Military Leadership Analysis

Effective and efficient leadership and management lead to effective and efficient operations, conversely ineffective or “toxic” leadership and management will lead to degraded unit effectiveness and efficiency. Leadership and management are skills that are interwoven together and like many other skills they can be improved through experience, time, and practice. According to ADP 6-22 (2012) “An Army leader is anyone who by virtue of assumed role or assigned responsibility inspires and influences people to accomplish organizational goals. Army leaders motivate people both inside and outside the chain of command to pursue actions, focus thinking and shape decisions for the greater good of the organization” (ADP 6-22, p. 1). Through my many
Merriam-Webster (n.d.) defines integrity as “firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values” (n.p.). To me as a leader integrity not only means this but it also means to admit when you have made a mistake and not turn your back on those that you are serving with. I have experienced many leaders that felt they had to be perfect in order to lead Soldiers and would often pass their mistakes onto others or even worse be unwilling to make the tough decisions for fear of failure. As military leaders we are often confronted by tough decisions that involve a high level of risk to complete certain missions, to me integrity also means being willing to make those tough decisions and stand behind the choice that we have made to accomplish the
The Army as a career is a very complex environment, the burdens that are placed on Soldiers and their families are unlike any that normal everyday individuals face. Very few jobs in this world require the sacrifices that being a Soldier does, this is one of the concepts that as I have grown in my career I have become more aware of. As I have moved up in my career I have also realized that it is imperative that I develop the ability to manage the stresses associated with this. From entering the Army as a young single Soldier to now being a married senior noncommissioned officer with two children I have significantly more to manage with not only my daily work load but also with my home life. This is why I have tried my best to be able to prioritize my missions and to give myself the time to balance my work requirements with my personal commitments. This is where I feel some fellow leaders fail at one or both and have failures in one or both areas because of it. I know from experience that personal life will interfere with work and work life will interfere with home if not properly