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I find more and more that we are not allowing people to fail. Soldiers are not challenged because we don't allow them to fail and learn from their mistakes. Primary example....Closeout formation safety briefs. If you are a Soldier in the United States Army, you SHOULD know it's not okay to beat your wife, beat your dog, drive drunk, race your car, leave your children, spend all your money, steal, rape, or pillage. Call me crazy but I should not have to pull my squad aside and say anything more than "don't do anything stupid" and "have a safe weekend". Are people at higher levels afraid of being accountable for what a junior Soldier did? As a leader when I get a new Soldier they know from the initial counseling what is appropriate and what is not.
With the Army downsizing so much I would think they would almost encourage "survival of the fittest". Let the stellar Soldiers shine and the problem children get the boot.
This is more of a rant than anything but I know I'm not the only one that feels this way.
With the Army downsizing so much I would think they would almost encourage "survival of the fittest". Let the stellar Soldiers shine and the problem children get the boot.
This is more of a rant than anything but I know I'm not the only one that feels this way.
Failure
Soldiers
Best Practices
Counseling
Posted 12 y ago
Responses: 14
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Usually the micromanaging individual is very insecure in his/her position and is very afraid that a subordinate will make a mistake and it will reflect on him. The old "Zero Defects" mentality of the Brigade that I was assigned to in the 82nd Abn. fostered this mentality/fear in each level of the chain of command. The solution to this is several fold. First, training must be comprehensive and mastered at every level. Second, the chain should be ready to let individuals and teams to pursue solutions to their given missions and be given the opportunity to make mistakes. We all learn by mistakes and are better for it. Third, those who do the job correctly should be recognized so that the entire unit understands that the job done well is appreciated. Finally, if mistakes are made, a critique should be done with a mutually agreed to training plan to ensure improvement is gained.
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Fear of failure. Once in key leadership positions, some units are so unforgiving that the first time something falls through the cracks you're either screwed on your eval or people get relieved. Fear of that is making leaders lost trust in their subordinates' ability to accomplish a task in situations where they normally would trust them. Especially with the Army downsizing now, we're going to become a bit more of a "zero defect" military where the first time people screw up or something less than positive goes on their record they'll be hit by a separation board.
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I think we tend to micro manage the less knowledgeable
Soldiers we have in our Army. We do this
to make sure that the job, task or mission is completed to standard and on time. I have done it in my career and know that it
was the best thing to do at the time. We
cover our own butts and try to give the Soldier the benefit of the doubt. We know that if they mess up we have to redo
the task or get our butts chewed. I just
want to keep tabs on the status of what they do and if they are being
productive.
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I am in it for the power. Seriously we set ourselves up for failure by not establishing boundaries and then wonder where we went wrong.
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