The Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) is suffering from an erosion of followership caused by the loss of confidence and faith in leadership. The top leadership has placed all the obligations of running the team upon the followers, more so the lower echelon leaders. Yet, the top leadership has absconded their obligations as expected of them by their followers. The patriotic and proud followers have been trying their best to meet their obligations under the tough circumstances. However, their exertions have finally worn them out, leading to the current state of the team almost falling apart. In spite of the near collapse of the team, the top leadership seems not to have realized the crisis and continue pushing the entire team to the precipice. Unless urgent measures are taken to extenuate the damage already caused, I might be receiving a command that is beyond salvage. The confidence of the team in leadership needs to be restored and the middle level management needs restructuring and rejuvenation for the team to survive.
At the very top of the team has been Col. Lanks who took over from Col. Timmons three months into the deployment. Unfortunately and with due respect to the departed Col. Timmons, Lanks seems to have assumed the same leadership vacuum that existed before he took command from the perspective of liaison. It is the obligation of every soldier to follow every order without question. However, it is the expectation of every soldier that the commanding officer will ensure that the orders made are right and effective. The obedience of the soldiers is, therefore, premised in the trust towards the superior officer. As the team prepared for deployment, they performed extensively albeit wrong exercises. They, therefore, found themselves in a battle zone that was exponentially different from the one they practiced for. It had been the obligation of the leadership to ensure that the team prepares for the right mission and in the right way. The leadership failed in this manner. Even after the mistake was realized upon deployment, the leadership should have liaised with the top commanders to have the situation mitigated. It is worthy of notice that the team was overrated when it was deployed. The top leadership may, therefore, have not been aware of a crisis or of how bad the crisis was unless informed about it. The top leadership failed in liaising with the top leadership on behalf of the team. This led the team to work under very stressful circumstances a fact that commenced the team’s lack of confidence in their leadership. This was the beginning of the erosion of followership.
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The middle-level management, mainly consisting of Major and Captain level staff also failed the team based on poor leadership skills, incompetence and sometimes corruption. Major Wilson and CPT Cooper are a prime example of the same. Their competence is only on the technical elements of leadership yet lacking in emotional intelligence (EI). As leaders, they lure women into relationships causing conflict in the team. Another major EI problem is exhibited by Major Pete Stanford who has allowed his emotions about an incident that cost the team off its top leadership to crowd his capacity as a leader. EI also lacks from a social perspective. Finally, LTC (P) Tagoli lacks EI from the perspective of social intelligence. His words about his subordinates are harsh and unfair. He even dismisses a case of sexual abuse by arguing that the complainant was ‘quite friendly’ herself. This contributes to the leadership crisis.
With the followers having lost confidence in their leadership, they are becoming disoriented with the team leading to a massive exodus. Many of them have abdicated duty on presumed health reasons that have nothing to do with combat. Since the return to the US, the work-family conflict has intensified, leading to many other members of the team desiring to leave. The commitment to the cause of the war coupled with a lack of proper leadership has made the team members to become a leadership into themselves, leading to a gung-ho approach to combat which can be very dangerous. In essence, the lack of followership is the real problem that I am facing as a leader. The problem of poor leadership has acted as the main bearing factor towards the advent and proliferation of this problem.
When I went for further studies, I left a great team with capable committed and competent leaders and an excellent followership. The basic idea behind my departure for further studies was so that I can take the team to the next level and cause it to be among the premier Brigades within the US armed forces. This initial vision is secondary but still alive. The primary vision is to get the team in the right position for the commencement of the secondary vision, which means getting the team to the state it was when I left. This means stemming the tide of departures from the team and rejuvenating excellent followership through the provision of effective leadership. Effective leadership means having a leadership that does the right thing in the right way and also having a leadership that the team is inspired to follow.
Among the most important areas of intervention in solving the problem is Emotional Intelligence (EI) for the middle-level leadership of the team. These were not always poor leaders but a great change took place after the incident through which the team lost its top leadership. Their competence as soldiers and managers needs to be supplemented with an understanding that they are human beings with emotions but these emotions must not be allowed to interfere with their work. Unfortunately, those who may not be able to put their emotions in check will have to relinquish their command. Those who have exhibited excessive lack of EI such as sexual discrimination and abuse will be investigated and appropriate measures taken against them. On the EI perspective also lies the social component. Leaders must be able to make their followers feel appreciated and cared for. This element has been missing amongst the team members, many of whom feel that there is no need to report problems to their commanders as no action would be taken.
The main trigger to the rejuvenation of followership, however, lies in the kind of leadership I will offer from the perspective of the team members. The main cause of exodus from the team is work-family conflict. This provides a unique opportunity for me to rejuvenate the trust on the team of the leadership. The men are being pushed to operate on a very tight schedule that is almost impossible to achieve under the circumstances. It is this schedule that is causing the men to work overtime and not have time for their families, yet they are about to be redeployed. Solving this problem and letting it be understood that it was solved as an intervention for and on behalf of the men would go a long way in rejuvenating their trust in leadership. In this regard, I will petition my seniors to mitigate the situation by providing more members of staff or changing schedules so as to mitigate the situation. I also let it be unequivocally understood that this change happened because the team members are valued and cared about. The combination of the two solutions will rejuvenate followership in the team and salvage it from collapse.
