Military leadership entails the ability to influence others through providing motivation, direction, and purpose to accomplish assigned missions. The most primary responsibility of a leader in the military is the successful accomplishment of tasks while strongly considering the welfare of soldiers. Over the four-month the training period, there is learning about command leadership and all the elements that surround the chain of command in the military. The essential aspects of leadership learned include leading by example, active listening, communication skills, and teamwork. These elements of leadership prove helpful in the everyday military life.
During military deployments, proper leadership is a vital necessity. It promotes employee morale, personal development, and interpersonal relationships among the servicemen. A senior sergeant in the military has a role to play in leadership by setting a good example for the juniors; both on the battlefield and off the battlefield. Closely monitoring the situation ensures the senior sergeant maintains a strict adherence to policies and plans that will help accomplish the task. Excessive supervision is tedious, and the remedy is for the senior officers to lead by example for juniors to follow. As a senior sergeant, it is important to lead from the front since it motivates the troops to advance even in seemly dangerous situations. To apply this, the leading officer must ensure that he is part of the forward line in the battle for the junior officers to follow his steps. In situations where the leading officer is not sure of what to do, it is prudent to consult his seniors on the proper way to deal with the situation.
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Leadership is very reliant on active listening. It entails empathy, using open-ended questions, and attentive questions. Attentive listening refers to closely following instructions the speaker that the speaker gives. Giving the speaker undivided attention makes them feel confident and at ease while taking. The careful skill also helps you maintain eye contact with the speaker and hence notice any non-verbal cues. Empathy enables the person to issue an instruction to stop putting themselves in the other person’s shoes and experience how they feel. Some of the personal experiences that need to consideration include the environment, heredity, and shape of personality. A senior sergeant must exercise empathy by not putting ahead the mission goals at the expense of the safety of my juniors.
As a leader in the position of senior sergeant, having excellent communication skills is very important. The success of a military leader depends on the ability to articulate and fluently communicate his decision and instructions to others (Wong, Bliese & McGurk, 2003). Excellent communication skills will enable a leader to put across ideas and guidance to junior soldiers in a certain way that will facilitate understanding. To ensure that communication skills are on point, use of actual words, keeping the bottom line of what is said on the upfront, focusing on message, use of simple words and breaking through the noise are essential. The use of actual words will make specific instructions stick more to the listener since they paste a picture on the brain of the listener. Keeping the bottom-line up front makes sure the main point in the discussion comes first. Breaking through the noise will help the leader gain control and disseminate information despite any distractions and barriers. As a leader, focusing on the message enables listeners to be sure of what the speaker requires with absolute certainty. The use of simple words ensures conciseness, completeness, and clarity of the instructions.
Among the actions that are wrong to a leader include, shifting blame whenever missions fail, practicing favoritism, putting personal needs ahead of the needs of junior soldiers, use of abusive language while addressing juniors, and violating the dignity of junior soldiers. A good leader would practice a good sense of responsibility, respect, dignity for fellow soldiers, and exercising self-respect and dignity. Good leader take responsibility for their actions. Selfishness in a leader affects the ability to lead since the leader puts his comfort ahead of those he leads. Discipline is an essential attribute for a military leader (Laurence, 2011). Performing duties effectively and responding to the orders from seniors depends on control.
A leader has to influence values and beliefs on his soldiers. Leaders should use this opportunity to set a good example, train soldiers to stay disciplined, uphold the culture of teamwork, and respect subordinates to earn reciprocation. Good leaders have a role to aspire soldiers to control, fear, stress, and panic through cultivating the virtues of confidence, purpose, and self-respect. Keeping high levels of professionalism is also crucial in leadership. First and foremost, a leader in the military has taken an oath to guard his nation and hence must undertake this responsibility with profound professionalism. Secondly, the life of the soldiers depends on ethical leadership.
References
Laurence, J. H. (2011). Military leadership and the complexity of combat and culture. Military
Psychology , 23 (5), 489-501.
Wong, L., Bliese, P., & McGurk, D. (2003). Military leadership: A context-specific review. The
Leadership Quarterly , 14 (6), 657-692.
