The purpose of this essay is to inform readers on the foundations of army leadership. The purpose of leadership in different fields is highly controversial, yet it is evident that leadership is an essential aspect in many organizations, social and political groups, and other forms of communities. An army is no exception; moreover, leadership is a critical military element, and an army cannot fulfill its purpose – to defend its home country – without proper leaders. An army involves many people divided into different groups, such as squads or platoons, meaning that an army has a complex structure. Therefore, an army cannot act appropriately if no people lead that army, making difficult choices and decisions and identifying the course of the army’s actions. That is why many people put much effort into investigating the purpose of leadership in the army, its significance, and its impact on the army’s effectiveness. Foundations of army leadership imply many skills and abilities necessary for any military leader because army leadership correlates with many challenges, risks, and complicated decisions.
First of all, understanding the foundations of army leadership requires understanding what it means to be a leader. For instance, Taylor claims that a leader in the army should fit as a team captain to succeed in military service (23). According to Taylor, being a leader implies being a perfect disciplinarian and that a leader should acquire and use those qualities that are inherent for natural leaders of men (23). The army consists of soldiers, and soldiers are people, meaning that the laws of leadership applicable to people are applicable in an army. Moreover, being a leader implies having solid communications skills, which is crucial for any military officer serving in an army (Boe and Holth 11). The researchers state that the professional competence of an army leader consists of three elements: cognition, emotion, and action (Boe and Holth 12). In other words, army leadership implies knowledge to act appropriately in professional tasks, understanding people’s emotional values, and having a set of courses of action to use in various situations (Boe and Holth 12). Everything mentioned above represents the personal foundations of army leadership.
Another foundation of army leadership implies constant development since new leadership challenges continually occur in the military practice. According to Kirchner and Akdere, the definition of leadership involves a specific set of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs), and their acquisition is not straightforward (110). A competent leader should always reflect on their performance, analyzing their acquired skills and their implications to seek room for improvement (Kirchner and O’Connor 49). Moreover, army leadership implies leading different people, thereby having different communication inside the led group. As mentioned in the previous section, leadership requires having strong communication skills, and leading different people with different worldviews requires a leader to be adaptive to communicate correctly with soldiers (Kirchner and O’Connor 49). For instance, some soldiers may be Christian, facing conflicts between their military obligations and issues of faith (Quinn and Bryant, 76). Therefore, continuous development of leadership skills is a part of army leadership as there are many various leadership challenges that a leader is to confront during their military service.
Finally, there are many risks related to military leadership that army leaders have to deal with daily because the leader has to decide in a risky situation. According to Bell et al., there are many consequential decisions that military leaders make each day under different states of uncertainty because of potential risks (11). Those decisions may involve operating routes for supplies, making various maneuvers on the battlefield, or designing a strategy for attacking an enemy position (Bell et al. 11). Nonetheless, each separate leader’s decision is consequential and correlates with particular risks to war resources, mission success, and, more importantly, human lives in many cases (Bell et al. 12). Army leaders confront many moral and ethical dilemmas every day because military service implies life-changing choices that are not simple to make (Robinson et al. 1). For instance, it is incredibly challenging to choose the success of a mission over a soldier’s life, which is why army leadership implies severe moral struggle (Robinson et al. 2). An ability to adequately deal with the risks in army leadership is what makes an exemplary leader.
On the whole, the foundations of army leaders are complex as they imply specific skills and knowledge that a military leader should have to deal with the challenges and risks that await them. First, it is vital to understand what it means to be a leader because leading people into battle means taking responsibility for those people. An exemplary leader should be a disciplinarian with solid communication skills who can react quickly in any situation and make the best appropriate decision. Army leadership correlates with the particular set of knowledge, skills, and abilities, and a military leader should constantly develop those skills to be ready for new challenges that they and their people might confront. Lack of specific abilities or knowledge may play a crucial role in a critical situation, directly affecting the mission’s success. Finally, there are many risks involved in army leadership that concern resources, operations, and human lives, meaning that the ability to deal with those risks is essential for a military leader. Everything described above illustrates the foundations of army leadership.
Works Cited
Bell, Patrick, et al. “Risk preferences in future military leaders.” Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, vol. 2, no. 2, 2018, pp. 11-24.
Boe, Ole, and Torill Holth. “Is guidance as a tool for leadership communication effective for military leaders.” Arts and Social Sciences Journal, vol. 8, no. 2, 2017, pp. 1-8.
Kirchner, Michael, and Kimberley O’Connor. “Incorporating reflection exercises to identify soft skills in Army education.” Journal of Military Learning, vol. 2, no. 2, 2018, pp. 47-57.
Kirchner, Michael, and Mesut Akdere. “An empirical investigation of the acquisition of leadership KSAs in the US Army: Implications for veterans’ career transitions.” Journal of Veterans Studies vol 4, no.1, 2019, pp. 110-127.
Robinson, Kate, et al. “The Relationship of Risk to Rules, Values, Virtues, and Moral Complexity: What We can Learn from the Moral Struggles of Military Leaders.” Journal of Business Ethics, 2021, pp. 1-18.
Taylor, Robert. Military Leadership: In Pursuit of Excellence. Taylor & Francis, 2018.
Quinn, Ian, and Phil Bryant. “How Christian Should an Army Officer Be? The Answer May Lie in Servant Leadership.” Servant Leadership: Theory & Practice vol. 6, no. 1, 2019, pp. 75-89.