Leadership is the foundation of any organization’s success, especially in the military. Often military leaders focus on technical and tactical skills to develop well rounded Soldiers but fail to realize there are other skills that play a critical role as well. Arbinger Institute identified conceptual, human, and technical skills as essential skills required to cultivate leaders. His firm’s success is linked to the application of these skills. After examining Army leadership utilizing the Arbinger Institute concepts, I have experienced the impact on a unit when a leader fails to apply these skills. The concepts enable leaders to be flexible and innovative when analyzing situations and presenting solutions. Applying these leadership concepts …show more content…
While each skill set is essential in different situations, conceptual skills are crucial for broad strategic situations. Possessing conceptual skills whether learned or inborn is vital as it allows leaders to identify problems, formulate processes, understand the link between the ideas and patterns, and lastly solve problems. Thus, critical thinking plays an integral role when it comes to understanding, analyzing, synthesizing, and linking complex information to present viable alternatives and draw a logical …show more content…
Being innovative allows me to creatively introduce worthwhile ideas that can help in countering a given problem in the workplace, in this case, ineffective communication in the workplace. One of the key features involved in innovation is creative thinking that allows leaders to use adaptive approaches based on previous situations or planning of completely new ideas to address the issue. Other than introducing mentorship programs in the organization, it will also be practical for me to do away with the partition in the offices to bridge the generational gap and promote communication between the employees. This innovative strategy will play a critical role in preventing complacency within the workforce by presenting a new challenge in the reinforcement of team building ensuring that everyone plays a part in the innovative
On a warm San Diego night in May of 1988, not smart enough to know whether I should be scared or excited, I embarked on my military career standing atop yellow footprints neatly painted on the asphalt. As an eighteen year-old kid entering recruit training, the finer points of leadership, at any level, had not yet piqued my curiosity. The drill instructors who supervised my training placed far different leadership expectations on me than what I will face as a colonel in the Air Force. Having learned a lot, good and bad, along the way, I realize that I must adapt to make good decisions and effectively lead at the senior level. Dr. Gene Kamena’s Right to Lead Assessment Model (RLAM) provides a handy, visual means to think about leadership, and assess how one can grow as a leader. Using the RLAM, I can concentrate xxxxxx My current leadership skills and abilities have enabled me to thrive at the tactical and operational level; however, in order to succeed
“Military leadership qualities are formed in a progressive and sequential series of carefully planned training, educational, and experiential events—far more time-consuming and expensive than similar training in industry or government. Secondly, military leaders tend to hold high levels of responsibility and authority at low levels of 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 are a variety of ways to define both leader and leadership. There is not, however, a clear definition of how to become one. There is no set list of mandatory traits, either innate or learned, that a person must embody to be considered successful or proved a failure. What I feel it takes is the right mix of strengths and weaknesses in a given situation to demonstrate effectiveness. No one person has abilities without accompanying deficiencies. It’s all in the way they are balanced. The balance in the way one uses his or hers’ abilities will ultimately determine the type of leadership one has throughout time. To support these claims I will examine a well-known leader throughout the military, General James “Mad Dog” Mattis. This essay will provide some insight into both his strengths and weaknesses while discussing some personality traits he is said to possess.
A most valuable opportunity exists for a leader to contribute in making a tremendous difference. New leadership at the top of the 4th Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT), a) gifted with wisdom to analyze an organization in identifying problems, b) capable of thinking creative in founding a vision for the future, and c) empowered with the reasoning ability to develop effective solutions to problems, will transform a declining unit to a new enhanced level of mission achievement and organizational effectiveness. 4th ABCT numerous problems are identified. A vision developed will guide the unit in the future. Most importantly, providing solutions to 4th ABCT problems occurs. Unit problems, vision, and solutions follow in order.
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.
Adaptive leadership is becoming widespread in the United States Army amongst junior officers in leadership positions that require quick thinking and innovation. Leonard Wong discusses how the versatile and unpredictable enemy and situations in Iraq produces adaptable junior officers. These officers are learning to make decisions under chaotic conditions and are becoming more mentally agile. The Army is changing. The Army is transforming its capabilities in the war in Iraq to be effective and successful. General Schoomaker states that we will not accomplish our goals as a nation in the 21st century unless our Army becomes much more agile but with the capacity for long term, sustained level of conflict. The Army is in the process of eliminating its old ways of war, it has to become somewhat of a decathlete. Trained for multiple events across a broad spectrum not just one event like a track athlete.
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.
For some time the Army has been using a certain expression to defines what an Army leader actually is. To keep it basic, the three words be, know and do explains it all!
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.
Leadership is defined as the ability to accomplish a set goal(s) due to the act of inspiring and motivating a group of your peers. Former United States president Dwight D. Eisenhower made famous a quote that stated, “Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.” (Notable-quotes.com). One of the most important aspects of the work area is leadership. Without leadership, there will be no guidance to for teamwork and the percentage of successful goal will be slim to none. Becoming a great leader is no easy feat however. An exceptional leader must lock in on specific attributes such as intellect, moral character, and human understanding. It doesn’t seem like much, but for a majority of people it can be almost impossible. These qualities alone listed above are some of many important qualities that will allow a leader to inspire and guide a group of people towards goals successfully.
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.
Critical thinking occurs when a person thinks about a subject or problem to where the improvement of the quality of ones own thinking using skillful analogies, then assessing and reconstructing them. A few important skills that is learned through critical thinking is learning how to discipline oneself in thinking, understanding the world as well as learning themselves. Critical thinking in the business world has many benefits in the process of decision making by employers as well as employees.
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.
“An Army leader is any one who by virtue of assumed role or assigned responsibility inspires and influences peoples to accomplish organizational goals. She or He motivates people both inside and outside the chain of command to pursue actions, focus thinking, and shape decisions for the greater good of the organization.1” But for him to do that effectively and efficiently , he has to be prepared, shaped and refined. There are few institutions to prepare such leaders and CGSC is one of those institutions which are mandated, organized and equipped to prepare such leaders. In implementing its mandate, CGSC has programmed ILE common core C 100 to provide foundations for effective leadership development. The lessons covered in this block of instructions are important pillars of leadership development and impact on officers differently depending on the fields/specialties and the level of positions held. This paper therefore attempts to discuss the relevance of critical thinking and problem solving, group decision making, overcoming biases, planning and order production lessons on my future assignment as a logistics staff officer.
“Critical thinking is the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances” (Paul & Elder, 2006, p. xviii). Critical thinking involves the capability to think rationally and fair-minded. One must have the ability to employ his thinking reflectively and independently. Critical thinking is more than just thinking "naturally." It involves analyzing oneself and self improvement. One needs to do more than gather information when making a good decision to think critically. Even if someone has a good memory and knows a large amount of facts is does not necessarily mean that he thinks critically. As a critical thinker one needs the ability to determine the consequences from what one knows, to know how to make use of information to solve problems, and seek reliable sources of information to inform oneself ("Module: About Critical Thinking", 2011). Critical thinking in business in important because it helps one recognize the prejudices, false beliefs, and habits that may lead to flawed decisions.