Posted on Nov 2, 2019
What do you feel makes someone a great Military Leader?
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I will be using this data for a Military Discourse Community research paper. Please feel free to answer the survey questions and comment a more in-dept personal analysis below.
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Leadership
Leadership
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In my opinion, it is in the grander scheme of things that what makes someone a great military leader is the support and mentorship of others.
How often is this stressed by the great heroes of our past? It's a common theme in the biographies of Hackworth, Winters, and Mattis to name a few. Empirically, greatness seems to be a torch handed off from one solider to the next.
Military work is team work, no one becomes great on their own. Our character traits seem to fall secondary to the ability to learn and follow others in humility. My ability to think critically or utilize emotional intelligence may make "me" great, but my leadership will only be elevated to greatness because others take it to that height. I don't know much, but this seems to be what the voices of the past are trying to teach me.
Thanks for bringing up the topic. I've seen it come up before, here are other thoughts I read through:
https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/what-makes-a-great-leader-in-todays-military
https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/can-you-be-a-great-leader-without-technical-expertise
https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/what-are-some-character-traits-that-a-great-nco-leader-should-have-and-do-you-have-any-advice-you-would-like-to-share
https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/how-do-great-leaders-create-more-great-leaders
- This one is a little off topic, but provides an interesting light to the question. https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/not-everyone-wants-to-be-a-leader-why-do-we-force-members-who-are-otherwise-great-at-what-they-do-into-positions-they-don-t-want
How often is this stressed by the great heroes of our past? It's a common theme in the biographies of Hackworth, Winters, and Mattis to name a few. Empirically, greatness seems to be a torch handed off from one solider to the next.
Military work is team work, no one becomes great on their own. Our character traits seem to fall secondary to the ability to learn and follow others in humility. My ability to think critically or utilize emotional intelligence may make "me" great, but my leadership will only be elevated to greatness because others take it to that height. I don't know much, but this seems to be what the voices of the past are trying to teach me.
Thanks for bringing up the topic. I've seen it come up before, here are other thoughts I read through:
https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/what-makes-a-great-leader-in-todays-military
https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/can-you-be-a-great-leader-without-technical-expertise
https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/what-are-some-character-traits-that-a-great-nco-leader-should-have-and-do-you-have-any-advice-you-would-like-to-share
https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/how-do-great-leaders-create-more-great-leaders
- This one is a little off topic, but provides an interesting light to the question. https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/not-everyone-wants-to-be-a-leader-why-do-we-force-members-who-are-otherwise-great-at-what-they-do-into-positions-they-don-t-want
What makes a great leader in todays military? | RallyPoint
Looking to see everybody's input on what they think is a great leader
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1LT (Join to see)
Another interesting point from my historical studies and in my personal experience is that this concept of "others establishing our greatness" is somewhat contradictory to our current civilian culture which stresses individualism. I could be wrong, what do others think?
As Patton once said, "This individuality stuff is bunch of crap! The bilious bastards who write that stuff, about individuality, for the Saturday Evening Post don't know any more about real battle than they do about fornicating." No great man or woman truly believes their success is their own, they always at some level credit the men and women they served. We all have an instinct for this as military folk, some more than others as such a principle seems welded into our hearts through the fires of battle. And as with most of our deepest truths in the military, this idea is incredibly difficult for civilians to accept and is often over-looked. Most leadership and self help books I've had to flip through spit out other crap. That is all well and good and it serves a useful purpose, but the general conversation seems ignorant of the bigger picture I am trying to point out.
I hope I'm wrong.
As Patton once said, "This individuality stuff is bunch of crap! The bilious bastards who write that stuff, about individuality, for the Saturday Evening Post don't know any more about real battle than they do about fornicating." No great man or woman truly believes their success is their own, they always at some level credit the men and women they served. We all have an instinct for this as military folk, some more than others as such a principle seems welded into our hearts through the fires of battle. And as with most of our deepest truths in the military, this idea is incredibly difficult for civilians to accept and is often over-looked. Most leadership and self help books I've had to flip through spit out other crap. That is all well and good and it serves a useful purpose, but the general conversation seems ignorant of the bigger picture I am trying to point out.
I hope I'm wrong.
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SGT Aaron Olivas
Thank you for your answers and analysis of the topic. The additional resources provided are going to be a big help to me in my research on the topic of how different genre sets within the Military Discourse Community see topics within the community. Thanks again
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