The Human Dimension
A reminder that an army, like any organization, is an organization of people, and that the success of each person contributes to the success of the organization. What's more, people are heterogonous - and unlike other forces, the army does not seek to make them uniform, but capitalizes on the unique strengths of each soldier.
People, Teams, Institutions
The army is an institution: it has an identity and purpose, a history, and a character. The qualities of the institution must be supported by the teams within it, and each individual involved.
Discipline
Discipline is the adoption and maintenance of a moral, mental, and physical state that supports the organization. People who are "disciplined" take action accordingly, eschewing apathy and the desire to pursue individual goals that may be contract to those of the organization.
Instilling discipline is a matter of personnel management: reward appropriate action, build self-confidence and trust, and providing a clear vision of the collective goal.
Morale
Morale pertains to the soldier's impression of himself, his team, and his leadership. High morale comes from good leadership, shared hardship, and mutual respect. It is a psychological perspective and an emotional bond that enables soldiers to perform individual and as a team.
Taking Care of Soldiers
Taking care of one's soldiers is second only to the accomplishment of one's mission to a military leader. Treat them fairly, refuse to cut corners, share their hardships, and set a good example.
In one sense, it means seeing to the soldiers: making sure their needs are addressed and providing what comfort can be had. In another sense, it is ensuring that they do their duty in spite of hardship.
Prerequisite to taking care of the soldiers is knowing what needs to be done to support them, and the importance of front-line visits is stressed, especially for leaders who spend a majority of time behind the lines.
Stress of Combat
The stress of being in a combat situation is perhaps the most tremendous that a human being can face. It is the responsibility of the leadership, on all levels, to mitigate the effects of that stress: to keep the soldiers calm and focused on achieving the mission.
Will and Winning in Battle
The ultimate responsibility of the army is to win wars, and wars are one in the field, under harsh conditions. The warrior ethic is the will of each soldier to win: accomplish the mission, whatever it takes, in spite of the physical and mental hardships of combat. A leader can support or undermine the will of his soldiers by his actions, and the actions he neglects.
Stress in Training
Ensuring that stress is a component of training prepares the soldier to deal with stress in combat: uncertainty of success, environmental distractions, and unexpected problems. A soldier must be trained to deal with adversity and overcome it.
Stress of Change
Change breeds uncertainty, and uncertainty undermines effectiveness, but it is inevitable and must be managed.
Technology
Technology is applied to facilitate action, but each instance where technology brings changes, the organization must change as well. Primarily, the nature of technological change is that there is more information, more speed, more power.
Information overload has become a problem, and the skill of identifying he most critical information has become a challenge. Technology brings speed: information is communicated more quickly, and plans must shift constantly.
Regardless of technology, the central issues remain: where am I? Where are my colleagues? Where is the enemy? How we defeat them? Nothing else is as important.
Also be aware that technology has its foibles: it may send false or misleading information. Over-reliance on "gee whiz" solutions rather than boots on the ground has led to disastrous mistakes.
The Changing Threat
Since the fall of the Berlin wall, America faces an ever-changing threat: from one day to the next, it may be unclear who is an enemy and who is an ally. Additionally, the nature of war has changed, and our enemies tend not to be large, organized armies, but small autonomous cells.
And so, the threat - whom to fight, and how to fight them - has shifted considerably from history, and is expected to continue to shift. Soldiers must learn to cope with this change, altering strategy, learning different skills, to be prepared to face the enemy.
Climate and Culture
Climate and culture are aspects of the environment.
Climate
Climate comes from the individuals' sense of the organization, generally within a team or unit. It is also more short-term, pertaining to the people present and the task at hand.
The leader influences the climate by setting clear goals, providing reinforcement (reward and punishment), demonstrating their competence, managing subordinates, addressing stress, participating in activities, and communicating. Keeping a functional climate is key to operational effectiveness.
Culture
Culture refers to the organization as a whole - it is broader in scope and duration.
The army uses its institutional status and its history to give soldiers a sense of the organizational culture, and soldiers are motivated to support that culture as a condition of belonging to something larger than themselves. The reverence for heroism - individuals and units - also underscores the army's culture, and provides examples and standards.
Leaders can draw upon the institutional culture to bolster the climate of their units; but they also must develop a unitary climate that supports (rather than contradicts) the institutional culture.
Leadership Styles
Leadership style is often misidentified as the personal tendencies of a specific leader - his unique quirks. However, applying a single leadership style in all situations, to the point it becomes a part of one's identity, is poor leadership.
Leadership style is a choice, and a leader must be adaptable in order to lead effectively, applying the style of leadership that is most likely to achieve the intended results, depending on the situation and the personnel being led.
Directing
The most familiar form of leadership is directive: the leader makes the decisions, without soliciting input, gives orders, and supervises execution very closely.
It is appropriate to take this style when time is short and the leader cannot take the time to explain. It is also appropriate when dealing with inexperienced individuals and teams - they cannot operate on their own, so they require detailed orders and close supervision.
It's also important to understand that directing action can and should be done gently: without being abusive or demeaning to the men.
Participating
The participatory style is more a matter of teamwork: the leader shares information, asks for input and recommendations, and coaches the team toward a solution.
This is an effective style of leadership that builds self-confidence among the members of the team, and willingness to listen to accept input and step back from directive authority does not make a leader seem weak: it projects self-confidence.
One note: asking for advice does not oblige the leader to follow it. The leader alone is responsible for the outcome, and must make sure that the decision is a sound one.
Transformational
The transformational leadership style challenges subordinates to act on their own: the leader provides a vision for a large-scale task, then steps back, letting the men know he expects them to plan and execute.
This style of leadership works best with skilled and experienced subordinates, especially if their skill and experience exceeds that of the leader. Perhaps the worst thing a leader can do is attempt to direct, or even participate in, actions he understands less than the men: the outcome will be botched, and the reputation of the leader will suffer.
Transformational leadership is effective in developing subordinates in situations where the challenge is unfamiliar to them; when subordinates are highly motivated; and when the leader can accept a margin of success and some deviation form established procedure.
Transactional
The transactional style is a modification of transformational: the leader provides a higher level of detail about the task, gives attention to where things are going wrong, requires short-term commitments, and discourages risk-taking and innovation. Typically, reward and punishment are used to keep the unit on course.
This is not generally a preferred style of leadership, a it is prone to creating a negative impression: the leader seems to have only a vague notion of what he wants, is focused on specific tasks rather than a greater goal, and has no tolerance for honest mistakes. However, it is sometimes necessary to lead in this manner.
Consequences
The actions taken as a leader to accomplish a goal have intended and unintended consequences: a decision may set off a chain of events, or it may have impact on one's future ability to lead.
Intended Consequences
A decision is weighted by its intent: that it accomplishes what the leader expected, given the information he had when the decision was made. Even when a decision fails to achieve its intent, it is the original intent by which the soundness of a decision is measured.
Unintended Consequences
A decision may have one or more unintended consequences - they are often harder to anticipate than intended consequences, and are more often negative than positive.
To mitigate their impact, a leader must consider more than his goal - attempt to predict "what else" may occur as a result of an action. A leader must consider his intelligence - how accurate is it, how comprehensive is it, and whether the decision can be stalled until better intelligence can be obtained.