Is leadership over emphasized in the promotion system?

I think it is very easy for those of us not directly involved with kicking in doors and sending rounds down range on a day to day basis to become mentally removed from the war fighting business that we are all involved in.

In my opinion if someone is up for promotion he simply MUST be the kind of leader who instills the kind of confidence in those in his charge that would make them okay with the idea of following him into the gates of hell and know that if they stick with him and do what he says, then they'll make it back to their homes and families.

That is what leadership in the military HAS to mean at its most basic level.

Leadership isn't emphasized ENOUGH in the promotion system. At least it isn't in the Navy. Management is emphasized in how you do your job (based on effectiveness, timeliness, and the end product) but leadership and management are two entirely different animals. To manage all you need is knowledge; to LEAD you must have influence.

That's all leadership is: Influence. And in order to have influence you need to have buy-in. If your people don't believe that you have THEIR best interests at heart, they will NOT follow you. And the fewer people you have following your lead the less effective you are in managing your programs.

That's why leadership must ALWAYS be emphasized in EVERY promotion for EVERY member of the military. Because regardless of your role, if you wear the uniform you ARE a leader to someone somewhere. Leadership must be emphasized MORE, not less.

I think the real problem lies in emphasis on leadership by itself. Most promotion boards look only for someone who can simply spit out simple answers to simple questions. What does this even measure? Many promotion boards, at least in the Army, ask simple questions that can be easily memorized and then easily forgotten. This results in "leaders" who excel in hoarding and dumping information, and not necessarily having any idea how to put that information to use. Use it or lose it comes to mind, and rings true, because if you don't use the information you just gained... you forget it.

Aside from leadership, the other parts of what you want in your promoted personnel are knowledge and wisdom. Perhaps the promotion board process should be reshaped not only to look for people who "take charge" but to look for people who know the commonly needed information, know how to apply the information, and do a lot more situation based/on-the-fly type questioning during the board.

Ask questions like, "this is your situation, what do you do?" and judge the answer based on the ability of the SM to think on their feet, as well as the effectiveness of their answer. Less emphasis on regurgitation of facts and more emphasis on practical application and critical thinking. This will help avoid big issues and solve the others which will inevitably pop up.