If you were to look at yourself closely and determine your greatest characteristics as a leader what would you want them to be?

Lesson I learned the hard way . . . Listen to your subordinates, but trust your own judgment. I was an early commissioned LT in the National Guard meaning that I was commissioned before I graduated college. I was a platoon leader of an anti-tank platoon that was chosen to be evaluated at annual training. One of my section sergeants wanted to dismount a TOW for an ambush and wanted to put it in a clump of bushes on the front slope. I thought it looked a little dicey, but as a new Pl who had been an NCO on active duty, I decided to "trust my NCO". When we sprung the ambush, the track
KS turned uphill toward us and over ran that position before they could u ass the AO. Needless to say, I got my ass chewed by the evaluator. Moral of the story? Listen go your subordinates, but don't be afraid to stand your ground when you know they are wrong.

MAJ Keith FitzPatrick, CPIM, CSCP - Agreed Major. I said the ability to listen; I didn't say take it all as gospel!

Yes listening is a great skill here are a couple of pointers to take your listening to a new level.
1. Do not say anything when the other person stops talking. Many times in that 2 to 3 seconds of silence they will tell you more. This is a great to use when wanting to know more about someone or gathering information to make a decision.
2. Do not start telling your stories. Many times we get so caught up in what we want to say about our story that we are no longer listening. Even it they are still talking we are forming our story in our minds. Thinking is not listening.

Is integrity something you can develop or is it a value you learn as you are growing up to become who you are. I spent a lot of time with people in the Army that did not always hold fast to integrity. In one case before I was a leader, my leader wanted me to do fudge the reports on a test that had to be turned in every 25 hours,he had allowed these tests to get behind. I told my leader that I would take care of the current results and he could do what he wanted with the rest of the tests. I told him what I would do was to call the testing station tell them we were behind and send in the most current test results. He sent all the tests in and made them look like they were taken during the intervals needed. After they read the results the next day I was his boss. Taking responsibility when we make mistakes increases our integrity with others.
Sweeping things under the rug just moves a mess to a new location.

SFC Russell Shaw - I believe it's developed. People change over time and their experiences will shape their perspective. Morality will always be subjective because it's based on personal convictions. Ethics is someowhat subjective and changes over time because it's based on behavior deemed normal by society. Legality is objective but still changes over time as the law adapts to new cases with new decisions.

I like that. No doubt about it.

These are close cousins there is no doubt integrity is more adherence to moral and ethical principals; soundness of moral character. If you think of it this way is more of the long view and trust is something that can lose in a heartbeat. If you have a long standing of integrity you will earn their trust again but if you have poor integrity you will never gain their trust again. Trust is like change in your pocket as long as you do things that people see as trustworthy they will give you change whey you break that trust you pay out some change. If you keep paying out you will eventually be bankrupt and it may be a problem with integrity. Even when bankrupt if you have good integrity you will get their trust back.

Let me know what you think I may be way off base here would really like to read your feedback on this.

There is a lot that goes into being a good leader there is no doubt about it. These are a few of the traits of our foundation as a leader. My question is to see where we find ourselves and which seems to be the high point among my peers. I am a person of curiosity who likes to help people think and increase their personal awareness. Our personal awareness is where we find our greatest strengths and really develop our leadership skills. Actually from the rules I teach there are 21 indispensable qualities or a leader but I wanted to keep it short and cover some of those that all leaders should have. Our strength comes from being more aware of our qualities and getting help on our weaknesses. Please give me your feedback on this as I am very curious on your thoughts. Thank you so much for you inquiry and the information. Yes I will explain the results after getting a weeks worth of data.