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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

IS IT REALLY YOUR LEADERSHIPS FAULT!

I work in an area where I see soldiers being chaptered out of the military on a daily in record numbers. When I take a moment to ask them what happened they always blame it on a lack of leadership.  Now I know that you have soldiers being promoted before their time and they may not be properly trained to handle a troubled soldier, but should the NCO be blamed for your continued mess-ups.
I have watched units give soldiers chance and chance again to get it right and they still do wrong. Do these soldiers realize that when you are a constant focus to the leadership, other soldiers are left untrained and un-supervised. Once you raise your right hand and join the military you take an adult step and say train me to be all I can be. 
Don’t expect your Chain of Command to be able to do what your parents were unable to do and that is make you respect yourself. It takes a inner want for you to do that. 
I will not say all NCO’s are great leaders but I will say that until these young and new soldiers take responsibility and the corrections for their actions they will never make it in the military. 
It’s your life and your career so take responsibility for IT and stop expecting others to do it for you!! 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Army is run like a large business and like any business individuals are placed in groups such as those who excel, the mediocre, and the bottom tier. The current SECDEF summed it up best as he addressed West Point cadets by stating, “Leaders should focus on the top 20% of their people in order to elevate, provide opportunity, and give them increased responsibility”. He also stated, “leaders should focus on the bottom 20% of their personnel as well; these people are the people leaders should consider for transition out, albeit with consideration and respect for their service”.
Initially as a leader, I found I spent more time dealing with problem Soldiers and less time with other Soldiers. Because of this practice, I noticed I was losing great Soldiers who could have been potential leaders so I immediately reversed this obviously flawed procedure and noticed the difference almost instantaneously. To sum it up, the group a person places himself or herself in determines their future, not their friends, peers, or leaders.