Introduction This discussion will focus on leadership as described by Robert Dees in The Resilience Trilogy, Resilient Leaders text. The points made in the book can be personally related. The three most important concepts learned from chapter 1 and 2 are tribulation, risk management, and selflessness. It is crucial for anyone is seeking to delve into leadership that everything will not happen as planned all the time. After a leader experience failure, knowing the avenues to take to regain a solid footing is also key to successful leadership. Often leaders who are unaware of available resources fold and give up. In the military profession, when someone gets knock down they get up brush themselves off and get back in the fight.
Important Concepts Learned
Tribulation
The Merriam-Websters dictionary defined tribulation as distress or suffering resulting from oppression or persecution; also: a try experience, the trials, and tribulations of starting a new business. Leaders must expect tribulation; challenges, complexities, and downright “ugly” situation, they will often find that
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In the United States Navy Operational risk management (ORM) is personally experienced. The ORM process is taken seriously by everyone in leadership, particularly when failures can be fatal to personnel or equipment damage, therefore, understanding potential risks faced is vital (Eaamonn, 2013). In many organizations and specifically speaking from military experience, risk management is essential to avoiding catastrophic incidents from occurring. Risk management is sometimes unpopular among subordinates so; it is incumbent on leaders to be courageous and standby decisions made. Leaders must be bold and take a stand to protect the community from the effects of flooding even in times of budgetary austerity (Hall,
Leadership is portrayed at its pinnacle in William Bratton’s Turnaround, Rudolph Giuliani’s book Leadership, Oren Harari’s book The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell, and David Lipsky’s book Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point. In each of these works, the author does an exceptional job of depicting the various traits and characteristics necessary for being a powerful and effective leader.
Leadership in Watership Down Many people possess leadership qualities, although they don’t rule a country. Meriwether Lewis, the official leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, has been called “undoubtedly the greatest pathfinder this country has ever known.” Just like Hazel, Meriwether Lewis led a group of followers into unknown territory. The two guides faced many difficult situations that they were able to overcome since they had the qualities of a notable leader.
Servant leadership is a designation coined by Robert Greenleaf in 1970 in an essay entitled The Servant as Leader. In this essay, he describes the servant leader and a servant first contrary to one who is a leader first. The difference is the servant chooses to put others needs before his own while the leader first may later become a servant from the promptings of a sense of right and wrong or simply because they are coerced in that direction (Greenleaf, 1991).
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...
“On leadership” was written by John W. Gardner (The Free Press, New York, 1990). He used seventeen chapters to explain and describe essential components for the leadership should be in a successful organization. This book not only has significant influence now, but also for the future. Below are my understanding about this book, which was divided into two parts. For the first part, I will pick up some perspectives which influence me most from this book. For the second part, which is my comments and critique about this book.
The book Black Hearts by Jim Frederick is an in-depth narrative about the 1st platoon, Bravo Company 1-502nd Infantry 101st Airborne Division deployed to Iraq in 2005. The leadership failures documented in this book range all the way from the general officer level down to the lowest private. LT general Ricardo Sanchez failed to understand the climate his command group was entering as they were deployed into Iraq. From then on the entire leadership failures continued to compound upon each other with improper time to plan. It is customary to have a six month lead time to have a proper battle hand off when preparing to take over an AO from another unit. To compound this problem, the entire time the 502nd was in pre-deployment training, they were preparing for the rigors of urban combat. In reality, they were given six weeks to recon their new area of responsibility and were going to a countryside crafted by the heavens for guerilla warfare. As Colonel Ebel said in the book, “It is not going to be an easy road. They are not even sure of what they have in the area. It just feels bad. We can expect a real fight.”
Kouzes and Posner remark that leadership experiences are ?voyages of discovery and adventures of a lifetime?[and] they are challenging explorations under rigorous conditions? (174). While this may be true, it is often in an extreme crisis situation that leadership is ultimately tested. This is the circumstance that Shackleton faced with his crew of twenty-seven, while stranded in the ice floes off the Antarctic Continent. Credit is due to the leadership of Ernest Shackleton; every member aboard the Endurance survived, and was finally rescued after six hundred and thirty-four days. Shackleton said of leadership, ?If you?re a leader, a fellow that other fellows look to, you?ve got to keep going? (qtd. in Morrell and Capparell 215).
Once planted in the minds of individuals, ideas have a remarkable ability to grow with the strength and speed of the most powerful pathogens – possessing equal communicability as they spread to proximal centers of consciousness. How can this characteristic of ideas be utilized to benefit society? In the film Twelve Angry Men, we see a situation where Juror Eight – equipped with all the autonomy and wisdom of an ideal leader – appeals to logos in an attempt to promote the consideration of an idea, which he has planted in the minds of an otherwise unanimous jury; this idea being the mere possibility of innocence in the conviction of a boy charged with patricide. Ideally, leaders will possess an ability to transcend the allure of groupthink so prevalent in collective decision-making. However, when not coupled by the proper corresponding actions, such transcendental thoughts never become bigger than the brain-cells that they occupy. As Juror Eight leads his associates to consider the uncertainty of the case, we see an important skill in leadership: the ability to recognize disparity in individual cognition. Juror Eight appeals to this variance in thought patterns by guiding his peers through a journey of personal evaluation – allowing them to reach conclusions on their own, rather than explicitly dropping their minds into the terminal of his own logic.
Transformational leadership also integrates well with a biblical worldview because both advocate valuing followers as well as leaders, the importance of ethical behavior, the need to forgive and learn from mistakes, and the value of a high moral example. Kouzes and Posner advocate leaders having a “moral authority to lead” (2007, p. 41), practicing personal accountability and working to improve all aspects of their follower’s lives. This others-centered leadership approach fits well in the Christ centered atmosphere of a Christian school.
One may wonder exactly what it is that qualities a strong leader possesses. A strong leader is determined, and strong willed. They must be of good judgment, and without bias. They cannot easily be persuaded, and they are firm, yet at the same time, a good lead must also empathize with his subordinates, and have the best interest at heart for said subordinates, at all times. However, with that being said, a good leader cannot be afraid to discipline his subordinates when necessary. Unmistakably, being a leader is a very difficult feat – one which not everyone can accomplish. A leader must be an authority, a friend and a counsellor, all at once. They must be responsible, and always take into account the disadvantages of a situation. Not everyone is suitable to be a leader, whereas, just about anybody can be a good role model.
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.
Leaders will no matter what have an influence on our world. They have missions, dreams and ambition, and with these things they are bound to go far. For leaders, what makes these dreams come true is having strong qualities such as leadership practices, values and strengths. If developed and learned how to use correctly, these are what take leaders to the next level and accomplish great things. In the following paper I will talk about leadership in our ever-changing world, explore my leadership practices, values and strengths as well as elaborate on the goals I have made to challenge myself as a leader.
Resilience is the ability to cope with change. The resilience has long been touted as a essential capability for bouncing back from leadership setbacks. Resilience is not easily attainable in today’s ever-changing business environment. The faith that there will be an immediate solution when it’s not immediately evident, and the tenacity to carry-on despite a nagging gut feeling that the situation is hopeless; it requires courage to achieve such high level of success in one’s career. A strong leader tries to keep away frequent setbacks and new challenges in face of uncertainty. The practical knowledge that he/she gains through this learning experience guide the organization through difficult times.
As stewards of the Army Profession, they are the epitome of what Soldiers aim to be. Through professional and personal experiences, Sergeants Major (SGM) acquires necessary skills and tools to effectively deal with adversity. It is for this reason that in the midst of challenges, chaos, and difficult situations Sergeants Major are the beacon of light, the common sense in the equation, the “Go To” person for guidance and hope, or the solution for all issues. Applying positive psychology, Sergeants Major are able to provide sound judgment and advice to commanders, staffs, and subordinates. Additionally, the application of positive psychology fosters camaraderie, builds a healthy work environment, and creates a positive culture within the organization. The purpose of this paper is to describe the concepts of positive psychology, positive leadership, and master resilience training (MRT) and how Sergeants Major promote these factors to enhance organizational
The case study and readings in this class have painted a clear picture of the various ways one can be a leader, the catalyst that has inspired the least likely to lead to action and the many different capacities in which one is a leader. From the parent whose child is the victim of abuse to the CEO of a major corporation, leadership can spring forth and blaze trails never imagined by others. I learned that on my journey to executive leadership, I can begin leading in my current capacity as an analyst. I do not need to wait to be given the “thumbs up” to lead, as I can be a leader in many ways everyday. Leadership is not about magnificent speaking or major endeavors, “it is about coping with change” (Kotter, p.31, 2003). We all are subject to situation dealing with change daily, it is all about how we cope with it and how others interpret and accept our coping skills.