We Were Soldiers Movie Essay

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We Were Soldiers Dustin W. Olinger MGMT 101 American Military University Professor Joan Wilder 24 January 2016 We Were Soldiers The movie We Were Soldiers depicts an amazing leadership story of Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore (played by Mel Gibson). Colonel Moore was given the honor of commanding the first Battalion, 7th Cavalry regiment, the same regiment led by General George A. Custer in the 19th Century. Colonel Moore was a natural leader, he uses his god given talent and many leadership skills to lead his men into an impossible situation that most would cower and take as a defeat. He leads his men, who were vastly outnumber to an unforeseen victory in November 1965 against Vietnam soldiers. Colonel Moore is a man of many skills. He uses many different supervisory skills to lead his men. The first leadership skill he uses is leading by example. He makes it a point to always be around his men and to do what they do. He will always the first to step on the battle field and will be the last to leave. He was given orders to leave the battle field and be briefed in Saigon. He refuses the order and tells them he will not leave his men. All people follow those who lead by example, but to our …show more content…

He shows that during a battle field type of setting, there are no cut and dry textbook type leadership skills to use every single time. The scene is ever changing, with many different scenarios happening at the same time. Flexibility is a huge skill that leaders in these high stress environments, a MUST have in a leadership toolbox for a high stress environment. Factory leaders or CEO’s of fortune 500 companies go to work and come home at the same time generally. They have the liberty of being in a routine and living by that routine. Leaders on the battle field may not ever go home or sleep more than an hour a night, that is why flexibility is a key to success and a skill they must

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