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             Leadership is the ability to influence and effectively lead a group or an organization. Not all who are in leadership positions are good leaders. Throughout my military career and work with other government agencies, I have had the pleasure to work for and with some of the best leaders; however, there have been a few bad leaders. Being in a leadership position and leading others is not an easy task and it comes with a lot of responsibility. “Leaders are critical to the ethical performance of any organization. They are largely responsible for determining mission and values, developing structure, and creating ethical climates” (Johnson, 2018, p. 190). A great friend and colleague of mine, we worked for 16-years together in the military, just this past weekend we talked about a very effective leader. Currently our friend and former colleague is a 3-star General and is currently finishing his assignment at the Pentagon working for the Secretary of Defense and soon he will take command of the most elite command within the military. This effective leader is a prime example of a servant leadership style. Within the military, most successful leaders are servant leaders. Some of the traits this effective leader displays are: listening, empathy, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, stewardship, foresight, commitment to the growth of people, building community, and healing. This leader is not a doctor; however, he has been trained in level-1 trauma, takes the time to visit Walter Reed Medical Center to visit and talk to the wounded. 35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all” (New International Version, 2011, Mark 9:35). This leader is altruistic.

             There are bad leaders in leadership positions. Barbare Kellerman “believes that limiting our idea of leadership solely to good leadership ignores the reality that a great many leaders engage in destructive behaviors” (Johnson, 2018, p. 194). Toxic leaders can ruin the moral of the organization its culture as well as the reputation of the leader and organization. One command team I worked for and with while in the military possessed opposite leadership qualities and styles. This toxic leader was out of his element did not focus on the people or mission. I was the second in charge and ensured that he or the organization would not fail. This leader, failed to understand problems, could not make tough choices, incompetent in his leadership role and situations, loss of moral for followers, mislead followers, micromanaged, and interfered with others to perform their work. Due to his incompetence, lack of support, and loss of followers; many individuals wanted to leave this particular part of the organization. Chan and Drasgow (2001, Foti and Hauenstein (2007) state “these leaders avoid the responsibility of leading that often manifests as a general inaptitude and/or low motivation to lead” (Milosevic et al., 2020, p. 120). The effective half of the command team came to me to ensure the team and organization would not fail. This was not a good position to be in, however, it was nice that they saw me as being effective. Not every organization gets their selections correct and the military did not get this particular individual correct. If one is lead only by ineffective leaders that is all they will know. 20 Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm (New International Version, 2011, Proverbs 13:20. As John Maxwell is noted to have said, “He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.” If you have no followers, you are only leading yourself.

Johnson, C. E. (2018). Organizational Ethics: A Practical Approach. Retrieved from https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781506361765/