I hope everyone has been well during this term. I wanted to bring up one example where I
was responsible for change that I mentioned in the final project. I was a company commander for
roughly 120 Soldiers and had been dealt with massive changes within the leadership. Practically
everyone that was in a leadership role had only been in position for a few months, many of the
leaders left as it was their time. Luckily, many of the Soldiers did not like the previous leadership
style so we were able to enact new changes quickly. One of our biggest concerns was our attrition,
many Soldiers wanted to leave the organization due to their experience at this unit. We quickly
took time to talk with the Soldiers, conducting sensing sessions and surveys. We were lucky that
many Soldiers were open and honest on their feedback.
Though we couldn’t get everyone to stay, we were able to convince many that their
experience at this unit was specific and that other units are not the same. Many of my subordinate
leaders were able to teach and mentor their Soldiers for promotion and advancement. Looking
back, the different approach I would have used is to include more people (from other
organizations) to assist. This would have helped communicate to the Soldiers their capabilities and
possibly get them interested in other areas.
The most memorable skill I found was implementing and understanding the Five Practices
of Exemplary Leadership (Lewis, et al., 2021). I think these practices are important for self-
development in personal and professional life. At times, it is a challenge to enable and encourage
others to act as opposed to getting the job done myself, I have realized as I move up, my role is to
think strategically and help impact change on subordinate leaders.
References
Lewis, L., Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2021). Leading Organizational Change for Southern
New Hampshire University. Wiley Global Education US.
