Smart leadership is one of the main requirements for success in any human activity area, but this is of strategic importance among the military. Modern military leaders must have critical competencies and skills, professionally performing their roles and functions in a global context. Military conflicts accompany the entire history of humanity, so no country can do without a professional army. With the invariability of the goals of war, its means, tactics, strategy, and structure always develop. The army’s structure reflects the population it defends, and the American military in this aspect is a leader in diversity.
The modern military must be prepared as leaders free from cultural biases in their views and actions. They should take into account as fully as possible the interests of their country, which is composed of representatives of different cultures. At the same time, a new leader should be able to motivate subordinates to achieve results by increasing their awareness in perceiving the importance of the indicated goal of the activity. Their training should contribute to the development of such qualities as discipline, stress management, the ability to make decisions, and others.
Leaders trained in this way will be able to work with a team of different cultures expanding their capabilities and horizons. Leaders already recognize the effectiveness of diversity in the American army’s actions, saying that this is one of the reasons for its success (Lopez, 2017). Representatives of different cultures acting as a single force, give the impression of a strong, diverse nation. In my experience, thus, leaders working in a coordinated way in a multicultural team can inspire other members foreign to their organization. This gives an incentive to work more and develop as a team, to build relationships without prejudice in which soldiers can entrust their lives to colleagues.
At the moment, in the ranks of the American army, most leaders are white conservative Americans. However, as Cox (2019) notes, there is already a greater diversity among employees. This fact means that the army is developing along with the trends of the modern world, attracting more representatives of different cultures. Previously, they did not consider a military career as an option for the development of their lives, as this was a tradition of white and conservative families. Nevertheless, taking into account the new members, the next generation of leaders may be more diverse.
References
Cox, M. (2019). Congress wants more diversity in the ranks of military generals. Military. Web.
Lopez, T. (2017). Diversity more than black and white, Army leaders say. U.S. Army. Web.