Small Wars Journal

leadership

The Role of Leadership

Sun, 03/01/2020 - 6:30am
Many people achieve positions of responsibility and manage their position but they don’t lead. Others may be superb leaders and be responsible for very little but significantly influential. It all depends on how the personality impacts the people within the sphere of influence and exposure.

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A Scout Leader’s Primer (On Earnest Preparation)

Thu, 10/17/2019 - 3:27am
Utilizing a future fictional war against a near-peer adversary, reconnaissance and security fundamentals are presented in the manner of “The Defence of Duffer’s Drift.” Unique in addressing both the interconnectedness of reconnaissance and security and tying them to concrete examples of failure, this paper attempts to present plausible ways to integrate said concepts into an iterative tactical decision-making exercise.

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Officer Specialization in the United States Army: The Solution to the Junior Officer Brain Drain and Generals Who Over-Generalize is One and the Same

Mon, 09/30/2019 - 6:30am
The exodus of Junior Military Officers (JMO) from the service, colloquially known as the “brain drain,” represents one of the more slow-burning problems facing the United States Army. Beyond the immediate results on planned force structure and end-strength, the subtler effects of these departures will take decades to manifest.

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Leadership Behavior: Boss Versus Leader

Mon, 04/08/2019 - 7:43am
The purpose of this paper is to describe behavior differences between managing like a boss and managing like a leader. The terms boss and leader can be used interchangeably, but if you analyze what makes a boss and a leader, you will start noticing important differences. In today’s world, being a leader rather than a boss is more effective, and if understood and implemented will improve individual performance, build effective teams, and promote success for the organization.

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On Leadership and Being a Role Model

Tue, 03/26/2019 - 1:04am
The beauty of writing this article on leadership is that anyone who reads it can agree with it or not. This article affords the writer an opportunity to create a body of thought that encourages careful consideration and opportunity to the reader to look at the subject of leadership development and education differently.

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Army National Guard AMEDD Officer Talent Management SWJED Mon, 03/25/2019 - 12:43am
We will begin our examination of talent management by first examining the philosophy behind this program and how talent management might be best applied to AMEDD Officers of the Army National Guard. Once we gain understanding of the appropriate talent management philosophy, we can further explore how this philosophy could be put into practice.

A Strategic Imperative: Empowerment

Wed, 03/20/2019 - 3:09pm
The purpose of this article is to describe the importance of empowering subordinates. It was my experience as a senior leader in the military, that success in an organization is dependent on empowerment of subordinates. The more you invest in your people the more effective you were as a leader. Unfortunately, I also observed that empowerment of subordinates is not followed consistently in military organizations. The mistake leaders make is that they talk about empowerment, but then attach a bunch of restrictions rendering it ineffective.

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Achieving Effective Leadership

Wed, 03/13/2019 - 10:48am
The purpose of this article is to discuss effective leadership, present the importance of truth telling, and to contend that moral courage is the most critical trait for a leader. In this article I will offer a model and demonstrate that to be an effective leader, a leader must be a difference-maker. Being a difference-maker means doing the right thing and having the courage to say hard things to people that do not want to hear them.

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What I Have Learned With Bullets

Thu, 01/31/2019 - 1:53am
I was cleaning out my accumulated files and I came across a series of notes regarding officers and leadership accumulated through the years. Having commanded four rifle companies, three Airborne/Ranger battalions and two Airborne/Ranger brigades, several in combat between 1965 and 1993, I saw a lot, did a lot and tried to remember. This article is for those who wish the knowledge, hopefully without the pain.

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