Military Leadership And Moral Obligations

Moral obligations are the compass that guides leaders and their conducted towards true North. A moral obligation is defined as a duty which one should perform, however, they are not legally forced to do so. Simply stated, doing what we know to be right, regardless of how difficult it may be.

Today’s contemporary Army tests leaders in numerous ways. However, the greatest moral obligation for a leader is to always give their best effort in the accomplishment of duties and responsibilities. Effort is one of the hardest quantifiable factors of life. I am not referring to giving one’s best effort every now and then, but best effort each and every time. In addition, I am not suggesting that leaders give 100%. I believe that 100% effort is a meaningless numerical term that holds little tangible value.

Great leaders understand that they are expected to give their best effort in the execution of our duties; despite, having family commitments, upcoming leave or pending reassignment. Giving the best effort is even more challenging when no one is watching or finds your duties innately valuable. It begs to question, is expending enough effort to get noticed by superiors or stay

Counseling is an essential tool for leaders to professionally develop subordinates for greater levels of responsibilities. Counseling responsibilities are intrinsic to leadership. The Army has dedicated many pages of regulatory guidance to the counseling process. However, how many leaders give their best effort when counseling subordinates? How many use a pre-generated form? Whether it is a DA Form 67-10-1A, Officer Evaluation Report Support Form or a Word document to counsel a subordinate? Many honest leaders would admit that they use a pre-generated Word document and wait for the subordinate to provide the mandatory DA Form 67-10-1A. Although there are no laws, leaders are morally obligated to provide their best effort in the counseling