Leadership literature Essay

I outhouse distill my personal command philosophy into four conceptsno catch phrases or buzz wordsjust simple principlesa1. First, a commanding officer needs to closed in(p) up a2and let their a3folks do their job as much as possible. Second, a air force officer must clearly understand what the a4individuals and organization look for from them. Third, a commanding officer must create their have got reality. Fin exclusivelyy, a commanding officer must be genuine. Before explaining, I should probably qualify that what Ima5 well-nigh to rate is a product of my warped set of experiences. It is in no way meant to be jeering or satiricalits just what I know to be true.Surely everyone is familiar with the concept that a well-executed, mediocre plan is much better than a poorly-executed perfect plan. This a6is the crux of empowering people. Countless timesa7 I have observed people discussing different approaches to a problem often pitting leaders against workers on how to skin the cat. Unfortunately, the leader usu exclusivelyy weighs in with the final say even overruling subject matter experts. a8 This leaves the subordinates to sink the front office solution and try to make it work.Of course a9most employees are good followers and they make it happen according to plan but there are several drawbacks of the top-down approach. a10First, it butt end take time for people to buy into a solution they played no part in conceiving. Second, it open fire stifle solutions from the experts in the future.Third, it pulls the leader further into the weeds as direction is necessary to corroborate and vector progressa11. Why is this so hard to achieve in practice? Perhaps it is personality driven, or perhaps it is instilled by senior mentors, but for a12some reason most leaders seem to drop the mental or moral aptitude to let folks press with solutions they deem inferior. Why not ask, What do you think we should do? and give that solution your full support. Folks wil l take ready ownership and youll be floored a13by the results.Leadership literature is filled with cursory calls for the leader to propound their a14 pot, goals and expectation. Honestly, this somewhat of a cop outa15. Of course a leader needs to take an organization in a16a clear direction, but a17that direction has everything to do with context. It is completely absurd to create a vision or organizational climate that fosters risk taking a18at a nuclear base or rapid uninformed decisions in an engineering design flight.Likewise, it is equally ridiculous to roll into a squadron nerve-wracking to pump a19everyone up following a commanding officer that rode them all into the ground during an ORIa20. A wise commander would take a moment to figure out, What does this unit need from me? Do they need a moralist to check rampant DUIs? Do they need a personable/approachable commander to get them through a recent suicide? Perhaps they just need some top cover from the free radical or wing so they can get their jobs done. Of course this will vary during a commanders tenure as events occur and the personality a21of the organization changes the key to know what your folks expect of you. a22Weve heard the anecdotes contrasting the impact different commanders have on the same organization, under Col smith my unit happy a23and effective but after Col Jones took command, we were miserable and unproductive. This is a good allegory of how commanders create their own reality. Commander and supervisors who lament over their long hours, stressful environment and massive workload cannot improve their plight until they realize that they create this reality.Typically this frenetic environment is the result of a confederacy of poor organizational skills, micromanagement, lack of decision making and insufficient triage. Conversely, the alternate universe that a commander should seek to create is one where folks understand whats important, are trusted to work those priorities and insulated from distractions. Likewise, the commander needs to be competent enough to know when to make a decision and when to shut up. It all sounds simple, but in practice, creating this reality can be very difficult especially if there are strong type-A personalities within the unit or in the chain of command.The final concept and one that a commander has the least control over is sincerity. One can do all the right things and say all the right things a24but still be ineffective if they are not true to themselves. If a commander isnt passionate about what they a25are a26doing, doesnt care about theira27 unit, or doesnt respect their a28boss, no amount of tap dancing or rhetoric will mask it. This can be the result of apathy, narcissism or any number of other traits but it always shines through.Likewise, if a soft-spoken introvert wants to become a cheer-leading, fist-pumping commander, it will fall short. Some amount of self-centeredness can be mitigated through education, se lf-reflection and mentoring but only to an extent. Similarly, changing personal techniques or leadership styles to adapt a specific situation can compensate for some personality traits. The bottom line is that I would much rather work for a commander that was an uncharismatic, wrinkled blob who truly cared over the GQa29, smooth-talking egotist irrespective of how competent, ethical or confident they were.You might be thinking, wait a minute, this guy is forgetting all the important stuff like core values, standards and discipline. Well, yes, I didI only have three pages and so accept these bumper stickers as given. Will I expect service, integrity and excellence? Absolutely Do I plan to emphasize safety, accountability and ethics? No doubt Im a military machine professionalanything less would be unacceptable. It is actually these fuzzy principles (and others like them) that distinguish the vision-puking, smooth-talking automaton from an effective commander and leader in my booka 30.