Leading in the “millennial Army”

I like your take on leading. It is true we always have to adapt. I do feel some things have changed that aren't for the best, but I have always prided myself on being able to find out what will get through to soldiers and enable the to do the job quickly, efficiently, and right. No I don't always agree with paperwork, and no I don't always believe someone needs the living S**** smoked out of them, and no talking doesn't always work either. However, you need to find what fits and what will work. I look at leading soldiers I hate to say it like I look at raising my kids. My kids will leave me some day just as some day my soldiers will leave me and hopefully become leaders themselves. Sometimes talking to a soldier and getting to the root of the problem fixes the issue. Now you do have your problem soldiers but they are not as prevalent as you might think. Most soldiers that I have come across just want to be able to do the job that their MOS says they are supposed to be able to do. When their work day consists of only menial tasks and detail that is when morale drops and you start to have problems. I know I the Signal Corps if everything is working then no one cares, but let e-mails stop flowing or facebook not work and all hell breaks loose. Details aren't bad but a lot of leaders see Signal soldiers sitting around doing nothing, but guess what that means things are good and the network is up. It means they are proficient at their job and can keep the signal world going. However, they are the ones that if assigned details or tasked out and the network drops that will get chewed out a lot of the time if it isn't back up within minutes. Just my take.

The Army today is not the Army of tomorrow. Good points in the article.

Sir, the line about "what if they are not lazy but found a better way of doing things" gave me a chuckle. The military is and always will be about change. The chuckle is that re-inventing the wheels is a constant and as an old fart that served from 78-13 I was always open to new ways but I was also quick to point out that "NEW Way was "NEW" about a dozen times already and it didn't work all twelve times it was tried and failed before. Not all resistance to change is invalid, anyone would get very tired of continuing to take failed paths after a while. While being open to change is a good thing, seeing if something has been done before would be a good research project. The only constant is someone thinking that they have an innovative idea without checking to see if it was tried before. My service could be summed up as an ARMY themed GROUNDHOG DAY experience that was painful at times and enlightening at other times.