Posted on Apr 8, 2016
What was the worse decision you made as a leader of your organization?
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As a Commander, Platoon Leader, Section Leader, First Line Supervisor, or as leader at any level/branch of service, what is the worse decision you made in your career? It's easy to talk about the great decisions and hard as heck to talk about the bad ones. We've all made them in our career. No one individual leader is perfect. Even the most famous leaders have made a bad decisions!
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Edited 8 y ago
Posted 8 y ago
Responses: 15
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To be honest I have never had trouble sleeping while I was a military leader COL Mikel J. Burroughs. I got in trouble when I did not willingly bow down to the goal of a Flag officer as a brand new captain because I believed that meeting the needs of the service men and women in the command was more important than developing a lock step process.
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COL Mikel J. Burroughs
LTC Stephen F. That is exactly what I'm taking about. I can't tell you how many times I went against the grain with a Flag Officer because I didn't agree with a course of action they were taking. That might be why I never applied to become a Flag Officer!
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I suppose you could substitute "dumb" for "worst" and my answer would fit perfectly... I was leading a platoon sweeping an area outside our base camp perimeter one morning after a monsoonal rain when we came to the edge of recently plowed land. Without paying attention I stepped past the line of men and into hip deep mud. I stood staring straight ahead until the snickering behind me stopped and then reached back for someone to pull me out. That's when I made one of my better decisions. A rifleman reached out with his M-16, barrel first. The look I gave him convince him to clear the weapon and extend it butt first.
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Customarily, Soldiers shouldn't speak poorly of the Army or their COC.
But if it was acceptable I would reply, "Pffff! Where do I begin?"
But if it was acceptable I would reply, "Pffff! Where do I begin?"
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COL Mikel J. Burroughs
CPT Chris Loomis I wasn't necessarily talking about your current boss, I was speaking more about you personally as a leader - was there ever a bad decision and what was it? It a tough to look at ourselves and reflect on bad decisions that we've made. As a Commissioned Officer and NCO I can honestly say that there were some bad decisions that I made during my career (None thank God that were life threatening), but decisions that resulted in the wrong course of action or that were against the ruling from higher above. Sometimes you have to make decisions that you think are right and go against the grain, but you pay the price in other ways. If leaders never made a bad mistake, then we wouldn't need any level of leadership training as we progressed up the ranks. Its tough to admit you made a mistake, but great leaders learn from their mistakes, take corrective action, and place that experience into their leadership tool kit for future reference. That is my philosophy that some may or may not agree with. The choice is theirs!
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CPT Chris Loomis
COL Mikel Burroughs Sir, honestly, yes, I've made more than a few bad decisions. Thank God that none of them were life threatening.
After reading some of my posts here, I'm sure it will be hard for you to see that, well, I'm opinionated (sarcastically). In fact, I've honestly been known to be a "big mouth."
That said, I'm definitely not afraid to state my opinion or position nor am I weary of telling somebody that they are full of malarkey. I have no problem doing so eloquently with an educated tongue or in language that comes from the gutter.
In my defense, as I've gotten older and maturity has began to slow me down I have learned to pick and choose my battles.
My most recent mistake made was by articulating to a superior, with a solid foundation of facts based on FMs, ARs, and traditional and current practices, that they were wrong and full of crud. I stood up for what I believed was right and was strong in my convictions. The matter was over the way that subordinate Officers were treated and the superiors own lack of leadership attributes.
In a nutshell, I won the battle and lost the war.
Would I do it all over again? Yes, because it was (solidly in my opinion) the right thing to do. Could I have done it with a different and more affable execution? Oh hell yes....
The political fallout from the incident is what is going to bite me in the butt. I own that and accept that.
Humbly, I'm a "Sam Damon" type Soldier than a "Courtney Masingayle" type.
After reading some of my posts here, I'm sure it will be hard for you to see that, well, I'm opinionated (sarcastically). In fact, I've honestly been known to be a "big mouth."
That said, I'm definitely not afraid to state my opinion or position nor am I weary of telling somebody that they are full of malarkey. I have no problem doing so eloquently with an educated tongue or in language that comes from the gutter.
In my defense, as I've gotten older and maturity has began to slow me down I have learned to pick and choose my battles.
My most recent mistake made was by articulating to a superior, with a solid foundation of facts based on FMs, ARs, and traditional and current practices, that they were wrong and full of crud. I stood up for what I believed was right and was strong in my convictions. The matter was over the way that subordinate Officers were treated and the superiors own lack of leadership attributes.
In a nutshell, I won the battle and lost the war.
Would I do it all over again? Yes, because it was (solidly in my opinion) the right thing to do. Could I have done it with a different and more affable execution? Oh hell yes....
The political fallout from the incident is what is going to bite me in the butt. I own that and accept that.
Humbly, I'm a "Sam Damon" type Soldier than a "Courtney Masingayle" type.
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