Qualities of a Leader What is a leader? What constitutes a leader? These questions have many answers which will vary with each person who is asked. A military leader is someone who demonstrates leadership: “the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization” (ADP 6-22). A military leader displays leadership through attributes and competencies, which are desired characteristics and skills, respectively. Characteristics of a leader include presence, intellect, and character. Skills of a leader include achieving, leading, and developing. While it is important that a leader display all attributes and demonstrate all competencies, I believe that some of these …show more content…
As well as showing how Patton loved the Army Values, it also shows development and intellect. During his leadership, Patton spent much time developing both himself and his troops. Not only was Patton’s opening of a tank school proof for his loyalty and duty, it also shows his effort to develop his unit as a whole. Opening this organization also shows how Patton “stewards the profession” and applies a mindset that looks to strengthen the profession of arms in the future (ADP6-22). As soon as Patton saw the opportunity to mentor, teach, and coach, he seized it. General Patton attributed intellect in the form of innovation and expertise. He took the information that he observed, learned it, and taught it to others. It is with the innovation and expertise that makes General Patton a superior …show more content…
Presence is based on fitness, confidence, and resilience. Participating in many sports, Patton was very fit. He participated in the 1912 Olympics and competed in the Pentathlon and placed 5th overall. Patton did not fall short in the confidence and resilience category. “Projecting self-confidence and inspiring confidence in others” (ADP 6-22) was one of many things General Patton was known for. He often spoke to his soldiers optimistically. One quote he often had his soldiers say before battle was: “I am a soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.” The confidence between Patton and his soldiers would only increase after battle, since Patton had great leadership and much
Natural born leaders are almost nonexistent in today’s military. Military members have to complete numerous leadership classes as you progress through the military ranks whether you are an enlisted or as an officer. There are many attributes that people would have to possess to be considered a great leader. Some of those attributes include honesty, respect, trustworthy, and enthusiasm just to name a few. There have been many leaders I have worked with or for over my past 19 years in the Army. One of the most important one would have to be honesty. Honesty is important because if the people that work for you cannot believe what you tell them, they will never trust you or support you. Employees can make or break their supervisor. If they do not like or trust the manager they will not respect them and they will only do the least amount possible. When your employees believe that, you value their opinion and their work ethic. Like you and trust, you they will do anything you ask of them. Whether the decision is right or wrong it is a decision, a leader never want to leave their subordinat...
What is a leader? A leader is someone who takes command and leads an organization or group to success. Anyone can be a leader but in order to become a great leader you have to have to possess certain characteristics. I will be using Odysseus from the Odyssey isas an example of a leader who has suitable characteristics. You also have to know what harmful characteristics a leader may possess to determine if they are good leaders or not.
Secondly, military leaders tend to hold high levels of responsibility and authority at low levels in our organizations. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, military leadership is based on a concept of duty, service, and self-sacrifice. We take an oath to that effect.” There is no formula for leadership, as great leaders have different leadership styles. When discussing military leaders and what makes them great examples of success, their personalities range from flamboyant and daring to reserved and cautious in battle.
The Army requires its members to adhere to prolonged training and learn specialized skills. From the moment a soldier transitions from the civilian sector into the Army, he is indoctrinated with training. Regardless of rank, the Army demands each soldier to be technically proficient and mentally competent in order to be qualified in a respective Military Occupation Specialty. As a soldier progresses in his military career, he is required to continue his education and training. Army leaders are expected and required to continue developing their skills through academic studies, operational experience, and institutional training. An opposing view argues that anyone can learn these skills; however, statistics show less than 0.5% of the population serves in the armed forces, indicating a soldier is a rare mix of intelligence and character.1 These lessons are necessary qualifications to achieve what General Martin Dempsey describes as “effectiveness rather than efficiency.”2 Much like the profession of medicine which must heal, the media which must provide truth, and law which must provide justice, the profession of arms must provide secur...
Dwight David Eisenhower (1955), the 34th President of the United States, gave an explicit definition of leadership, “The job of getting people really wanting to do something is the essence of leadership….” The Army, like any other civilian organization, defines different levels of leadership depending on a size of a unit a leader is in command of. Tactical and organizational leaderships are two first interconnected levels of leadership in the Army. Both levels of leadership have many commonalities regarding duties and responsibilities; yet they are very different in the way the leaders develop themselves, train, and take care of their soldiers.
Introduction “Leaders have always been generalists”. Tomorrow’s leaders will, very likely, have begun life as specialists, but to mature as leaders they must sooner or later climb out of the trenches of specialization and rise above the boundaries that separate the various segments of society.” (Gardner, 1990, pg. 159). The. In a recent verbal bout with my History of the Military Art professor, I contended that the true might of a nation may be inversely proportional to the size of its military during peacetime.
The word leadership can mean many things if you were to ask individual people to define it. Some may say, “Oh that’s the person in charge”, others may argue that leadership is a “position of power”. I define leadership as the person that others look to in times of crisis and need that they aspire to follow. A leader is always looking for meaningful ways to take care of those around them, sometimes with discipline and others with a calm voice of reason. Throughout my career I have had many different levels of leadership from junior people that would lend a helping hand to senior leaders that always had my back and the answers to tough questions. The most influential person in my career was a First Class Petty Officer when I was fresh out of school and new to the ship. I had never been to sea and was excited to learn. The next three years were some of the best years of my career. Each day we would do nearly everything together when it came to our equipment, we would troubleshoot complex equipment problems sometimes late
What makes a leader? The Army defines leadership as providing purpose, direction, and motivation while accomplishing the mission and improving the organization. I believe the Army created the definition, competencies, and attributes based on leaders of the past. MAJ Richard D. Winters, I believe, is one of those leaders. MAJ Winters is known for his command of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division during WWII.
All soldiers, especially leaders, are highly recommended to keep a certain set of values that radiate throughout the entire U.S. Army. They are challenged to keep them near and dear to their hearts and to define and live them every day. A leader is one who takes these challenges serious and abides by
Standing in a crowd of hundreds, anxious about what is to come—combat; waiting for a man whose reputation greatly precedes him…the man who will lead you into battle—into a nightmare. As he took the microphone and declared, “you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight.” These words are those of General George Patton…and he has your attention. Inspirational and blunt are just a couple of the many terms used to describe General Patton. General Patton was also a visionary in employment of combat forces; in fact, he was an expert on the subject. The manner in which he led his troops was in itself visionary. Despite his military prowess and formidable leadership, General Patton was humble in leadership and intellect. These three attributes will demonstrate that he was above all, a visionary and ethical leader.
A leader is described as a person who guides others and has authority and influence over others. They work to influence others into meeting certain goals. There is no right or wrong definition of a leader and there is no recipe that ensures effective leadership. Successful leaders have a good balance of vision, influence, and power. Leaders gain their authority from their ability to influence others to get the work done; because of this, anyone has the potential to be a leader. (Finkelman. 2012, p15)
Anyone can tell a soldier what to do, but a good leader can show, direct and motivate their soldiers how to do so.... ... middle of paper ... ... The responsibility of being a leader is a 24 hour, seven days a week job that we all love to do.
The Webster Dictionary defines leadership as an office or position, the capacity to lead, the act or an instance of leading (Merriam-Webster, 2011). Leader is defined as; a person who directs a military force or unit, a person who has commanding authority or influence (Merriam-Webster, 2011). The Army defines leadership as the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improving the organization. (Department of the Army, 2006 pg 1-2)
According to Shockley and Zalabak (2009) "Leadership is a process of guiding individuals, groups, and entire organization in establishing goals and sustaining action to support goals.Leadership is like mapping out where you need to go to win". A Leader is a person who has a strong personality and who has an ability to manage people and work. He is also the person who is able to direct people .Usually a leaders has a lot of attributes that
What is leadership? Leadership is defined as a process by which a individual will influence others to obtain goals. Leaders will guide, direct motivate, or inspire others. Leadership is defined by not only traits but actions as well. Leaders are inspirational, trustworthy and charismatic. Many people may think a manger is leader. Although leadership and management go hand in hand, they are not the same. Everyone has their own beliefs about what characteristics an effective leader should have. To me, communication skills, critical thinking skills, and having a vision are few characteristics of becoming an effective leader. A leader is not only born, but made. Some are born as leaders or some are made to be leaders.