Army Leadership Levels

You can ask ten different Soldiers what an Army leader is, or what they believe a good Army leader is. It will not matter the rank, time in service or the maturity level of that Soldier because more than likely you will get ten different answers. Everyone has their own opinions on what an Army leader is, or what they believe a good Army leader is. By definition leadership in the Army is the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization (ADRP 6-22, 2012). There are three leadership competencies that make an Army leader; leads, develops and achieves.

Extraordinary leaders possess empathic skills; are confident, optimistic, and honest; have a strong sense of focus and inspiration; embody personal courage and resilience; and readily display respect, integrity and humility. Extraordinary leaders are committed to making positive differences by using effective decision making skills; by employing self-reflective practices; by remaining cognizant and aware of the systems they have developed; and by being totally accountable for their actions. Leaders in today’s Army, “influence their organizations to accomplish missions. Today’s Army leaders “act decisively, within the higher commander’s intent, and in the best interest of the organization” regardless of where they fall in the leadership continuum. (ADP 6-0 Mission Command

An Army Leader is able and willing to act decisively, within the intent and purpose of his superior leaders, and in the best interest of the organization. Army leaders recognize that organizations built on mutual trust and confidence, successfully accomplish peacetime and wartime missions.” (2006, P. Viii). Balance molds a leader and in turn, an effective leader is a proactive person who works a whole lot smarter. President George Bush (1997) states, “Leadership to me means duty, honor, and country; It means character and it means listening from time to time.” (Adrain, p. 35).

Desire, determination, effectiveness, passion, management skills, being able to inspire, positive attitude, knowing who you are, what to do or not; these are all characteristics of a leader . “Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent.” (Concept of Leadership, 2010). In this 21st century world we are living in and with all the complex changes happening and the many ways businesses are being conducted and operated, leadership skills are definitely needed but are becoming more and more challenging to obtain because leadership is a process which is put in place in order to influence a group

To be a leader, you need a variety of skills. Providing one of them being, intelligence; if you desire to be a leader, you must be intelligent in what you are leading. For example, you can't go out and lead a group of hikers if you have no idea where you're going, it’s almost inevitable that you’ll get them lost. There are many forms of leadership, those including: leading through something, being in charge with responsibility, or even helping someone through a hard time. Each one of these requires some leadership.

Everyone in the Army is part of a team and functions in the role of leader and subordinate, Army Doctrine Publication (ADRP) 6-22. If a person is not willing to become a good follower, they can never make effective leader. Leadership is a term derived from an English word lead. Any individual who demonstrates extraordinary dedication to his followers

Leadership begins with the desire to improve something and with an idea how to make improvements, whether it is making physical things, accomplishing a mission or rearing children. To learn leadership, you first need to learn to be an individual contributor and follow. I learned that in the Army’s basic training which provided the basic issues that causing people to be motivated to do what you want them to do when normally they would make other choices. The first year in the army was growing from following to leading in small steps ending with becoming an officer almost exactly one year after I was inducted into the Army. Throughout my working life I participated in the three levels of leadership as annotated by Figure

The very essence of leadership is having vision to influence followers so that they show willingness to change, leaders need a specific set of skills to guide their actions. The skills can be thought of as the inner tools for motivating employees, systems and processes to direct and guide the organization towards common goals that enable it to achieve its mission. Leadership requires personality enthusiasm, integrity, self-renewal. Leaders possess attributes (beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, courage and skills) that make people feel proud to follow. They provide a sense of confidence and can rally the troops and morale when there are difficulties. Leaders take responsibility when the situation demands it and do the right things done on time, know that even mistakes can be learning opportunities. They provide an analysis of the performance, preparation and assistance for professional development of

Ref. (a) According to Bass (1981) leadership can be defined in different ways: It is an act of influencing activities of an organized group in its quest to set goals and also to achieve certain goals. He also defined leadership to mean the influence that somebody exercises in a situation by means of communication in order to attain a specified goal. However in order to be a leader you require a variety of qualities. There is no one specific quality that makes one person a better leader; it’s more of a compilation of traits building an ideology as to how you as leaders handle situations. The traits I try and to reflect on as are; Self-assurance, maturity, high energy, team orientation, and charisma. As a leader I try to incorporate these traits along with the philosophy of an old Chinese Proverb; Tell me, I’ll forget, show me, I’ll remember, Involve me, I’ll understand. This reminds me that not everyone learns of understands situations the same way, I must as a leader be-able to reach the masses to have followers.

There have been many theories about leadership and its styles, based among the relationships between human beings in which one or more persons exert a degree of influence that can lead others to conquer a common goal. It doesn’t matter what they say about leadership what really matter is how you see yourself as a leader, what impact have you left in your men, is it positive? Is it negative? What is your commander’s opinion about you? Have you thought about that before? Many questions to answer, don’t they? As military leaders and guidance for soldiers, we must demonstrate: endurance of character, competence, commitment, courage, patriotism, honor, wisdom, justice, integrity, faith, charisma, high standards of communication, discernment, generosity, initiative, listening, passion, positive attitude, high standards for problem-decision making, responsibility, security, self-discipline, dedication to service, be open to criticism and continuous improvement and many more. No matter

A leader needs to “believe” in oneself and have the confidence that whatever you say will excite and what you do can motivate others. You must be optimistic about what you do, do have some relevance for being in existence. Believe it or not, “leadership begins with you”.

A leader needs to know about the human nature, and be able to direct people towards goals, as well as reducing the group 's doubts about succeeding. Some people believe that a leader is born that way and there is no way, practicing or studying, to create a leader. However, I believe inside of each one of us there is a leader waiting to be awakened and holding on to an opportunity to come out. There are several qualities to be a successful leader I learned from the readings and class lectures.

Leadership arises in different situations with all being a variety of characteristics and traits. While there are a variety of connotations and denotations of the word leadership, one can say that an effective leader doesn’t necessarily need to have all the traits that a great leader needs to have, but only possessing the traits of being able to direct individuals into the correct path, being ethical and having high moral values, and being loyal.

Leadership is one of the hidden qualities in the personality of an individual. It is complicated and challenging to for human nature to grade an individual depending on one’s personality. Leadership is founded on the organic structure of the personality such as responsibility, social interaction, skill, experience and the power of organizing people. Effective leadership is the ability of a leader to imaginatively guides, directs, and influences other peoples. The leader can achieve through meditating between organization and individuals in the manner that both parties involved would achieve maximum satisfaction. The role of a leader is to get his or her people from where they are to where they have not been before. What makes an effective leader is the intelligence and power an individual has to create and understand the position he or she holds and know what to represent to the people. A leader has to fight for what he or she believes, can do, and defend anything against him or her (Shirey, 2010).

Organizations depend on the management and leadership skills of individuals in order to be successful. Leaders do not have to be managers but are equally important. Leaders are individuals who possess traits, behavior and abilities to influence others to accomplish tasks and other needed objectives for the company. Leadership is defined as “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization. . . .” (House et al., 1999, pg. 184).