Posted on Mar 19, 2015
Becoming a leader. How was the experience for you?
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Personally I never really gave myself a chance to become a leader. To me becoming a leader felt a bit overwhelming at the time, so I left the Army as a Specialist after my deployment to Iraq. About a year after I was recalled out of the IRR for another deployment. The unit I was attached to promoted most of us Specialists to Sergeants as a formality, since they figured us recalled guys would leave after our contract was up. Looking back I really wished I would have stayed in, taken WLC, and gotten my Sergeant rank the right way. Honestly, and somewhat shamefully I had a lot of doubts about it. I felt off about not so much having subordinates under me, but taking on whole new skill sets, as well as personnel management. Don't get me wrong I learned from the best. My infantry squad leader was a first rate soldier and leader. So were my team leaders. I always did my job to the fullest extent, but the thought of applying what I had learned about being a leader for the first time was what got to me. I guess I had gotten what some would call "cold feet". So how was the experience for you? Was it a real challenge, or did leadership come natural to you. Was there a lot of self doubt, and if so did you push through it anyway? What would you say are some good tips on leadership? Please share away!
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Leadership
Leadership
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 3
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Every Marine is a leader. Good, bad or indifferent each of us at some point has been placed/thrust into leadership situations. I relished the opportunities for growth those situations provided. And I had many Good Initiative Bad Judgement conversations. I instructed everyone of my scouts that part of leadership is failure. Good leaders in my opinion are the ones who take risks and make mistakes and then learn and move on.
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I'll say I took the challenge head on but I did much more for myself than the Army did. I knew what I needed to do and followed the example of some great leaders but I have to say in my experience the Army let me down as far as training me to be a leader. WLC (PLDC when I went through) was a joke as a infantryman. It was all administrative and not of much use for me when it came to leading troops in combat. I'm not sure the Army has a course for that until you get to MOS specific course at the E-6 level and above.
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SGT (Join to see)
A lot of the leaders in my unit said they didn't like the course (Also PLDC at the time) as well. Something about it being more about having packing lists, DNC, and counseling statements than actual battlefield skills.
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What gave me the greatest satisfaction as a leader was watching the soldiers and NCOs go professionally and personally and knowing they will go to hell and back with you. I wanted everyone of them to know the NCOs and I cared about their well being all the time. Just maybe I was able to change lives with my example of virtuousness.
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