Small Unit Leadership by Col. Dandridge M. Malone

Author:Col. Dandridge M. Malone [Malone, Col. Dandridge M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2009-05-26T16:00:00+00:00

LEADERSHIP MALFUNCTIONS

In the whole process of developing leaders over time, there are two general malfunctions that will occur. The leadership of the unit will continue to operate, even with these malfunctions, but it won't run smoothly on all cylinders. One of these malfunctions has to do with “balancing.”

Two great factors underlie all we know about Army leadership: accomplishment of the mission, and welfare of the men. Mission and men. Leaders are always working with these two basic factors. Whenever and wherever possible, a leader tries to balance so that the needs of the mission and the needs of the men are both met. But there are times, sometimes in peace and often in war, when the needs of both cannot be met. You cannot balance. You have to choose one over the other. In these few situations, and you must make them few, MISSION MUST COME FIRST. These are those few times when our Army will not, cannot, and should not be “fair.” The whole meaning of Army leadership rests on this law of MISSION MUST COME FIRST. So does the meaning of “soldier,” and “service,” and “duty.” You saw that on the very first page, when McFerren went to give his life. Mission came first.

In the balancing business, the “mission” side of the scale requires, simply stated, knowing your job—weapons, gunnery, tactics, maintenance—in excruciating detail and with technical competence. Without it, an Army leader can never lead for long. Just talk by itself won't work. Troops know.

The “men” side of the scale requires, simply stated, knowing your soldiers: knowing what's inside of them, what makes them do things or not do things; what turns them on, or off; what they can do and what they will do under stress, or when they're afraid or tired or cold or lonely. These are the things you need to know about your soldiers. They're what tells you how a soldier measures up on that “able and willing” gauge.

It is precisely here, in the attempt to balance between these two requirements—mission needs and men needs—that leaders most frequently fail. It is here where young sergeants and young lieutenants have their greatest difficulties, and where even old leaders, despite their wisdom, sometimes lose sight of the ultimate purpose of leadership. The problem arises because of the relationship that exists between soldiers’ “happiness and satisfaction,” on the one hand, and their “productivity and mission accomplishment,” on the other. We have mentioned this point before.

Common sense would tell you that happy, satisfied soldiers will get the job done better. From this, a leader, especially if he's a new sergeant or new lieutenant, might well assume that if he can somehow keep his soldiers happy and satisfied, then they will be more productive, more likely to get the mission accomplished. But the strange chemistry of “leadership” just doesn't work this way A thousand scientific studies of leadership and a thousand lessons of leadership experience both prove that this natural, commonsense assumption is precisely wrong!

Mission accomplishment builds morale and esprit far more often than the other way around.

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