What Are The Responsibilities Of A Commander

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.

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.

Professionals from various fields work together to build a structurally sound foundation that cannot be shaken. This foundation is the cornerstone on which the Profession of Arms relies. The Army’s professional expertise are rallied in four branches: military-technical expertise, human development expertise, moral-ethical expertise and political-cultural expertise. They are broad areas that allow the Army to operate as a force.

Army leaders must balance the link between the Army’s culture and it’s climate and institutional practices. When there is a proper balance it has a huge impact on the mindset of the Army’s Soldiers. Their actions or inactions impacts the five key attributes of the profession, and the four fields of expertise, and have long term effects on the Army’s culture and climate. These actions influence Soldiers’ perceptions that they are serving professional who have answered the call of service to the republic, it is important that Soldiers understand that their role is a calling and not just a job.

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

The knowledge that leaders should use in leadership is what soldiers KNOW. Leadership requires knowing about tactics, technical systems, organizations, management of resources, and the tendencies and needs

General Tommy Franks defines well practiced leadership and superior intelligence for combat decision making. His personal values and character define how all Army leaders should lead their men. General Franks practices the Army Values religiously and sets an example for courage and commitment. His successful accomplishments will be addressed in this essay, including how the Warrior Ethos and Army values were displayed by his decisions.

“We want leaders that are tough, resilient, that can think, and out-fight and out-smart the enemy. We want them to be adaptive and agile and flexible. And, we want them not only competent, but we want leaders of character.” (General Mark A. Milley, 2015) Character is not a trait we take for granted and most likely have an attraction for, but honestly never had to define when asked about by our superiors and peers. It is a word most Soldiers desire to have their name attached to it, and yet the standards of its realization remains rather vague when spoken about. When the military say that a Soldiers is someone of good character, we mean that they may have many

From June to 2004 to present, beloved Colonel Michael Dane Steele is in command of 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Rakkasans). I have just been notified that I will take command from Colonel Steele in November 2006 which leaves just short of six months for me to plan for the change. A review of author Raffi Khatchadourian’s article, “The Kill Company,” published in The New Yorker on July 6, 2009 is necessary for background in writing this paper, however; the timeframe assumed for the purpose of writing this essay is June 2004. To this end, it must also be assumed that the author does not benefit from the knowledge gained by reading most of the information in Khatchadourian’s article. My goal is to set and maintain an effective, ethical command climate through investigation, self-education, and unit-wide professional military education.

The U.S. Constitution provides power to the President and Congress to develop and enact national security policy (Ulrich, 1). As such our civilian leaders have the right and responsibility to maintain oversight of the military. Two civil-military relations theories, Normal and Clausewitzian, offer competing views. The Normal theory suggests officers are professionals and interference from civilian leaders is inappropriate (Cohen, 4). The Clausewitzian theory contends the statesman may inject himself in any aspect of military strategy since

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,

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

Every uniformed Army professional knows the Soldier’s Creed. The tenth line of the Soldier’s Creed - “I am an expert and I am a professional,” is a powerful statement recited during significant occasions including enlistments, graduations, first formations, promotion boards, change of command ceremonies, and deployment ceremonies. The NCO Creed even includes the bold statement, “No one is more professional than I,” in the opening line. For these words to ring true, the Army must deliver training sufficient to certify professional Soldiers and leaders at all levels. The Army’s ability to recognize this need and adapt its methods speaks volumes for the Profession of Arms. The three components of the Army’s leadership model -

Adaptive leadership is becoming widespread in the United States Army amongst junior officers in leadership positions that require quick thinking and innovation. Leonard Wong discusses how the versatile and unpredictable enemy and situations in Iraq produces adaptable junior officers. These officers are learning to make decisions under chaotic conditions and are becoming more mentally agile. The Army is changing. The Army is transforming its capabilities in the war in Iraq to be effective and successful. General Schoomaker states that we will not accomplish our goals as a nation in the 21st century unless our Army becomes much more agile but with the capacity for long term, sustained level of conflict. The Army is in the process of

The Army is a profession because it requires a collaboration of highly training Soldiers who possess specialized skills that combine to operate in complex situations in more complex environments. General Martin Dempsey stated that “The Profession of Arms requires expert knowledge, and that expertise is manifested as unique skills in the individual professional and by Army units.” For the purpose of this paper the operational definition of the term profession is: a type of job that requires special education training, or skill. In order to meet and maintain the demands of this definition, The Army has established the Army Development Model which consists of institutions, operational training, and self-development to create highly skilled service members.