Comparing Leadership in Military - Essay Example

? The 56th HBCT is in a crisis of leadership, and I see that it lacks both bottom up motivation as well as top down organization. The other challenges that face the HBCT, such as lack of equipment, delayed delivery of that equipment, understaffing, long hours in red cycle, and other logistical problems or ethical problems (the sniper in Afghanistan or the lack of time to reconnect with families) is all of secondary importance to me as the new CO. My primary concern is top down organization and bottom up motivation because, and I believe that proper restructuring and institution of counseling programs to make up for the lack of both in the past deployment will result in my brigade having a more motivated and able force of officers, NCOs, and soldiers. The key leadership challenges for me exist at several levels. The foremost challenge is for me to establish clear-defined role for the DCO of the brigade, who in the past have been deemed to have a confused role. As CO, I also need to define my role clearly. These problems were apparent in Afghanistan during the previous deployment, where the leadership struggled due to too many responsibilities being assigned to the DCO, due to having a separate leadership structure in place over the MiTT, and later on as a result of the untimely deaths of the top officers in the brigade. Not only did the deaths of these officers create a sudden change of leadership, it also required the development of a new vision of leadership as well as the inspiration of new confidence in the troops in the entire brigade. Thus, I have a challenge in establishing myself as the new leader who will bring the unit back to the pace and status it held under old leadership, and as a result I must raise morale and proficiency among the soldiers. Within the officer structure, there is also a problem of my shops working together in harmony—the S3 shop is perceived as dictatorial by its members, while the S4 shop is overwhelmed; finally, the S6 shop, least likely to complain about workload, also finds that its job is overwhelming. These shops all need some sort of relief, and I need to refocus them in order to better complete their tasks as well as recover from the deployment. My second leadership challenge lies at the NCO level. The most alarming aspect of this is how my brigade CSM is not open to the feedback of his NCOs, who complained about the stress and workload as well. Although the NCOs do benefit from hard handed leadership that requires action and results, they also need leadership that listens to their feedback and integrates into a wider solution. The CSM is not going to improve the efficiency and morale of his NCOs by batting back their feedback, negative as it may be, and needs to take an approach that will lead to more incentive and increased dedication. In short, the NCOs need to be inspired rather than reprimanded—and I need to reprimand my CSM. Finally, there is an issue throughout the entire brigade of time and resource management. The reset face is presenting me a challenge due to the dwindling amount of days before the next phase of training comes into place, and much of the equipment is either in transit or in disrepair and will not be available for full use until much close to the H+180 point. This places pressure on myself and the leadership at all levels, as the leaders from the team level up to my position as CO need to find a way to train and familiarize with equipment that we do not have. The result is not that there is a shortage of time, but moreso that there is an excess of time without the proper resources. I need to find a way to prepare the troops for the next deployment cycle without the equipment—I also need to adjust the troops to the new mission and timeline in Afghanistan, as well as the fact that they may be acting in infantry type roles in addition to their usual MOS roles. My vision for transforming the organization of the 56th HBCT involves making a clear structure of authority and tasking. As CO, I will require reports on equipment availability at the beginning of each week, so the timeline can be adjusted for either delays or speeding up of the process of transit and repair. Furthermore, the I will use my DCO in limited ways in order to strengthen the leadership structure of the brigade. My DCO will not be responsible for being LNO to coalition forces, nor for dealing with the media. Instead, he will focus primarily on being my BCT chief of staff and synchronize the operations of the brigade support battalion. My S3 shop leader, due to his alleged capabilities in getting tasks done, will be in charge of dealing with coalition forces in order to help integrate this into planning, and will also be in charge of any MiTT that need further leadership—again to be sure that their role is acknowledge in operations planning. The battalion XO of each battalion, all being quite experienced and proficient, will answer directly to my DCO as far as his needs of obtaining information and progress reports. This will allow the battalion COs to focus on taking orders from myself. My primary training plan coming down to the battalions will be for non-equipment related training that focuses on the change in contemporary operating environment from Iraq to Afghanistan, and the XOs will play a vital role because they have operated in Afghanistan during the past deployment. At the very least, the battalions should have a confidence about the COE based on having been there before, and equipment can be focused on as it arrives during the training cycle with a plan to begin its implementation in training after H+200. The shift of tactical and cultural based training to the priority will allow buffer time for the equipment to arrive. This will also allow the troops to be trained in infantry tasks, for which they do not need much of the heavier equipment. I plan to speak with my CSM about his leadership method. I will indicate that he needs to hold a specific conference with his NCOs every 14 days in order to gain their feedback on how the command structure is running and what the workload is, and the results of this conference will be reported immediately afterward to me. I will then dictate what changes are necessary for the CSM, so that the CSM may directly implement these to his NCOs without any direct contact between the NCOs and me. This should help motivate and reward the NCOs for their upcoming workload. Concerning mentorship and counseling, I will hold the senior NCOs as well as the XOs responsible for carrying out mandatory monthly counseling, in depth, with their junior NCOs and officers, respectively. This will help forge stronger relationships between the lower levels of command and the medium level and field grade officers. The battalion CO and NCO will assess these reports and further report to the brigade level on progress and goals. My CSM and I will exchange ideas with battalion level leadership in order to be sure that morale is being lifted and workload is being streamlined. To lighten the appearance of a heavy workload, those soldiers present will be limited to staying long hours at work only every other day. In essence, this will not lighten the workload, but instead will balance it order to give an alternation of heavy workdays and light workdays. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday will all be heavy workdays with hours lasting as long as 2000 hours, but ending no earlier than 1900 hours. Tuesdays and Thursdays will end at 1700 hours at latest, and if tasks are completed can end by 1600 on a battalion by battalion basis. This will give incentive to my troops. The best focus in this case is to provide tasks with specific deadlines, so that all work hours can be filled, and tasks that are nearly complete can be pushed a bit extra. Battalion COs will have final say on all hours of work. My end state is that my unit morale will rise by the time equipment arrives. They will find that they have a closer relationship with their immediate supervisor, and that all suggestions are making it to me at the top. Our workdays will be long, but because of alternating short days, we will find that we are able to plan ahead for which days will be heaviest. As a whole, morale will be up, and training will be more focused as small tasks are completed. The lightening of stress due to this method should result in more soldiers coming off of medical profile, and more positive feedback in monthly counseling as well as bi-weekly NCO meetings with the CSM. The measure of success will be the feedback on morale and confidence that I receive through reports and conferences. The lack of further complaints, and better yet the addition of positive comments for brigade staff and shops, will indicate to me that the workload is lightening and that work is getting completed. Overall, the lack of equipment provides me challenge in training the troops, but also gives a reason to shelf the idea of training with equipment and focus heavily on other types of training and other reset tasks in the meantime. My leadership structure will benefit from clear, simple reorganization with explicitly assigned tasks and responsibilities. The feedback from below is essential to making my command structure work, and the key to getting our work done is in raising our morale rather than intensifying the pace. The bottom line is that my soldiers can complete tasks without intensive direction, but most importantly, soldiers with a high morale are willing to work harder later on in the game after being allowed to recover and give feedback in the wake of a deployment. Read More