Modeling Leadership

Leadership is a strange and wonderful thing. But what can I say about leadership that hasn't already been said countless times? I've taken courses on leadership, read dozens of books on it, given classes on it and I've been in positions of leadership. I've even taken to heart the saying that there is no training for leadership except leadership, meaning leadership can't be learned from a book, but it is learned and understood purely through one's experience with it.

I've come to learn, as anyone who has ever been in a leadership position, that one size doesn't fit all. I've had to use different styles with different people, and that's the way it should be.

Good leadership often goes unnoticed. But it can bring out the best in people, win battles, shape a nation or simply keep a person on the right path for their life.

Bad leadership never goes unnoticed. It does often get ignored, however. It, too, can bring out the best in people, but it can also be responsible for destroyed lives, frustrating work environments, and in many cases will break down the morale of a group to the point where no one even cares and the potential of the group to be a cohesive unit or the possibility of the true leaders in the group to rise up succumbs to the chaos that so quickly develops in this type of environment.

So, in keeping with the theme of understanding leadership, what about those people who think they understand how to lead, but really all they do is model what they've seen? What if it becomes obvious that they don't understand the principles behind the leadership they've been under or experienced? How does one handle that type of person?

That, I think, is one of the toughest questions to answer and one of the toughest types of people with whom to work.

One has to consider that this person is unprincipled in their leadership. They may not be unprincipled as a person, but they just don't understand the reasoning behind what they do. They are simply behaving like they thought they have seen other leaders behave. In their mind, they are doing everything right, which is normal from a psychological perspective.

And because they are the leader (in this case, they are really in a management position, not a leadership position) it's likely that they will attempt to use their position- instead of their principles- to preserve their power. There's is likely an inferiority complex involved in the person's psychological makeup, thereby creating a wall of defensiveness that is difficult or even impossible to break through.

So, I guess the real question is, how does one transform a bad leader into a good leader, or even a bearable leader? I'm not sure I know the answer to that. Every person is different. Every leader is different. And even reducing the entire debate down to rational, black and white issues that one can merely fix is entirely wrong.

But, even if the opportunity arises that you can "fix" the person, should you? Or should you just chalk up what you've learned from this person and use that experience to be a better leader yourself?

Difficult questions indeed. And unfortunately, there are no easy answers.

Arbitrary Softball

I've never really been into sports. In fact, in High School, I actually lettered in Chess, as you may know if you are a faithful reader. But, I do have some experience with pretty much every sport, as it seems that sports are almost a requirement to learn while in school.

The other morning, we were told to show up for PT almost an hour early to "cheer on the unit softball team." I'm down with that.

So, I show up and it turns out that "cheer on" means "play on." Great. Just what I've been dreaming of for months: the opportunity to demonstrate my lack of athletic prowess in front of my entire unit.

Turns out that mostly everyone was just pretty average. In fact, I was able to make two RBIs and got complimented on my outfielding skills by the Battalion Commander. I don't know, maybe his expectations were low because we were picked to be on the team at random.

So, it turns out that I'm now officially on the team and we have to play a couple times a week until June. I guess we'll see how that turns out, but I'm feeling like I need to head down to the local batting cage and get some practice.

The Shadow knows...

Yesterday was a very cool day for me. I did something that confirmed for me the direction I want to take my Army career.

For the past year, I've been tossing around the idea of whether or not I want to branch out into the medical field. The Army has a great P.A. program (IPAP) and I've kind of thought I might want to cross over into that field.

Psychological Operations isn't really working out for me, and I've only been in this job for about five months. Sure, being part of an elite organization is pretty cool and the training opportunities are second-to-none, but in the end I will have very few marketable skills, especially since I don't want to go into Marketing after I leave the Army in 6 to 13 years.

So, since I have the opportunity to talk with people that actually do the job I'm thinking about, I thought I would shadow some P.A.s and Nurses down at the Army Hospital. I had to get permission and all, but that was easy.

I worked for an extra four hours after my normal work schedule last night, just hanging out with the two P.A.s and the Nurses in the ER and I must say that what I saw of being P.A. has me totally stoked for becoming one. It is exactly what I want to do.

It fits my personality, my natural talents, my intellectual curiosity, and it is virtually recession proof. I don't think I could ask for more.

So, next year, I'll drop my packet (that's Army-speak for apply) for the IPAP program and we'll see what happens. I have a lot to do until then, but I have about 10 months until the deadline next year and I am totally going to need every day of it to get ready.

Keep up with our Adoption!

This is our Adoption Blog. Read it to keep up with where we are in the process.

In the meantime, I'm doing what every good parent is supposed to do and I'm preparing to be a parent as well as I can.

My current reading selection: Parenting the Hurt Child.

Great book. Really, really good. I would recommend it even for parents who have children the old-fashioned way.

Mah Rig

In the Army, we all wear uniforms. There are universal standards for wear of our uniforms, like what kind of boots we are allowed to wear, and there are local standards, like what kind of cold/wet weather gear we are allowed to wear.

This standard of uniformity exists everywhere in the Army. In about 99% of all units, what each Soldier is supposed to look like every day is prescribed in some kind of Commander's SOP. This applies for the uniforms and even the body armor that we wear. (Our body armor is modular now, so we can attach different types of pouches here and there, depending on the mission requirements.)

Now that I'm in Spec. Ops., my life isn't so ordered. Oh, I still have to look like everyone else does on a daily basis, but I actually get to "personalize" my body armor, which is pretty cool. I don't mean I get to wear flair, a la Office Space, but I do get to use whatever pattern and type of pouches I want and I can put them wear I want.

So, I started with two pouches. I have a pouch that I used to keep my weapon cleaning stuff in and today I bought a large pouch to hold my Camelbak bladder directly on my IOTV, instead of having to carry it around.

I don't quite have a vision for what I want this whole thing to look like, but I think I'm getting there. When I finish it,I'll post a picture.

Has it been that long?

What? Where have I been? Geez, I don't know. But topics are piling up in my brain screaming to get out. And I need to do something about that before my head explodes.