Posted on Jul 24, 2015
What is the single greatest "trait" you look for in a Leader?
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Leadership
Character
SGT
CPT
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 64
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Airborne wings! Kidding, but in all seriousness no one trait exemplifies a great leader. Leadership is molded by the opinions of those in which you are responsible for leading.
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SGT (Join to see)
SGT Rossi, although my expectations vary from person to person. I both look and expect at a basic level that my leaders be know and do, I expect that my leaders will hold me accountable and in the same regard that I hold them. I expect my leaders to be the SME on their duties. I expect that i can learn from them as well as that they are humble enough to learn from me. I want my leadership to be a soldier worthy of emulation, one who takes the hard right over the easy left even if it means going home late or missing a timeline on an event of lesser priority. As will and soldier I want my leadership to follow te basic principles of LDRSHIP, but we are all humans and I expect that they will make mistakes. When they make a mistake I hold them to the same standard as they would me. I want them to learn from that and do it better next time. But lastly I want them to put the preservation of honor of their soldiers before the advancement of their own.
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The ability to except responsibility for their actions, ability to communicate in the fog of war and lead by example.
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Some who is genuinely excited about the opportunity to lead and understands the privilege of doing so.
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I think a leader that allows junior leader autonomy is essential. As long as a solid mentorship program exists for support and guidance, a junior leader must be allowed to develop and execute plans within and slightly outside of his/her level of responsibility. Mistakes should be used as learning points and not punishment as long as those mistakes aren't grossly negligent. Autonomy builds task ownership and pride in the end result. I can tell Soldiers what I want them to do and how I want them to do it, but I don't want mindless bag stackers. I want my 20 levels to grow into dependable 30s and my 30s to make indispensable 40s. I need to be able to know how my LTs are going to operate in the absence of leadership and what better way to do that than in a controlled CONUS environment. In the end, my Soldiers will move on to bigger and better things and it's my responsibility to ensure that they will be a positive addition to their destinations instead of a negative one.
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SGT Anthony Rossi
Well stated CPT,
This approach also works very well with children. The same skills that helped soldiers under my over watch become NCO's worked well into developing my son to self motivate himself at desiring to attend West Point. If you want people to develope you have to trust them with increasingly more difficult tasks.
This approach also works very well with children. The same skills that helped soldiers under my over watch become NCO's worked well into developing my son to self motivate himself at desiring to attend West Point. If you want people to develope you have to trust them with increasingly more difficult tasks.
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Willingness to say screw the paperwork and goes and does so of the menial work with the lower ranks. I saw a captain do this once we had to tear apart an old dfac attached to the barracks and set it up as extra barracks rooms because we had an influx of soldiers. One day the captain and 1sg decided to help with the project. I thought it was incredible that an officer would choose to leave his office and dealing with the everyday things necessary to run a unit, to spend time doing hard labor with us. In my opinion that is what makes a good leader. One who doesnt order for the sake of orders but one who understands what its like to do the job hes ordered someone to do.
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Humility. Being able to communicate through humility and knowing that you do not know everything creates a better environment to accomplish the mission.
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The trait I look forward to is honesty. Tell everyone the truth no matter how painful.
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