Mils 201 Final Paper- for those interested. attempt number 2 posting this. ignore the first

What is leadership? Why is it important? You could answer these questions with simple definitions, but you wouldn’t really grasp the big picture. In order to understand what leadership is you have to break it down to its elements. Small Unit Leadership: A Commonsense Approach does just that and gives a great understanding to what it takes to become a leader. The author starts off by discussing the purpose of small unit leadership. In the first chapter of the book, Col. Malone beings by talking about what our tasks are as troop leaders and three words that can be used as a roadmap of leadership to accomplish these tasks. Our two main tasks as Army Leaders according to Col. Malone are to “lead soldiers and small units during battle” and prepare them to fight in battle. These two tasks are accomplished by the three words he emphasizes in this chapter: TASK, CONDITIONS, and STANDARDS. These words let us as officers and leaders know exactly what is expected of us. The three words emphasized in the first chapter of Small Unit Leadership can be broken down further to help us understand what they really are and why they are important. On a basic leadership level, the job of a leader is to accomplish a “task.” This is true in all forms of a leader, whether it be in business, politics, or even boy scouts. The difference for an Army Leader though is “you must be ready someday, somewhere, to lead soldiers to accomplish an ultimate task that no one else wants to do, under conditions that no one else wants to tolerate.” To accomplish this ultimate task, soldiers are expected to go up against extreme conditions. An Army leader must be able to courageously lead his soldiers into battle. “Battle is the story of how soldiers fight. And in that story are the ultimate conditions which must apply in the tasks of small-unit leadership.” The conditions that soldiers are expected to face are harsher than those faced by almost everybody else in the world, and the job of a leader is to get them through those conditions. A leader must prepare his/her soldiers’ minds and bodies for the hardships of war. They must be ready for constantly changing situations, the possibility of death at every turn, and the leader must guide them on the right path to keep them safe and well fitted for the fight. To keep soldiers ready for battle and prepared for these conditions, the Army employs standards. Standards are what allow soldiers and leaders to function at the highest possible skill level and preparedness to achieve the main goal of the Army and of battle: to WIN. The ultimate standard is achieved with Confidence. Without confidence, moral and the will to fight will be lost. Soldiers gain confidence in themselves and each other by leaders building skills, will, and teamwork. The main Army standard is: “THE SIMPLE, SURE KNOWLEDGE THAT EACH SOLDIER AND EVERY CREW IS HIGHLY TRAINED, AND THAT THEY ALL BELONG TO A SOLID, FIRM, COMPETENT, WELL-TRAINED OUTFIT THAT KNOWS WHERE ITS GOING AND WHAT IT HAS TO DO.” This standard allows soldiers to be confident in their ability, the unit, their weapons and gear, and the overall leadership of their leaders. The standard allows you as a leader to lead your soldiers through the conditions that they will surely face, and completely the ultimate task at hand. “It is leadership that insures that soldiers fight smarter and better. It is leadership that determines who wins. And in war, for our Army, winning is the only standard.” Now, the question of how to lead comes in to play. “Leadership is influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improving the organization.” This is how the Army defines leadership according to Army FM 6-22 and AR 600-100. Captain Daryl White, Military Science Professor, defines leadership as “the art form of influencing other in order to do things they would not normally do to complete a mission.” These are simple definitions and they give an overall spectrum of what it is to be a leader. They do however no create the distinction between a regular leader and a military leader. There is a certain “big picture” ideal that needs to be looked at when trying to define what an ARMY leader is and what goes into becoming one. Col. Malone’s book does not give an exact definition of “leadership” but it breaks down what Army leadership is and what you must embody to be an Army leader. Leadership is not management and being an Army leader is not an occupation, it’s a lifestyle. “The difference between military leadership and any other kind is because of your soldiers: who they are, where they come from, what they do, and how they live—as soldiers.” To me, the acronym of the Army Values helps define Army leadership in the simplest way possible. LDRSHIP can be broken down to mean Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage. Some soldiers may pick a specific value as the “most important,” but I think many do not look at it how I do. They are all simply building blocks and the true most important value in the Army is Leadership itself, which is the embodiment of all the Army Values. Without each and every one of the values, you cannot achieve all the tasks set out before you as a leader, nor will you be able to instill all the values into your soldiers so that they can complete what they must to do to achieve the mission and live up to the Army standard.

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