Toxic Leadership Research Paper

Leadership is that process in which one person sets the purpose or direction for one or more other persons and gets them to move along together with him or her and with each other in that direction with competence and full commitment (Elliott, 2009). Leadership is supposed to guide people to attain a particular set vision. Motivation is fundamental in the process of leadership as if there is no motivation there will be laxity among the people involved. It is also a critical scenario for leadership to have followers; this will infer a relationship between leaders and followers (Frank, 2003).

LTG Ulmer fully discusses the Army’s concern of compromising command authority and how that can foster toxic leaders. SF is susceptible to toxic leadership for this same reason. A sergeant major will crush a group of teammates who try to solve their toxic leadership issue through collective mutiny. The military is a top down driven organization and chain of command is more important to maintain than removal of one toxic leader.

From June to 2004 to present, beloved Colonel Michael Dane Steele is in command of 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Rakkasans). I have just been notified that I will take command from Colonel Steele in November 2006 which leaves just short of six months for me to plan for the change. A review of author Raffi Khatchadourian’s article, “The Kill Company,” published in The New Yorker on July 6, 2009 is necessary for background in writing this paper, however; the timeframe assumed for the purpose of writing this essay is June 2004. To this end, it must also be assumed that the author does not benefit from the knowledge gained by reading most of the information in Khatchadourian’s article. My goal is to set and maintain an effective, ethical command climate through investigation, self-education, and unit-wide professional military education.

This quote by Colin Powell describes toxic leadership in the Armed Forces. Toxic leadership is a failure of leadership. A toxic leader does not lead, they poison the workforce and tarnish the reputation of organization. Toxic leadership can exist anywhere, from the private sector to the government, to our military Armed Forces.

Pigging backing slightly is the issue of speaking poor of your organization. There is always joking about “hating the Army” typically because of the contradictory and slow decision making, the hurry up and waiting, the stickler NCO that is always on your case or the 1st and 2nd Lt who either act confused or act like they don't care;however for the most part these are light hearted sidebar comments. Where this becomes toxic is when true contempt for the organization is allowed to fester. As a Platoon leader you need to be aware of your men and women and how their opinions are being affected by the leadership climate. The difficulty comes in being part of the problem and not part of the solution.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss a Legacy Leader from whom I received either negative or positive influence from. For this paper, I have chosen a leader who left a significant negative impact on me, thus providing for me examples of what not to be as a leader. It was at Fort Bragg, North Carolina that I came face to face with one of the worst examples of leadership and negative role models I have encountered in my 14+ year Army career. The impact and impressions that MSG Smith left on me have been burned in my memory ever since. I was shown an example of how not to conduct myself when in positions of authority over others. As in all experiences, I truly believe that there is

soldiers is a tragic example of how, if that leadership is lacking, awful things can

Toxic leadership is something that is present in the Army today and has several devastating effects on that leaders unit. By now, if you have spent any time in the Army, I’m sure you have experienced some form of Toxic leadership. Although not every toxic leader has a loud, decisive, and demanding demeanor. Some toxic leaders can have the same affect with a quit and soft demeanor.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss how Sergeants Major can use positive psychology and Master Resiliency Training (MRT) to foster a command climate free of toxic leaders. The use of positive psychology and MRT competencies and skills can assist in identifying and preventing the effects of toxic leaders. Incorporating these methods in Professional Military Education (PME) and leader development programs are an extremely important center of gravity for senior NCOs have on a unit’s Soldiers. Sergeants Majors are inherently responsible for the health, welfare, training, and development of the most precious of commodities, the soldiers. Toxic leaders present an extremely difficult leadership challenge at all echelons. Soldiers

You bring up many valid points in your post. I too have seen a number of quality soldiers exit the Army only because of toxic leadership. In my experience, it only takes one toxic leader a short period to destroy the motivation of a quality soldier. Some of the people I have seen leave the Army were under the impression that Army leaders have changed over the years, and this is simply the new environment within the Army and Special Forces. At this point, it was too late to convince them to come back. They had already made up their mind that they were going to get out and find a better job without all of the frustrations. I like your concept of raising quality leaders from within our ranks in order to avoid the toxic leadership

In today’s military, lessons are learned daily through the use of AAR’s and breifbacks, however in order to excel in the art of command, particular attention should be paid to the lessons taught in Module C130 Leader Development and Assessment. The topics taught in the Leader Development and Assessment Module are critical to the success of a Field Grade Officer in accomplishment of mission and personnel management. Long gone are the days of “Do it because I say so” or redoing work multiple times in order to teach the staff a lesson with no leadership guidance. Toxic leadership has come to the forefront and is now not only recognized as an issue, but joked about in many circles, yet some Field Grade Officers do not comprehend what it

The purpose of this essay is to identify what happened when my ODA worked for a toxic company commander in Afghanistan. I will compare and contrast the differences between good leaders vs. toxic leaders, how toxic leaders develop, and share personal experiences on how our ODA dealt with our company commander. Leadership style is the pattern of behavior used by a leader as recognized by those who are led. Good leaders add value, impart energy and maximize potential. However, some leaders, by virtue of their personality and style consume unit energy. Even high performing organizations can be “run into the ground.” Toxic leaders have a style that is so destructive that they not only do not add value, they are a detriment to their organizations.

The strength of any organization can be found in the ability for the leaders to lead effectively. Effective leadership is essential in the military too, as toxic leadership can have a detrimental impact to those who work under them, as well as the ability for the unit to be cohesive and able to carry out their duties. In the following pages, the symptoms, impact, and mitigation strategies of toxic leadership will be addressed in an attempt at understanding the various aspects that can influence the role of leadership in the military. Lastly, a plan to

Articles such as [[Heather's hairstyles]] and [[Trent's guitar]] feature words that are lowercase whereas the page for [[Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom]] emphasizes mostly capital letters. This is because the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom is a title; on the other hand, [[Trent]]'s guitar is a page which focuses on a possession.

The military organization is susceptible to bullying in the workplace and hostile work environments due to the inherent nature of the military structure. Different leadership styles can be used to combat bullying and hostile work environments and minimize their effects. Some leadership styles further contribute to problem. Furthermore leadership styles that are helpful in one situation may contribute to problems in a different situation.