Leadership Issues Within the United States Military Essay Example

a leader. Except how to effectively and positively motivate people. When I was a young Sergeant in the 82nd Airborne, I had a simple bit of knowledge passed onto me from a First Sergeant. He said “Sgt. Morris, the best thing you can do as leader, is to tell your soldiers “The Why”. “If you tell your soldiers why they need to do anything, they will do it even if they hate it”. When I used this, my soldiers responded more quickly and completed the tasks faster and more accurately. Not the ever easy, yell louder and conduct mass punishment to get results.

Mass Punishment has more increasingly been a knee jerk reaction to correcting an individual’s lack of accountability and responsibility. This form of punish is the fastest why to create tension with in the ranks towards command and not the individual. As a Drill Sergeant, mass punishment is a tool in your bag to force individuals to learn that its better to work as team. In the basic training environment, mass punishment is the fastest way to show that working together as a team is the only method of success.

This is only effective as it conducted as a punishment that fits the crime. With the Army going more and more to a, “this is the individual’s responsibility to maintain”, you make mass punishment no longer effective. Also, as a Drill Sergeant you are required to wear many hats such as disciplinarian, instructor, mentor and counselor. You can’t just be a singular leader, but many leaders. You have to adapt to each individual and learn what it is that specifically motivates them before you can

motivate them as a team. Now with the short amount of time you have with them you have to lean hard on intimidation and express your passion for the Army. Lead by example in every small thing you do, or they will see through the act. You have to fake it till you become it. Everything you do as a Drill Sergeant revolves around having to be the most effect Leader so that I can create the next generation of soldiers and leaders. I learned the most about leadership as a Drill Sergeant, especially how to be an efficient leader.

I did look into more of what it takes to be a great leader as a Staff Sergeant in the 82nd, as I at the time was constantly looking for the definition of my exact responsibilities. I learned after many hours of rereading FM 22-100 Army Leadership of the Be, Know, Do era. That I needed to start looking outside of the military as far as leadership is concerned. I then discovered Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of humility and fierce resolve by Jim Collins.

We have many Level 4 leaders within the Military that enforce their authority and force high standards and create low morale and low re-enlistment. Level 5 Leaders are not in your face and/or yell a lot. Level 5 leaders gain respect but showing that they are not any better than the lowest worker. Level 5 leaders will maintain the standard themselves and of others. “Level 5 leadership is counterintuitive. Indeed, it is countercultural. People generally assume that transforming companies from good to great requires larger-than-life leaders-big personalities like Iacocca, Dunlap, Welch, and

Gault who make headlines and become celebrities”. (Collins, 2001). We spent so much time and saw how effective we were at being team leaders, we thought we only needed to add to that already effective leadership style, only to learn we needed to be an entirely differently leader. This can go on for years until a you see or experience proper leadership at the proper level. Now as a Senior Non-Commissioned Officer, I build myself more towards being the level 5 leader to bring my unit and organization from good to great. Not because it is my job, but now because it’s my life’s work.

Most leaders know well of what I talk about. They understand the concept and grow and develop into greater leaders. However, most leaders fail to hold other leaders accountable. Leaders make more trouble within their ranks, when they fail to correctly address the situation. It seems like leaders only get mentored as young leader and then abandoned as they move up the ranks. Leadership styles need to change as we progress up the ladder. There is no room for a micromanaging Team leader as a Squad Leader or Platoon Sergeant and etc. I believe NCOES courses that each promoted rank is required to attend should show more into the kind of leader, and not so much responsibilities, you will be required to undertake to be successful. There should be more talks on theories of leadership and several outside examples of leadership presented to students in NCOES courses.

References:

1. HQDA. (2015, June 30). FM 6-22 Army Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.milsci.ucsb.edu/sites/secure.lsit.ucsb.edu.mili.d7/files/sitefiles/fm6_22.pdf
2. Collins, J. (2001, January). Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Fierce
   

Resolve. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2001/01/level-5-leadership-the-triumph-of-humility-and-fierce-resolve-2