[November 13, 2015] The U.S. military has a leadership problem. Evidence for the decline in its leadership capability is more than circumstantial, as some claim, because it shows in a deterioration of confidence our military personnel have in their leaders and the inability of those leaders to adapt to relevant problems. Identifying problems within the military leadership system, however, will certainly not be an easy task.
In this 3-part series, I will attempt to lay out key issues that plague our military leaders. The ideas presented here are based on the experience of many leaders, both military and non-military, who have looked closely at measures of great leadership and have seen, up close, what failing military leadership looks like. From that we can draw inferences to leadership elsewhere.
Frighteningly for our society, military leadership is the flagship by which we judge societal leaders. Any leader of any social institution should pay close attention to what is happening in the U.S. military. While other leaders outside the military may think it has no impact on them, it will progressively affect leaders across all environments because the changes are popular and progressive.
There are many who believe strongly that our military leadership is better today than ever. When this is measured through a lens of management skills, it is undoubtedly true. Good management is prized and rewarded. However, leadership as expressed in its purist sense is less relevant, less important, and if exercised it is risky for the leader.
For members of our military today, if asked, they will tell us that one of the biggest factors in failed leadership is that our most senior leaders don’t have their back. Whether through cynicism or through a lack of moral courage on the part of senior leaders, the junior rank and file members of our military see this in everything they do. It begins with the U.S. President as Commander-in-Chief of the military and downward from the Secretary of Defense and through a few of the Generals and Admirals.
Many of us chose to ignore our gut feelings that this was happening because we were given the vital mission to take the fight to this nation’s enemies after September 11, 2001. Now the mission is deemed a “strategic error” by our senior politicians and those who participated considered not worthy. This is the beginning of losing faith in leadership and is the start of this series on failed military leadership.
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