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Effective communication in the work setting
Effective communication in the work setting
Effective communication in the work setting
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This essay will evaluate Eisenhower’s leadership of his command team using Gerras and Clark’s Effective Team Leadership element communication. Eisenhower improved his communication skills by establishing regular monthly meetings with field commanders and established one single Command Post. In addition, this essay will evaluate Eisenhower organizational command climate by using Jones’, Improving Accountability for Effective Command Climate article. Finally, Eisenhower improved his organization climate by directing a command climate assessment for each commanders, which led to restructuring of commands and units. This essay will determine if Eisenhower was or was not successful in improving communication and transforming organizational climate.
General Eisenhower was both a situational leader and conceptual thinker who understood his organizations and knew how to influence his leaders. Eisenhower shaped his organizations’ environment by improving the command communication and transforming the culture within his organization. A situational leader understands what they are influencing and a conceptual thinker is able to shift focus based on the situation. Eisenhower was masterful at getting others to do what he wanted to accomplish. Eisenhower was an inexperience commander, but knew how to
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influence others and shaped his command. Senior leader communications is more than a matter of ‘what the leader says.’ It combines communications made by individuals (up, down, and horizontally) and organizations to subordinates and key stakeholders. Consequently, high‐performing teams communicate effectively and monitor information sharing among team members. During the landing of Operation Torch, the communications were unsatisfactory. There were little to no communication between commanders, task force unit or allied forces. The lack of communication between the allied forces and commands degraded leadership control.
Operation Torch was the first of an endless communication issues Eisenhower faced in North Africa. By Operation Husky, Eisenhower was determined communication would not defeat his command and control of the battle. Eisenhower devised plans to correct communication flow between himself, leaders, allied forces and subordinates. In late 1942, he began monthly meeting with division commanders and established a single headquarters to control all communication. As a situational leader, Eisenhower understood what it meant to influence changes to communication problems with his
organization. The Command Climate Assessment is a complex process that requires Commanders to internally evaluate their organizations and identify individual behaviors concerns. Initially the lack of trained troops, inexperienced young leaders and lack of discipline largely affected the organization and the mission. In February 1943, Eisenhower ordered commanders to assess their commands and to report to him with their findings. The following leaders were either relieved or disciplined: Doolittle for his inability to lead; Fredendall failed to act on the ground, Patton’s, misconduct at the field hospital, and Gen Smith’s overall mismanagement. From the onset, Eisenhower had his share of problems; as a situational leader and conceptual thinker, his shaped his organizations’ environment by improving the command communication and transforming the culture within his organization. He improved communication with leaders by holding face-to-face meetings and establishing one headquarters command post. Successful team leaders understand their power and appreciate how the exercise of power influences team dynamics.
The mission command philosophy helps commanders counter the uncertainty of operations by reducing the amount of certainty needed to act. Commanders can build teams and achieve their final goals through adapting the six principles of mission command to warfighting situation. I analyzed and compared the performance of General Sherman and General Hampton in four of six mission command principles.
Miller Center. (2009, May). American President: A reference resource. Retrieved November 2, 2011, from University of Virgina: http://millercenter.org/president/eisenhower/essays/biography/print
As the incoming brigade commander, LTC (P) Owens, I see the critical leadership problem facing the 4th Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) is the inability or unwillingness of Colonel Cutler to lead and manage change effectively. In initial talks with Col Cutler and in reviewing the brigade’s historical unit status reports, the 4th ABCT performed as well as can be expected in Afghanistan, but as the onion was peeled back there are numerous organizational issues that were brought to the surface while I walked around and listened to the soldiers of the 4th ABCT, in addition to reviewing the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) report. One of the most formidable tasks of a leader is to improve the organization while simultaneously accomplishing
Mission command is the commander's use of authority and direction to empower adaptive leaders in the conduct of unified land operations. It helps subordinates exercise disciplined initiative when operating within their commander’s intent. To facilitate effective mission command, commanders must accomplish four consecutive stages of the operations process. They must thoroughly understand the problem, visualize a solution that achieves a desired end state, and then accurately describe this visualization in order to direct the organization. Commanders continually lead and assess their organizations and provide input and influence to their subordinates and staff.
General Eisenhower made difficult decisions that others may not have. The D-day invasion is well known for its successes given the almost impossible situation. If General Eisenhower did not make the decision to take Normandy the Allied campaign into Europe may not have succeeded. Moving into his presidency, Dwight Eisenhower came into a difficult time because of Soviet opposition. He was president during a time of a downsized military and emphasized peace and less use of U.S. military forces. The U.S. Military will continue to use Dwight Eisenhower as an example of a successful leader, and that is his largest
Operational leaders see how the individual components of an organization fit together and use those individuals work to make a larger outcome. When they focus on a problem, they think of what works best within the process and systems to make an impact on the situation. These types of leaders play a big part in making sure that things get done in an effective and functioning manner. According to the Army Doctrine ADP 6-0, the Army over time has strayed away from operational leaders and adapted Mission Command, which gives leaders the ability at the lowest level the capability to exercise disciplined initiative in an act of carrying out the larger mission . Mission Command is made up of the following six steps: Understanding, Visualize, Describe, Direct, Lead and Assess, in which a commander is responsible for. General Patton understood the intent of the Battle of the Bulge on different levels, he was able to form a mental image for the course of actions for the allies, enemies and lead his Army into combat while guiding his officers and soldiers to succeed in meeting his intent. The Battle of the Bulge is where General Patton gained one of his greatest military achievements by using his tactical leadership and logistical genius, which in return helped him turn around the main forces and forced the Germans to drive back in their final counter-offensive. General Patton strongly exercised Mission Command by understanding, visualizing, leading, and commanding what was known as the largest and bloodiest battle during World War II.
The performance of Major General Ambrose E. Burnside at the helm of the Army of the Potomac can be characterized as less than stellar. His failures to understand, describe, lead, and assess during the Battle of Fredericksburg ultimately led to his army’s defeat and the death of tens of thousands of Federal soldiers. The fate of the mission and our soldiers rely on our ability to conduct mission command activities. It is essential we learn from the grave mistakes of the commanders of the past and become prepared to carry out these activities when we are called to do
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces during World War II, was close to not achieving commander status. If this had happened, a different person would have taken control over Operations Torch, Avalanche, and Overlord. Eisenhower, in fact, was the key component in the victory for the Allies. Had he not been assigned by George Marshall to a planning officer in Washington D.C., President Harry Truman might not have saw Eisenhower’s potential. Eisenhower’s past 30 years of military experience, his strong mental and social stature, and his ideas and tactics were all key factors for his triumphant victory in World War II.
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.
A defined chain of command with equal representation from all the armed services coupled with standardized clear communication and training throughout the branches, results in an elite fighting force with endless capabilities. Efficiency is the major goal behind Joint Warfare and so long as the clear channels of communication throughout the services hold true, this goal is attainable. This efficiency, though almost impossible to fully achieve, was seen during Desert Storm. During the Desert Storm campaign, General Schwarztkopf was Commander and Chief of US Central Command (USCINCCENT). His first order of business was to name component commanders.
The first quality of leadership expressed by Eisenhower was that of vision. Vision by definition is the foresight a leader has to understand and know what needs require action. These needs can be good or bad but still a necessity (Manning, and Curtis, 2012). Eisenhower expressed the quality of vision when he said “I remember my first trip to Europe as a young man, and I felt blessed to be here, to see it, to touch the origins of my own country that I love so dearly. I hoped one day all young Americans will have the same opportunity” (Brown & Harmon, 2004). In this statement he is showing that he has a vision of Europe being great after the war like it was back when he was young. Another example of Eisenhower's visions can found in his follow up statements when he said, “So if some must die, it is in a worthy cause”. In this he knows that what he did as a leader had to be done even though there were sacrifices.
The most effective commanders through their leadership build cohesive teams. Mutual trust, shared understanding, and accepting prudent risk serve as just a few principles for mission command. Mutual trust is the foundation of any successful professional relationship that a commander shares with his staff and subordinates. The shared understanding of an operational environment functions, as the basis for the commander to effectively accomplish the mission. While my advice for the commander on what prudent risks to take may create more opportunities rather than accepting defeat. Incorporating the principles of mission command by building cohesive teams through mutual trust, fostering an environment of shared understanding, and accepting prudent risk will make me an effective adviser to the commander, aid the staff during the operations process, and provide an example for Soldiers to emulate.
Linden, R. M. (2006, November/December). Dwight Eisenhower: Portrait of a Collaborative Leader. Virginia Review, 6. Retrieved December 3, 2013
Communication is critical to any organization and is necessary in every aspect especially in a military. Communication plays a role in Soldier development, peer to peer relations, Chain of command management, and virtually every aspect of a military operations. Commanders require it the most so that they can execute large scale operations without flaw and that alone requires ceaseless effective communication. If soldiers are informed and engaged, communications with other units are likely to be robust as well.