[October 11, 2016] In early September 2001 a conference was held at the Pentagon by the U.S. military joint staff on the “decline of leadership” within our ranks. The issues were a belief that many of our youngest and brightest lacked certain societal values and this was seen as a harbinger of things to come. Anytime over the past decade, if we were to stack up all the concerns of senior leaders anywhere, the erosion of the culture of leadership will usually be prominent among them.
Developing leadership skill sets is seen, in some circles, as passé and a waste of resources. Military leaders know that certain traits and values taught to young men and women at a young age are necessary for success in the military and elsewhere. Yet, more who avail themselves of military life are struggling to adapt and find leadership roles difficult. Those new personnel are rejecting leader positions and want to simply receive orders rather than make an effort to lead.
“There is a recognition that an erosion of culture of leadership exists within the military services of our country. Yet those who provide that distinguished and qualified leadership are upheld as paragons of society and are not a reflection of it.” – Unnamed U.S. Marine General
Some will say the reason for this is the “segmentation” of core social values.1 It has been argued that the effectiveness and motivation of a leader is proportional to both alignment of and individual commitment to common values. Where alignment and commitment are present, leaders can succeed in establishing consensus and unity. Without it, leadership will likely falter.
Gridlock in government is evidence of that today. Refutation of the belief that a culture is the melting pot of many and embracing of the ideas that all cultures matter and that current mainstream values are corrosive are providing a difficult environment for any good leader. Often called “cultural relativism” this approach benefits from a sound moral stance but creates unintended consequences; especially in the development of leaders.
For those watching the U.S. presidential debates (the second major debate earlier this week), we can see both candidates struggling to create a balance to bring people together. Neither wants to simply write off political supporters of the other candidate but they also recognize they will not get a vote from them. Individually, however, each are making an effort to unite. Hillary Clinton’s current slogan “We’re stronger together” and Donald Trump’s slogan “Make America great again” imply an effort to align core social values.
The military conference on the “decline of leadership” occurred just prior to the Islamic terror attacks on 9/11 and those involved in the conference never resurrected the topic. What it did was put into our minds some ideas about getting young leaders more involved and was the impetus for a concentrated effort to ensure their personal values are in alignment with social core values. Without such an alignment, the risk of failure to future generation leaders was simply too great.
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