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Leadership Competencies in the Army

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Introduction

Leaders provide purpose, motivation, and direction. Army leaders work hard to

develop themselves, guide Soldiers, and fulfill their mission in the conflicts. Leadership

in the Army is vital because it shapes the thinking and decisions for the mission's

success. NC's provide an essential leadership role in the Army because they are

considered the backbone due to their continuous commitment and determination to

accomplish the mission.

Leads

Army leaders lead by motivating, inspiring, and influencing their external

environment and their internal organizations. Army leaders can positively reconcile

Soldiers' interests with the organization's goals as they work to accomplish the mission.
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Army leaders also drive performances through shared values, mission, and

accountability and exercising sound judgment. Army leaders also impact Soldiers by

modifying their behavior to individual needs for achievement, sense of belonging,

motivation, self-esteem, and self-control. The approach enables Army leaders to better

their organizations by creating an environment that fosters organizational and personal

excellence conveying confidence in others' ability. Thus, setting high standards for

performance to achieve the goal and overcomes obstacles. The core competency of the

Army leaders of leading by example is vital to productive leadership. Army leaders are

always watched by the public and the Soldiers (APPOINTMENT AND ENLISTMENT

WAIVERS, 2020). Leaders set an example by keeping duty in high standards, personal

appearance, ethical behavior, and bearing. The leaders typify commitment and loyalty

to the nation and give their Soldiers decisive directions, a sense of value and self-worth,

motivation, and decisive decisions. Despite the level of responsibility, all Army leaders

portray respect, loyalty, duty, personal courage, integrity, honor, and selfless service.

Leading by example collates to meeting competencies of the leadership of trust,

adapting, performing under pressure, inspiring, and leading courageously. Motivating

trust within subordinates starts with managing high integrity standards. Communication

relates to a leader's ability to openly manifest two-way communication that captures

information and thoughts, thus bringing about a shared understanding of matters and

solutions. Without a leader's clear communication, leaders become unsuccessful in

supervising, leading, building teams, mentoring, counsel, and coaching subordinates

(Department of the Army 27). At a tactical level, the Army leaders' communication is a

continuous and proactive process that aims at a much larger audience. The leader's
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ability to communicate effectively with operational components, external agencies, and

internal staff is the analytic core competence among all leaders. Army leaders listen to

their Soldiers actively and also express their ideas. Identifying the importance of tactical

communications and the purpose it plays in creating the battlespace and operational

outcomes.

Develops

The future success of the Army depends on the leaders with the capability of

developing their Soldiers. Army leaders have to develop their peers and subordinates

by mentoring, challenging them intellectually, and coaching them with increased

responsibility. Leaders make decisions to succeed and shape the organization for the

future. The Army develops Soldiers by its eternal principle of retaining, attracting, and

talent development (ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES FOR MILITARY

INSTALLATION OPERATIONS, 2020). Army leaders understand their Soldiers, support

professional and personal growth by setting conditions for a positive climate. The

leaders also encourage initiatives by sharing ideas with their subordinates and peers,

thus building team skills and processes by providing mutual feedback as a team. The

Army keeps experienced leaders by making an environment that inspires personal

achievement, continuous learning, and promotional and creativity opportunities. Mentors

serve an essential role in subordinates' career development by sharing experiences and

knowledge and providing friendship, career counseling, support, educational assistance,

and encouragement.
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Achieves

Successive plan execution is majorly based on all the work that has gone before.

Effective plan execution also requires supervising task completion, implementing

adjustment decisions or required executions, assessing progress, and situational

awareness (LINE OF DUTY POLICY, PROCEDURES, AND INVESTIGATIONS, 2020).

Executing in battle means using situational awareness to evaluate the progress and

make adjustment decisions and executions. Army leaders scale their success through

their ability to accomplish and produce results in the mission. To ethically and

consistently realize success, Army leaders apply attested feedback systems to keep an

eye on progress and compliance with organizational ethics and values. They also

assess the successfulness of their operations, visions, and policies as the means of

evaluating themselves, their weaknesses, strengths, and styles of leadership. Army

leaders aspire to issue guidance and directions through judging the future and

embodying technology, capabilities, and new ideas (ARMY HEALTH SYSTEM, 2020).

Through this procedure, Army leaders develop a clear vision for the group that injects a

sense of direction, motivation, and purpose. The leaders gain the commitment and trust

of subordinates needed to obtain positive results. Army leaders' critical thinking and

planning are decisions making to set up realistic priorities and communicating decisions.

To maintain the skills, leaders stay current on strategic environments that change,
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monitor, assess future allies, national goals, strategies, and threats. Army leaders plan

to ensure that approach of reaching their goals will be practical. Planning among the

leaders minimizes confusion, build the confidence of subordinates and the organization.

Planning also allows pliability to shift to changing situations. Quality planning uplifts

shared understanding and ensure that the mission is achieved with a minimum of

misused efforts and fewer casualties in the mission (LINE OF DUTY POLICY,

PROCEDURES, AND INVESTIGATIONS, 2020). Leaders may also ask questions and

seek clarifications from the subordinates on how to plan the mission, the leader may

also participate in group tasking. Accomplishing mission depends on doing the right

rights, such as setting the right example, encouraging leader growth, taking care of

Soldiers, and having a clear vision.

Conclusion

In conclusion, competent Army leaders make the Army unit, the nation, and

themselves proud. While leading Soldiers, their leadership outstretch far off the

command chain. They communicate well and lead by example. Army leaders can thrive

their skills by generating a positive environment, providing support, and seeking self-

improvement. Their support includes helping people learn, coaching, mentoring,

providing counseling, and fostering growth. The leaders also support operation

achievement by providing guidance, direction, developing and executing plans, thus

achieving the missions ethically and consistently. At the end of the day, an Army leader

has to look back and say their efforts helped create consistent excellence in the Army.
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References

APPOINTMENT AND ENLISTMENT WAIVERS (ARMY DIR 2020-09). (2020). ARMY

PUBLISHING DIRECTORATE.

ARMY HEALTH SYSTEM (FM 4-02). (2020). ARMY PUBLISHING DIRECTORATE.

CHANGE OF PROGRAM OBJECTIVE MEMORANDUM PROGRAM EVALUATION

GROUP CO-CHAIRS (ARMY DIR 2018-25). (2018). ARMY PUBLISHING

DIRECTORATE.

IMPLEMENTATION OF CHANGES TO THE SOLDIER FOR LIFE - TRANSITION

ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (ARMY DIR 2019-26). (2019). ARMY PUBLISHING

DIRECTORATE.

LINE OF DUTY POLICY, PROCEDURES, AND INVESTIGATIONS (AR 600-8-4).

(2020). ARMY PUBLISHING DIRECTORATE.

RECOVERY AND BATTLE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT AND REPAIR (BDAR) (ATP 4-

31). (2020). ARMY PUBLISHING DIRECTORATE.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES FOR MILITARY INSTALLATION

OPERATIONS (ARMY DIR 2020-11). (2020). ARMY PUBLISHING

DIRECTORATE.