MSM 6640 Application Essay

Philosophy for Leadership

My philosophy for leadership I think in 4 dimensions asking myself what impact my decisions will have on my subordinates, superiors’, successors and peers. Asking if they will change or be unchanged. Always owning up to failure and sharing my success. Always demanding the best effort put forward not their maximum effort. Hold true to the organizations values as well as holding true to mine. There may be a difference but as a leader I will have to deal with both. My leadership will give my subordinates a chance to succeed. I will also teach them how to complete the task at hand and give them the opportunity to do it themselves. If their ability ever comes under scrutiny I will own it by affirming that I do believe in their ability to complete the task. I will recognize their success after completion and give them praise for completing it. I will also give them a reason for motivation if they experience a shortcoming.

My leadership is always consistent and when presenting my soldiers with regulations in depth I expect them to commit to them. It’s always regulations first and mission second and I make them accountable for their actions so that when I’m before my First Sergeant I’m accountable for my soldiers and my own actions. As a leader I always listen because there’s no such thing as unimportant. I’m always planning and my soldiers must earn my respect or they will be disciplined. I will always value them as individuals but also as a team. As a leader I will always be the first to show up and the very last one to leave. Also, as a leader especially in a war time environment I will never eat or sleep before my soldiers. This is my philosophy on leadership. My leadership will always start with leading by example, sharing knowledge, seeking info and input while staying humble. As a leader I must be fair, show that you care, and be trustworthy so I can empower them and show that I will to do what they ask of me. It’s out of my control but lower enlisted soldiers get crappy jobs and it just so happens it comes with the rank. They feel as if they are doing it because I’m trying to avoid doing it. With that said I will never get respect from them and will never get the most production from them. If I’m not empowering them then that means that I can’t teach them how to become an effective leader and will feel as if they don’t matter.

I had this time where a ditch needed to be cleared out and it was about a foot deep. I’d say it barely came to your shoulder and it had steel grates covering it. So, I was thinking on how to clear it out and I came up with the best way to do it would be to have the soldiers low crawl with the head of a broom and clear the trash and dirt to the next grate that was open as they were crawling. I explained the process to them but I also demonstrated it for the first 20 feet while they stood and watched. I put the highest-ranking person in charge and whatever help he/she needed to get the job done in a week he/she could get it. needed a ditch cleaned the other day. Myself a good leader am a good mentor took the time to train my soldiers for success. My leadership philosophy is where I enable leader development. A detailed plan is required for leader development. You can ask the questions like what are my requirements, what do I expect and how am I going to enable that process? First is defining what I expect from myself and the other leaders. To start would be their service requirements. Leadership means hold true to the organizations values and my own but that can be contradictory. I say this because you would have to ask yourself did I ask my subordinate to identify their values and have I really identified mine? I know if I didn’t set my own values that my soldiers would be set up for failure. Which means the set goal that’s in place can’t be achieved but if for some reason it does then its results may be that a soldier doing the wrong this for the right reasons. For the Army it states its values are LDRSHIP which means Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage.

When I was a Platoon Sergeant every Monday I held the new-comers’ orientation during that orientation I would ask this question, what is the most valuable thing in their life? Just about everyone in the orientation said family. Well there isn’t an F in LDRSHIP which is an Army value and therefore this leads to a conflict is it Family or LDRSHIP? My argument was an Infantry company can’t have values but instead it has ethics and if those ethics are violated there is punishment for it. Reconciliation of their values with ethics and understand the differences and where they will they will place them. Not having this knowledge, they would be acting on impulse and that could be dangerous. Expand this with examples of how things present themselves daily and this will provide the ability to have a better understanding about it. As a leader I’m comfortable in certain situations and that’s a requirement as a leader. As a leader to soldiers I give examples of how they will see certain characteristics played out during their career. Then I take the time to setup a training scenario which would put them in certain situations purposely leaving gaps in the train and in information to assess how they as leaders perform during the scenario. My leadership technique is to Identify, define, design, train, and assess these soldiers daily. My training plan was developed around my leadership philosophy. I treat my soldiers as I would my own son by doing that they will follow me into the sandiest desert and until we are separated by orders. The Army Values are a must know but I wanted to teach my soldiers on a professional level and a personal level. I wanted them to know we are as one, a team and not individuals. If you care about them then you have no problems in the long run but if you can’t show it you may need to try harder or the outcome won’t be pretty. I never delegate nothing that I wouldn’t or couldn’t do.

Instructors Comments:

Feedback only (except length and originality considerations). |Comment:| Your preferred leadership style seems to be transformational leadership, wherein credibility and charisma turn subordinates’ attention away from personal issues and toward group priorities. |Observations:| {Originality}: Good. {Length}: Good. {Mechanics:} 78% (spelling 100%, grammar 53%, punctuation 72%, word choice 85%). {Formatting:} ungraded. {Reasoning, logic:} 64% (efficiency 65%, acuity 58%, clarity 51%, objectivity 83%).