Good Intentions Do Not a Good Commander Make

There I was, in my second year of command, feeling confident and competent. A dangerous concoction. We'd knocked out a great JRTC rotation, the company was firing on all cylinders, and I thought everything was golden. It was drill weekend and we were knocking out the M-4 range as well as some other tasks. Ahead …

Leader, Know Thyself

Stay in the military long enough, and you'll gain rank. Rank comes with privileges and responsibilities. But it also comes with something else: something more dangerous. Ego. Now, one might say that if you're aiming to be a leader in the military then you're going to have ego anyways. People who strive for leadership positions …

Learning from Bad Examples: When Poor Leadership Can Be Valuable

By Sergeant Swivel Responsibilities of Leadership In many organizations, one of the primary duties of leaders is to develop their subordinates. Air Force Handbook 36-2618, “The Enlisted Force Structure,” or, as it’s known among Airmen, “The Little Brown Book,” lays out responsibilities associated with each tier of the enlisted forces, making sure to note that …

Being a Rebel Leader: Disciplined Disobedience in the Army

First off, no, this is not a discussion on the merits of leaders within the Rebel Alliance in the Star Wars universe, though if it were, I'd have to say that the Rebel leadership had very few merits and we should probably not emulate their chaos-based approach to warfare. What's I'd like to talk about is disruptive …

7 Characteristics of Highly Successful Non-Commissioned Officers

As an Army officer, I tend to spend a lot of time talking about, well, talking about officer things. And no, that does not mean discussing polo, the price of cufflinks, sipping brandy, and thinking of ways to make our NCOs lives harder, as some circles might believe. Although the brandy thing isn’t too far …