My time in the military has given me countless opportunities and experiences. A few years ago, I recognized one of these experiences that I had been overlooking since the beginning of my military service. This was the experience to lead and to follow. When everyone first starts out in the military they must go through some form of initial training, where the main objective is for the member learn to be a follower. This is relatively easy for most individuals since it’s simply a matter of doing what you’re told and recognizing when not to do what you’re told (as in the case of unlawful orders). After consistently displaying the qualities of dedicated followership for a period of time, the member may be selected for initial promotion. It is at this point the military begins to train the member to be a leader through a number of professional development courses. This continues as they promote until they reach the top of their military grade scale, or show little potential to progress further and succumb to the Peter Principle (promoting to a level of incompetence). No matter how far a person progresses in the military, they will always remain a follower to some extent. There’s a great thing that comes with being a follower and it is the opportunity to witness and observe leadership first hand. I’d like to share a bit about two leaders who were the very inspirational in my military career.
Sergeant S was the first inspirational leader for which I had ever followed. He was my flight chief, which carried a responsibility for about 40 people, as well as the responsibility of the performance of the team. What I found most motivational in his leadership style was his ability to convey a genuine sense of dedication and care for everyone and everything. I would attribute his effectiveness as a leader to a high degree of sociability. “A person high in sociability tends to be outgoing and expressive, and is often seen as empathetic, warm, and giving” (Howell & Costley, 2006, p. 67). Seeing how Sergeant S’s leadership style was seemingly so effective, I attempted to emulate it when I had the opportunity to lead. Unfortunately, I found myself struggling to deal with situations and scenarios that required a different style of leadership. It exposed a weakness in my leadership abilities I didn’t know I had, and that was flexibility in leadership styles. I realized that leadership was much more of a dynamic process than I had previously understood and it required more than displaying a high degree of sociability in order to be effective.
Another one of my inspiration leaders was my wing commander, Colonel A. I did not directly work for him, as I was detached from his supervision by many levels. However, I did get to witness his leadership first hand when I had the opportunity to attend his weekly staff meetings. The staff meeting included all of the unit commanders and superintendents, and would start with a briefing from the intelligence community on regional threats. It was following one of these briefing that I began to notice something special about Colonel A. He took the information he was just briefed and spoke on the second and third order effects from a regional and strategic perspective. Furthermore, he gave context to the information so it was easy to understand. I was blown away at his ability to communicate very clearly without reservation or hesitation. What was more impressive to me was that he spoke, not for his own benefit, but for the benefit of all the other commanders at the table. Clearly, Colonel A possessed a high degree of intelligence, which is attributed to leadership (Northouse, 2016). Yet while a high degree of intelligence may negatively affect a leader’s effectiveness (Northouse, 2016), this did not seem to affect Colonel A because he was able to effectively use communication in a manner that lifted other leaders to his level of understanding. His example of leadership gave me the opportunity to think about the importance of communication on effective leadership.
With each leader I come across, I’ve been able to witness many aspects about their leadership styles and traits. The leadership courses I have taken at Penn State have given me further insight to better understand why those leaders were or were not effective. Furthermore, it has given me the opportunity to put much of what I’m learning into context from these previous experiences. With those experiences to reflect on and the education I’m receiving, I hope one day my leadership example will inspire others to take a deeper look at their own leadership style in an desire to become more effective.
References
Howell, J. P., & Costley, D. L. (2006). Understanding behaviors for effective leadership (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Peter principle. (2015). In J. Mcray (Ed.), Leadership glossary: Essential terms for the 21st century. Santa Barbara, CA: Mission Bell Media. Retrieved from https://search-credoreference-com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/content/entry/mbmlg/peter_principle/0
Jennifer Thompson says
Hi Simon,
First, I have to extend my gratitude for your service to our country. I truly appreciate each and every service member who works for my freedom. Thank you. Next, I have to say I’ve not heard of the Peter Principle, but this is my new favorite concept! I see so many people who show little to no potential to progress and it’s amazing to put an actual term to the behavior.
I really enjoyed your commentary about your Colonel. The rank of Colonel automatically commands authority as the concept of assigned authority tells us. The Colonel occupies a position that demands professional respect from all subordinates, regardless of how people truly feel about him (Northouse, 2018). That said, what you described sounds like you have respect and admiration for the Colonel not because of his rank, but because of what Northouse (2018) calls emergent leadership. The Colonel has moved up the ranks throughout his career by proving his worth. He has had to demonstrate his skills, knowledge and abilities in order to promote to his current rank. As you mentioned, he is an intelligent, well-spoken man who is respected because of his proven track record. It’s not likely you would show the same level of respect to someone who was dangerous with his orders or treasonous to our country.
I think an area of leadership that a lot of people may misattribute to the military is coercive power. Coercive power involves forcing someone to do something against their will and results in penalties for those who do not perform accordingly. Likewise, rewards are used to manipulate people into following a coercive leader (Northouse, 2018). And on the surface, it’s easy to see how this misconception could happen. Our service men and women work very hard and do a lot of jobs that no one else would every sign up to do. To most people, having a commanding officer barking orders would not make for a pleasant day at the office. And it is true that if orders are not followed, there will be penalties. But the reality is that, at least in today’s world, no one is drafted into the military. Every person serving in our armed forces chose to be there. Granted, everyone has different motives for joining, but at the end of the day, they all volunteered to be there. That, in itself, removes the military from the category of coercive power. Northouse (2018) says leaders who use coercion are not concerned for their followers, rather they are trying to complete their own agenda at the expense of their followers. This is not the case in the military. Rather, the military’s leadership aligns much more closely with trait leadership.
As you said, intelligence is positively correlated to successful leadership (Northouse, 2018). As Northouse (2018) referenced Jacquart & Antonakis (2015), your Colonel displayed a strong verbal ability, along with perceptual and reasoning abilities. Further, high ranking officers must always display self-confidence. Followers will not follow a leader who questions their own abilities. The followers must be sure that the person leading them is taking them down the right path. Determination is also a necessity in the military. There are times when our service members are pushed to the brink of total exhaustion. The only way they are successful in these dire situations is through pure determination. They rely on their initiative, persistence, dominance, and drive (Northouse, 2018), to get the job done. And above all, military leaders must possess integrity. Being honest and trustworthy are traits necessary to lead anywhere, but especially in our military.
I enjoyed reading your blog this week.
Best,
Jen
References
Jacquart, P., & Antonakis, J. (2015). When does charisma matter for top-level leaders? Effect of attributional ambiguity. Academy of Management Journal, 58(4), 1051–1074.
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: theory and practice (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.