Toxic Leadership In The Army

In today’s Army, there are three levels of Leadership. We are going to talk about Direct and Organizational levels of the Army leadership. Direct leadership starts at the lowest level with the team leader of which has the most direct influence with Soldiers. Organizational Leaders have a staff to help them make decisions on a daily basis and provide the resources for the direct leaders to accomplish their mission. After 13 years of conflict, Mission Command could not have not even been more important than it is now. Both Direct and Organizational leaders must provide their subordinates intent and purpose in order for them to operate with in Mission Command.

At the end of the day, a true leader “in the army will do these three things live by the army core values, know the warrior ethos, and lead by example”-MSI textbook. Leaders both in and out of the army are held to a higher standard holding themselves in a professional manner at all times. The success of the group is attributed to the leadership styles and core values instilled in the solider to do his job effectively. General Eisenhower once

Robert E. Lee once said of leadership, “I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself” (Jones, 1875). This is an instance where I believe that even though this idea or thought was mentioned many years ago, it still has relevance today. I do not have an exact date of that quote, but with General Lee fighting in the Civil War, I would imagine it came somewhere in the mid-1800’s (The book it is found in was published after his death). Our current military leaders need to listen to advice like this quote, get out and know the people they put in charge so they are better able to make decisions on who should and should not actually be leading.

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

Every leader in the U.S. Army have a different leadership style. During my thirteen years in the Army I have seen several leaders placed in positions where it was obvious that they were born for that position, performing admirably and making very real contributions. In other situations leaders were placed in positions of leadership appearing unprepared for the role. These leaders over time were soon surrounded by other leaders that ensured their success. Several leaders in my career have left a lifelong mark on my leadership style. Every one of them left me with knowledge that have built a foundation for my leadership beliefs and style. There is also what we call in the Army, “toxic leadership” which produce harm to the organization, leaders

This is our job as NCO’s to keep the culture and climate of our profession at its peak. We cannot be the ones that “talk the talk” but not “walk the walk” bring that culture down. It is one of our areas of expertise to take care and nurture young soldiers. They are the future of the profession, the future experts that will keep the profession strong and thriving. We as NCO’s must do our best to shield our young soldiers from “toxic” leadership, to show what good leadership is, and mold young soldiers into the professionals of

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.

Leadership is critical and it refers to the process of influencing followers towards achieving the groups’ goals. Toxic leadership refers to the leadership offered by leaders who abuse power and leave the group they lead in a poorer condition after they are left. Toxic leadership is associated with incompetence, insularity, evil, intemperance (lack of self control), callousness, rigidity and corruption among other bad leadership characters. The leaders involved in toxic leadership are not concerned about uplifting the people they lead (followers). Instead, they make sure they satisfy their self interests. They fight and control instead of caring for their followers. In most cases, the leaders with this leadership style are leaders who bully, abuse, and discriminate the subordinates. In addition, they create a hostile climate, self serving and arrogant, threaten and even yell at their followers among other fierce characters. They do not lead based on their qualifications. However, they apply force to be in leadership positions thus making the lives of their followers a misery . They are selfish in that they work to promote themselves without regard to the welfare of their followers. In most cases, do this by not minding about the future of their group and its members. This paper explores the effects of toxic leadership in the United States.

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.

The FM 6-22 is a leadership manual. During my long career, I remember the Toxic Leaders as well, that's why I went a different route. I wanted something different. Integrity, Personal Responsibility, Team Player, Courage, Professionalism, Capability, Perseverance, adaptability was what I was looking for. Before Just Cause and thru most of my career, I have seen Toxic leadership, the self-centered, motivations and behaviors that had adverse effects on subordinates, organization, and mission performance. You can teach anyone from a book (FM), what you can not teach is selfness. The leaders that lack concern for other, those leaders that intimidate, coerce or unfairly punish others to get what they want. Toxic leadership, is not just in the military,

Toxic leadership is something that is present in the Army today and has several devastating effects on that leaders unit. By now, if you have spent any time in the Army, I’m sure you have experienced some form of Toxic leadership. Although not every toxic leader has a loud, decisive, and demanding demeanor. Some toxic leaders can have the same affect with a quit and soft demeanor.

That is something when I got to my first unit I realized was not always the case. My experience with bad leadership helped me build more on my own leadership skills. My first platoon sergeant was not only a poor NCO, he was really just a bad person all around. As a leader he would drag his soldiers through the mud and volunteer them for every extra duty or detail that came up and then take credit for the work himself rather than acknowledge the hard work being put in by the lower enlisted. He would also keep the platoon at work until he was finished with his work, the rest of the unit would be gone at 1600 on a recovery week, our platoon would be at work until 1800 just sitting around for over 2 hours waiting to be released.

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

Throughout history our country has had many leaders. Whether you’re the leader of a business, military platoon, or the leader of our great nation you were withheld with the honor and trust to govern the actions and best interests of fellow Americans. But just because you have achieved the title of a leader does not by default make you a good leader. A good leader is a person who has risen above and beyond to show cooperation, perseverance, and respect to decisions made by those still above you at one point in time. “As a seasoned member of the military, you’ve risen through the ranks because you understood your mission and performed your duties with distinction. At this stage of your career, your most important contribution may be how well you take care of the service members and

I can relate to your experience with an ineffective military leader in a field where there is little margin for error. However, I cannot offer any insight from my experience on how to approach your senior leader as when I was in the military that was not something that I attempted. I would like to offer that there may be some coping methods for you to consider in the meantime, or if this meeting with your senior leader does not lead you to your desired outcome.