Question for our service members

[Slamz]

Regarding leadership and specifically leaders.

What inspires more confidence in the rank and file, a passionate or a logical leader? It occurs to me that as a member of the public we almost always hear about or analyze the current wars in really dispassionate terms. One part of me is comforted that a stoic or rational approach means we've weighed all the options carefully and have decided on a reasonable course of action. But the other part of me isn't really inspired to pick up a gun and enlist and shoot commies etc.

What are you looking for from your commanders as a soldier?

Disclaimer:
Although I was in the military it would be a stretch to call my position a "soldier". We would be in serious shit by the time anyone needed to hand me a gun. So my opinion on this may not be much more informed than that of the average Joe.

However, I would say that the Commander in Chief position isn't that important in terms of "military leadership". If he's smart, he's listening to his generals and making executive decisions and not otherwise "leading". Obama is not going to grab an M-16 and lead charges in the mountains of Afghanistan so IMO it's not terribly important that he's not a military man. It's not something the president really needs to be. Decisions that high up are political rather than strategic. (I suppose you can have "strategic politics" but you know what I mean. He's not going to look at a map and tell the army how to deploy.)


I think the primary thing you want is "no bullshit". Bad commanders can generate bullshit - basically extra unnecessary work, usually something that makes them look good (or they think it does). This is as true for me in a corporation as it was in the Air Force and I imagine it's about the same in the infantry, with just varying types of bullshit.

Good commanders find out what you need and get it to you, or try to. Extra manpower, extra equipment, you tell the boss what you need to do your job and the boss tries to get it for you and knows how to push to get what he needs. Ideally you want a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" kind of relationship -- you work and make your boss look good by not screwing up, your boss makes your life easier by getting you what you need to do your job.

Along a related lines, a good commander knows how to push back against unreasonable requests from higher up. When your boss' boss tells your boss to do a 6 month project in 3 months, your boss should be someone who can politely inform him that it is bullshit and to request more time, resources or both. A jackass commander will say "oh yeah we can do that" and then make you work your ass off to make him look good.

It's also jolly nice if your commander knows how to do your job better than you do. Sometimes the opposite is true and that sucks. Micromanagement, while frustrating to no end in the corporate world, can be great in the military when you're an 18 year old who barely knows what he's doing and you'd really like it if someone would tell you what you're supposed to be doing, and that works better when your boss has more experience than you do. The military can tend to "cross train" a lot, but a Sgt is still Sgt. So sometimes your boss is your boss because he outranks you but he has no idea what he's doing. Maybe that's different in the combat careers but I dunno, I imagine you get a real life Lt. Goreman (from Aliens) now and then.

So,
* Competent boss who knows what he's doing
* He keeps the weight off of you
* You are not a screw-up

I think that's a recipe for success in basically anything.