The Army has deemed many as competent and experienced enough to lead. Each one of them has a different leadership style. The style of leadership of any person at any level can directly affect the moral, trust and even the career of the Soldiers. Realizing that it is possible to have more than one leadership style, we must choose to be a diversity leader. In order to stay at pace with today’s Army and its continuous changes we must understand its Soldiers. Situational, informal, and collective all embody what a diverse leader is and toxic leadership are the different styles of leadership.
First, a situational style of leader is culturally aware is knowledgeable about the mission at hand and knows the Soldier’s strengths and weaknesses. Leaders consistently base their decisions off situation. As leaders, we provide purpose, direction and
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Collective styles of leaders use their strengths equally matching the other leaders. A collective style leader feeds off other leaders and their leadership to create efficiency of the team. A team has individuals with their own unique purpose, but each have the same common goal in mind. Each member of the team must collectively cover his or her teammate’s weaknesses to complete the task, and the same vice versa. Every member place an equal part in the completion of the mission when limited, it makes it difficult to complete the mission. Similar to a situational style of leader a collective style of leader is aware of the Soldiers strengths and weaknesses and places the Soldiers where they will have to utilize their strengths to complete the task. Effective leadership comes from experiences and initiative. When placed in a position where encouragement to use experiences to reach a goal, take the initiative to help others understand the goal in turn, creating collective
Part 1, The Basics of Leadership, Chapter 1 covers Fundamentals of Leadership while Roles and Relationships are covered in Chapter 2. This section describes and depicts levels of Leadership. We as a military are set apart from other non-military professions in that Soldiers must be prepared to use deadly force and have the courage required to close with and destroy the enemy. All leaders, from non-commissioned officers and warrant officers, to commissioned officers, inherently possess a great responsibility. The repercussions of decisions and actions impact the lives of Soldiers and their families. Additionally, these decisions affect the battlefield environment including enemy and non-combatants, both military and
Black Hearts is a great example of the reality on how severe bad leadership skills can ripple throughout a unit and impact its overall mission. This book serves as a guide for future leaders of America and will set the examples of what not to do in leadership positions. The lessons we can take from these soldiers can help us as potential leaders to become more competent and effective. The fact that this book focused on the hardships, poor decisions and sound judgment of the soldiers it helped emphasize on what was not the best choice of action and leaves a moment for you as the audience to think how you would of done it better. So right or wrong there was a lesson to be learned and the book did a good job including the reader. This book puts you in the shoes of a small group of soldiers from the 502nd Infantry Regiment and gives you an up close and personal take on the experience of the soldiers, from the bottom of the the ranks all the way up to the commander. 502nd Bravo Company 1st platoon deployed in the fall of 2005 into one of the most dangerous battle zones in Iraq known as the “Triangle of Death”. Thrown into the heartland of a growing insurgency, with undefined goals and a shortage of manpower, Bravo Company began piling up casualties at an alarming rate. They suffered many losses, as well as mental anguish. Because of the long and tragic deployment, a collapse in leadership began to unfold causing one of the most tragic, brutal, and infamous deployments in U.S Army history. There were many reasons that caused the deconstruction of leadership, and eventually, the actions of the soldiers accompanied by the lack of control, lead to the rape and murder of an innocent Iraqi girl and her family. This is a story about character...
We can identify three major cultural dimensions that help us to understand what leaders must focus on as they guide the transition of the Army. First, professional Identity, which is guided by Soldiers at all levels who are striving for excellence in their functional specialty, i.e., HR Sergeants. Soldiers who have goals and ideals of the Army to ethically put service and duty first. HR Sergeants are trained and well educated in their field. They are taught to put Soldiers first and have great customer support skills. Second, community, the sense in which Soldiers stop thinking about “I” and start thinking “we”. The bond among units who not only believe in cohesion with Soldiers, but their families too. The HR Sergeants are there to take care of Soldiers when financial issues arise with them or their families and don’t back down until the situation is solved. Last, hierarchy, which leads to order and control and provides Soldiers with moral reference and a sense of direction. The HR Sergeant has the mentality of mission first, knowing who to contact at the next level for assistance helps get the mission
I believe that as a leader we should all have a leadership philosophy that we live by and teach our subordinates to live by as well. However, even at this stage in my life I still have yet to figure out what my leadership philosophy really is. Crazy right that at the rank of SFC with 18 years in the United States Military, I do not have this one simple thing figured out. As I write out my thoughts pen to pad hopefully I can come up with something that makes sense is enlightening and that I can pass on to my soldiers as a guide. So that as they enter into the Senior Enlisted ranks they are better equipped then I to lead there soldiers.
A situational leader is the one who will use a different leadership style according to the need and specific situation at the moments.
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
This research written on Chapter13, Contemporary Issues in Leadership. My business issue is the effect of leadership on Soldiers. My business issue is based on my direct observation. My business issue will be analyzed using the following two core concepts transformational leadership and authentic leadership.
Leadership is contagious throughout the world and most importantly in the Army. It is not just my view, but of all leaders, at all levels, that organizations are responsible for setting conditions that lead to long-term organizational success. As I reflect on my experiences, through experience and observation, I realize how my values, beliefs, and perspectives about leadership continuously evolve over time. Recognizing these changes over time helps me better understand that people in organizations have different perspectives in life. This leadership narrative serve as important guiding principles for how I will lead at the organizational level and represents my thought, values and beliefs.
The critical leadership problem facing the 4th Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) is disengaged leadership has created a unit culture tolerant of sub-standard and inappropriate behavior of and indifference. While deployed 4th ABCT’s leadership fostered an elitist unit culture, tolerant of, and indifferent to individual development and personal needs. The demands of the short notice deployment coupled with the SFAT mission change create a stressful environment and planted seeds of separation within the Brigade Combat Team (BCT). The change from offensive operations to security and stability operations negated the Mission Essential tasks 4th ABCT completed during their Mission Readiness Exercise and resulted in 4th ABCT not receiving
Serving in the Army for the past fifteen years, as a Soldier, Non-Commissioned Officer, Cadet, and Commissioned Officer, I have gained a wealth of military leadership knowledge and experience. Since completing my undergraduate studies and earning my commission in the Army, I have held a variety of command and staff positions. I have led Soldiers in garrison, as well as on combat and operational deployments, each having its own unique challenges and rewards. Throughout the years, I have had the distinct honor and privilege of serving on many great teams and with many outstanding Leaders.
Regardless of the career you choose in your life, whether it be an accountant or a Soldier in the United States Army, someone, somewhere most likely had an influence to bring you to that decision. The Army defines leadership as the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improve the organization (JP, p. 1). Now imagine you are a young Private, in one of the most dangerous places in Iraq and you have constant leadership changes, and not much support from your direct leadership. I am sure at this point you can imagine, it is not the best scenario to be in. Throughout the duration of this essay you will read about Sergeant First Class Rob Gallagher and Sergeant First Class Jeff Fenlason, their leadership abilities, and the techniques they attempted to use to resolve the issues in this Platoon that was in a downward spiral after losing many leaders to the hell of war.
As an officer in the United States Army, it has been imperative for me to understand every facet of leadership and why it remains important to be an effective leader. During this course, I have learned some valuable lessons about myself as a leader and how I can improve on my leadership ability in the future. The journal entries along with the understanding of available leadership theories have been an integral part of my learning during this course. For all of the journals and assessments that I completed, I feel it has given me a good understanding of my current leadership status and my future potential as a leader. All of the specific assessments looked at several areas in regards to leadership; these assessments covered several separate focus areas and identified my overall strengths and weaknesses as a leader. Over the course of this paper I will briefly discuss each one of these assessments and journal entries as they pertained to me and my leadership.
The concept of leadership arises out of the need for cooperative action by human beings to achieve certain goals. Leadership seeks to identify and deploy the groups’ pooled resources to tackle problems in order to achieve set objectives. While human beings are independent and capable of individual action, there are many situations in real life that require dependence on one person or a small group of people who have a broad view of the intervening issues enabling them to direct the actions of the rest of the individuals. The degree of success from this effort is a measure of the leadership skill present within a team.
Since there is no single correct approach to leadership, a situational leader must be able to pick out the right style for each occasion. When deciding on the correct approach, the leader must focus on four contextual factors: the relationship between the leader and the subordinates, the task at hand, the leader’s authority, and the maturity level of subordinates.
The Situational Theories of leadership explain how leadership style must be tailored to the demands of the task and the qualities of subordinates.