[June 16, 2016] In one of my last assignments as a senior Flag officer in the U.S. military, I had the unfortunate experience to be involved with a number of senior Flags who ignored serious Army issues. It was common knowledge that those officers believed that either nothing could be done or the problems were too complex for them to resolve.1 Yet, from the time I was a junior officer I learned that leaders don’t close their eyes to problems. Apparently some senior officers do.
Senior leaders have a job to do that is simple in concept but difficult in execution. Their job? Lead people and fix problems! It matters not how difficult, complex, or maddeningly frustrating a problem may be, the leader’s job is to identify the problem, find a solution, and fix it. Little else matters. The measure of a good leader, one who is effective, is measured by getting results.
Getting results applies whether or not they have direct authority to tackle the problem. When authority is lacking that means the senior leader can use subjective skills such as persuasion, logic, and coercion if needed. Doing nothing is unacceptable. Leaders get things done and they do it ethically and by taking care of people. We call it gravitas.2
It is sad that I’ve had to witness leaders who turn away from problems that they could have helped solve. Maybe they were not the point person but their expertise and credibility could have gone a long way to help. Senior Army civilians were even more likely to ignore problems and this has led to some serious introspection as the force is being reduced. Demand for leaders to be more effective is not just something on the wish list. More need to pull their weight.
Generally speaking, leaders don’t close their eyes to problems. Those few that do have a disparate impact and the bottom line is that soldiers suffer. I’ve been asked how to solve that perplexing problem when leaders refuse to do their duty. While the solutions involve terminating them, reeducating them, or reducing them in rank and responsibility, these are rarely done.
We need a little more moral courage to take on leaders who fail to follow their ethical duties. When we ignore them, then we will see more of that behavior. And that is exactly what we are starting to see more often.
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- The actual problems are not important for discussion here but to help orient the reader the problems were: 1) high suicide and sexual harassment rates, 2) competing training priorities from the Department of the Army that made it impossible to do everything they wanted, 3) significant budgetary cuts with major increased mission rates, and 4) a spike in investigations to harass leaders. Our leaders at the two-star level (U.S. Army Division) chose to simply “muddle through” hoping nothing terrible would happen during their tenure.
- https://www.theleadermaker.com/characteristic-82-getting-results/