The Army Has Lost The Art Of Leadership

The author took the CSMs comment about hair cuts and PT the wrong way. The CSM is implying that you need to lead from the front in order for Soldiers to follow. We don't have the option to choose what standards we enforce. As far as the authors stance on kicking PT failures out I believe his is uninformed how the process works. His analogy of the heater going out once and selling the house is way off. If a Soldier fails the APFT he/she is given 90 days to get where they need to be. Then after taking another APFT we either remove the flag and drive on or initiate chapter. When the author calls bullshit on doing organized PT and it still being the Soldiers individual responsibility to pass the APFT he is again misinformed. Yes we do organized PT because Soldiers should be in the maintenance phase of physical fitness. If they need more PT it is their responsibility to do it. However, I don't know any good leaders who won't take the time and assist their Soldiers in need of extra PT. This article sounds like a disgruntled Soldier making excuses for not being able to meet the standard. Either that or he has had some piss poor leaders.

The Army has not lost the art of leadership, it is alive and well. The days of leading by fear and yelling and screaming are gone. So old heads like myself who bitch and complain about being a kinder Army need to improve on their leadership skills. Our job to provide purpose, direction, and motivation does not require screaming and hollering to get Soldiers to perform. It requires you showing them how, giving them the tools required, supervising the task being executed then retraining if needed. The CSA addressed his Sergents Major on the top 10 leadership issues. I posted it on here I would signs reading it. The man is a genius and makes perfect sense.

1- I don't know if this article has the appropriate title, maybe it should be called, "my time in a toxic leadership environment." It's a point of view and doesn't provide enough evidence to say the Army can't lead.
2- I agree with the SGM at the beginning and think the author missed the point of the SGM's comment. I believe leaders lead by example and from the front, which I believe was the SGM's point. You can't gain the respect of your subordinates when you ask them to meet a standard you cannot meet. You cannot be the best at everything but when your subordinates see a consistent effort to exceed the standard they notice.
3-standards are standards, meet them or get a new job. It's no different in the civilian world. I understand mentorship, but at a certain point if an individual cannot meet the standard then they are a detriment to the team. Once again, not enough evidence on the PT perspective to say the system is broke.

I think the SGM was referring to discipline.