LarryW
02-22-2017, 15:35
This came to mind at the passing of Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and the selection of Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster to the NCA. Both extraordinary leaders.
There are courses of instruction in the military and in industry that try to develop leadership skills, and thereby improve the process. Doesn't matter what that process might be (i.e., leading a military team or a civilian team to achieve a goal and do it consistently and reliably). IMHO QPs by and large are effective leaders, but was that because of natural selection or were those skills learned? I don't know the answer and maybe it depends on a wide variety of conditions, but if leaders are made how does a society make them?
Recently a small law enforcement agency in a rural area arrested a business owner following a report from a paid informant that drugs were being sold in his restaurant. The law enforcement agency managed to get Grand Jury indictments and a trial ensued. In the trial, however, it was discovered that the informant was passing bogus info to the agency because he was being paid for incriminating info. There was no corroborative evidence that proved the indictment. There was no conviction, but the business owner lost much of his business due to the publicity, exacerbated by the rural conservative community. In discussion with one of the law enforcement agency managers he said that the biggest problem in law enforcement today is in training and leadership.
ADM Grace Hopper noted accurately that, "You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership." She also said that soldiers in combat cannot be "managed" into success, rather they must be led. This isn't an observation unique to the Navy, or to the military. Leadership as a skill (and at least in our government) seems to be vanishing.
America was not "organized" into greatness during the last 8 years and it cannot be "negotiated" into greatness in the next several years. America must be led.
There are courses of instruction in the military and in industry that try to develop leadership skills, and thereby improve the process. Doesn't matter what that process might be (i.e., leading a military team or a civilian team to achieve a goal and do it consistently and reliably). IMHO QPs by and large are effective leaders, but was that because of natural selection or were those skills learned? I don't know the answer and maybe it depends on a wide variety of conditions, but if leaders are made how does a society make them?
Recently a small law enforcement agency in a rural area arrested a business owner following a report from a paid informant that drugs were being sold in his restaurant. The law enforcement agency managed to get Grand Jury indictments and a trial ensued. In the trial, however, it was discovered that the informant was passing bogus info to the agency because he was being paid for incriminating info. There was no corroborative evidence that proved the indictment. There was no conviction, but the business owner lost much of his business due to the publicity, exacerbated by the rural conservative community. In discussion with one of the law enforcement agency managers he said that the biggest problem in law enforcement today is in training and leadership.
ADM Grace Hopper noted accurately that, "You manage things, you lead people. We went overboard on management and forgot about leadership." She also said that soldiers in combat cannot be "managed" into success, rather they must be led. This isn't an observation unique to the Navy, or to the military. Leadership as a skill (and at least in our government) seems to be vanishing.
America was not "organized" into greatness during the last 8 years and it cannot be "negotiated" into greatness in the next several years. America must be led.