[August 27, 2024] Ten years ago, shortly after I retired from the U.S. Army, I wrote down a few frustrating things about Army Leadership. What I’ve witnessed lately shows that these are more prevalent today than when I retired. Here is that list.
- “Toxic” Leaders Do Exist. These leaders have a corrosive effect on any organization and are not necessarily easy to discover. However, once light is shed on them, senior commanders must take action to remove that leader from their position immediately and, if possible, remove them from the military.
- Leader Training is Inadequate. Wherever I went for leader training, military or civilian, it never fulfilled its potential. Military instructors always taught to the lowest common denominator (or what they believed was the lowest intellect). This voluntary restriction is unnecessary and harmful to the best and brightest.
- We Don’t Require “Respect” of Others. We teach it, talk about it, and even make handy diagrams with it … but we do not enforce the respect of others. When overseas, in peace or war, troops should be taught and closely supervised to respect other cultures and the people living there.
- Moral Courage is Lacking. There is great emphasis on physical courage in the Army but little on moral courage. We discourage moral courage in the leader. Our culture of careerism means that taking risks and making mistakes will damage your promotion potential.
- Discussion of Difficult Topics is Discouraged. As we have recently seen in American senior political leadership, discussions of racism, sexism, etc., are discouraged through name-calling and threats to one’s job.
- Character is Less Important than Who You Know. This is an age-old complaint, but it is still valid. One cannot be successful without knowing who can help you. This also has a positive side, but I mean it in the sense that leadership characteristics are sacrificed for less admirable ideals.
- Investigations are Used to Destroy Leaders. I’ve written about this before (links here, here, and here), but it demands repetition. Investigations are a political tool used by the unscrupulous to tie the hands of leaders. Little is being done about it.
- Reading of Professional Publications is Declining. Despite our best efforts, leaders read less and, therefore, will be less likely to absorb important lessons of the past. This trend has been around for a while and shows signs of accelerating.
- Emotional Leadership is on the Rise. Instead of taking an unemotional and professional tact at leadership, many are seeing the encouragement of emotion in leadership. Some see leadership as being an attack on individuals and, when combined with lower mental resilience, makes for a toxic brew in an unhealthy command climate. This is the “sissyfication” of the military.
- We are Less Mentally Resilient. Due to less stress in our society, people are less able to withstand shocks in life. From “road rage” to “workplace shootings,” we are seeing a breakdown in worker’s ability to handle anxiety and trauma – more on this in previous posts (links here connecting to 5 posts).
- The Rise of Narcissism. It’s not loving oneself that is the issue; it is the fact that more and more people have an entitlement mentality, are self-absorbed, and are simply unprepared for life. Skyrocketing narcissistic characteristics are frequently rewarded in the military and business. In particular, this is occurring in senior leaders (link here).
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Gen. Satterfield, very nice list of lessons. You’ve written before about narcissism and it looks like it continues to raise it’s ugly head. That comes at a time when the young adults of our nation are caught up in neo-Marxist ideologies. So sad for them, because their lives will be a living nightmare.
Old lessons never die, they are just forgotten. This is why learning history is so important and knowing about stories from the past. We can, indeed, learn from the past but only if we know it. Today’s US Army leadership is more interested in their careers than in teaching soldiers how to fight and win. They put up some minor tasks that make it look like they’re being tough but they are weak at heart and are unwilling to do what it takes to win win win.
… and so true. This is exactly why our educational institutions have failed us. See article from today in Gen. Satterfield’s DAILY FAVORITES (8/28/2024).
I really like this article and it is classic Gen. Doug Satterfield. Sir, thank you.
This number 9 got me to laughing. “Emotional Leadership is on the Rise. Instead of taking an unemotional and professional tact at leadership, many are seeing the encouragement of emotion in leadership. Some see leadership as being an attack on individuals and, when combined with lower mental resilience, makes for a toxic brew in an unhealthy command climate. This is the “sissyfication” of the military.”
How far our military has fallen under Pres. Joe Biden!!!!!!!!!!
So true, thanks Jerome for writing what I was going to write. And what surprised me was how fast the US Army fell in such a short time span. This shows how corrosive the leaders had become before Joe Biden took over as COmmander in Chief.
But But But, Who is running America?
Great list, thanks, Gen. Satterfield. My favorite is #6 Character is Less Important than Who You Know. And, so true.
Yeah, Navy Vet, I was thinking the same thing. It is incumbent for the commander and all leader to overcome this problem.
We credit all successes to the senior commander but we must also credit all the failures to him also. Yesterday was the 3rd anniversary of the failed retreat from Afghanistan by Pres. Joe Biden. He is a gross failure and is now totally braindead (well, almost totally). All Joe Biden can do now is read a teleprompter. Who is making all the decisions for America?
For those new to Gen. Satterfield’s blog, these should not be new to regular readers either. And that is a good practice that Gen. Satterfield has taken on the mantle to expose the underside of Army Leadership. He will also tell us about the positive side of Army Leadership. Like always, any bureaucracy has its corruption and it is the duty of all leaders to expose and repair that corruption. Sadly, under today’s Army Leadership that is not being done because they would rather be WOKE than exercise proper leadership.
ARMY CAPTIAN, you are right about the idea that Gen. Satterfield willingly exposes the underbelly of Army Leadership and that it is getting worse, not better. But after 🇺🇸 Donald Trump 🇺🇸 wins in November, things will start to change. Read this article from just a few days ago, “Trump Will Demand Resignations over Afghanistan”
https://www.theleadermaker.com/trump-will-demand-resignations-over-afghanistan/
👍👍👍👍 From your lips to God’s ears. ✌✌✌✌