving, micromanages their subordinates and gives orders without supplying a purpose or inspiration for completing the task. Toxic leaders destroy the effectiveness and morale of the unit. They can be taken out of command and identified by using an evaluation system that includes their subordinates so that lower level leadership can evaluate their superior’s leadership potential. They can also learn to change how they lead and use better, more productive strategies that inspire rather than deflate their soldiers.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss how Sergeants Major can use positive psychology and Master Resiliency Training (MRT) to foster a command climate free of toxic leaders. The use of positive psychology and MRT competencies and skills can assist in identifying and preventing the effects of toxic leaders. Incorporating these methods in Professional Military Education (PME) and leader development programs are an extremely important center of gravity for senior NCOs have on a unit’s Soldiers. Sergeants Majors are inherently responsible for the health, welfare, training, and development of the most precious of commodities, the soldiers. Toxic leaders present an extremely difficult leadership challenge at all echelons. Soldiers

In today’s military, lessons are learned daily through the use of AAR’s and breifbacks, however in order to excel in the art of command, particular attention should be paid to the lessons taught in Module C130 Leader Development and Assessment. The topics taught in the Leader Development and Assessment Module are critical to the success of a Field Grade Officer in accomplishment of mission and personnel management. Long gone are the days of “Do it because I say so” or redoing work multiple times in order to teach the staff a lesson with no leadership guidance. Toxic leadership has come to the forefront and is now not only recognized as an issue, but joked about in many circles, yet some Field Grade Officers do not comprehend what it

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

NCO’s are the backbone of the Army, and with an ever-changing enemy and warfront, it becomes more crucial more now than ever to have a well-rounded NCO. This means we need NCO’s that are not just very proficient at their MOS, but also intellectually and professionally developed. With the focus being on the war and MOS proficiency for the last decade NCO professional development has fallen to the wayside. With the war winding down we now need to turn our focus back to the well-rounded NCO who is very MOS proficient, but in the same sense professionally developed. This is accomplished through the leader development process, which is a progressive and sequential process of development.

Toxic Leadership is a legitimate problem that severely affects the ability of a unit to accomplish its mission in garrison or combat. The Army is a flexible and adaptable organization trained to fight and win our nation’s wars against a complex, ever-changing enemy, however quite often the greatest enemy often comes from within. Consequently, leaders who look out for themselves rather than for the welfare of the Soldiers or unit, as Ulmer (2012) stated, “…are unconcerned about, or oblivious to, staff or troop morale and/or climate. They are seen by the majority of subordinates as arrogant, self-serving, inflexible, and petty.” (p. 48). They leave a unit with low morale, poor esprit de corps, and a degraded ability to accomplish its mission.

I agree that a 360-degree evaluation can be used to marginalize Toxic Leadership throughout the Army. This attempt in identifying poor leadership throughout the ranks has been an ongoing process and still needs significant work. As you stated in your discussion some might argue that one might perceive a toxic leader as just the opposite. With the drastic change in society and the “out with old and in with the new” mentality; it appears that we need to dig deeper into these evaluations and find a solution. The “old school” Army Sergeant was raised and trained to lead by intimidation and strict behavioral traits. This type of leadership peculiarity might come across as offensive to the newer generation of Soldiers graduating Basic Training

“Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.” (General George S. Patton) The ethereal spirit of man that Gen. Patton is speaking of is what some believe separates a passable leader from a great one. The Army attempts to define and quantify this intangible quality through the use of the Leadership Requirement Model and its attributes and competencies. The portion of the Leadership Requirement model that best embodies this vague quality, while still falling short, is the Leads portion of the Core Competencies. This Competency encompasses

The study was informed by a phenomenological qualitative methodology and the design is a single case study of the leadership development approaches resulting in high performing leaders. The selected methodology and specific research design to address my problem and “will consist of interviews, documents and artifacts. “The goal is to conduct an analysis of the impact of the various leadership development approaches that result in high performing leaders. The qualitative research design is a primary way to understand the context of Military Leadership development, (Yin, 2013). This methodology is also chosen because it is one primary way to best capture participants ' firsthand accounts of leadership experiences as they relates to leadership development programs, (Byrne & Ragin, 2009). Thematic Analysis will be used to analyze the research result, (Jennifer Attride-Stirling, 2001). Data will be organized and prepared for analysis in the following steps located in appendix B. . This method of study is especially useful for trying to test theoretical models by using them in real world situations. This qualitative Case Study Design is also chosen because it provides an in depth study of the various leadership approaches as they relate to high performing leaders. It is a method used to narrow down a very broad field of research into one easily researchable topic.

I also believe that an effective leader plays a significant role in promoting and molding individuals’ readiness as it relates to motivation and commitment. As such, I developed my leadership assessment with these points in mind. The assessment focuses on 14 attributes that I believe are important not only for a leader to be successful within the parameters of the SLT, but for most any leadership model adopted by a successful leader in the modern business environment. The assessment was completed by Bobby, my manager of nearly six years, and by Katrina, my highest-ranking direct report of nearly four years. Each was asked to assign a candid rating to each attribute using a one-to-ten (worst-to-best) scale as well as to make notes or offer any suggestions so that I may incorporate it into my leadership style in an effort to improve the areas of weakness and become a better leader. In addition, I did a self-assessment using the same criteria. It should be noted that while Bobby offered both a ranking and narrative feedback, Katrina completed the assessment using the numerical ranking only. The results were consistent in some areas and mixed in others, but revealed some valuable information that I can use not only within the context of this course, but also as my career is better defined over time.

Leadership can be defined as a skill that is in demand. We expect supervisors and managers to have these essential skills in order to be a successful leader. Leadership is developed through family, friends and education. The Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) core curriculum is centered on developing leadership skills and attributes that go along with it. (For the purpose of this paper, when discussing ROTC, I am referring to the Army even though the Airforce, Marines, Navy, and the Coast Guard have ROTC programs.) ROTC program provides Cadets (student) with the basic knowledge that peers and subordinate look for in a leader, then challenges them to use that leadership development on a day to day bases and in stressful situations (for this paper, students will be referred to as Cadets). This paper is going to outline the ROTC programs by discussing the history of the ROTC and their ability to develop leaders not only for the military, but for future employers, the dissertation study of the relationship between leadership style and decision on ROTC leadership training, and the dissertation on a qualitative study of the relationship between