Leadership 1 command phil:inter
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Windhorst_LDR-601S
Leadership Philosophy / Commander Interview Essay By LCDR Nathan Windhorst Leadership and Command I (LDR-601S) 5 September 2023 Air University Global College of Professional Military Education Maxwell AFB, Alabama 1
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Part 1: Leadership Philosophy My leadership philosophy for this organization is to adopt the philosophy of servant leadership, and have that model permeate throughout the organization both up and down the chain of command. Too often, we in the military are so focused on the chain of command as a one way street, in that we only focus on obeying and serving those above us. However, the chain of command should be a two way street. Following the idea of servant leadership will allow a command to not only prosper, but also for its sailors to grow as well. I came to that philosophy by observing it in action and experiencing the negative effects of a leader that specifically does not serve those under him. I have seen good leaders do everything in their power to enable those under them to make decisions, forge their own path, and succeed, all while creating an environment where they are free to do so. They accomplished this by pushing back against policies handed down from above that were counterproductive to what the command or team needed to accomplished. When they could not fully escape the overreach of their superiors, good commanders have done all they can to lessen the impact of negative impacts of micromanaging, oftentimes toeing the line between malicious compliance and contempt. The idea of stepping out of one’s comfort zone to stand up to superiors, often who sign your FITREP, is central to the success of servant leadership. There is an old analogy of a specific refuse always rolling downhill. The easy thing to do is to step aside and allow it to continue to roll down to the next level, eventually ruining the lives of whomever has the unfortunate position of being at the bottom. However, if a leader steps up, and positions themselves to block excretions from rolling down past them, their subordinates will be all the better for it. The 16 Personalities (MBTI) assessment that I scored was that of an ITSJ or Logistician. According to the assessment, an ITSJ is relatively composed and carries out their actions with care and a methodical purpose (“Logistician”, 2023, https://www.16personalities.com/istj-
personality). The carefulness that an ITSJ executes their actions is aligned with what a servant leader should do. Additionally, an Logistician prides “themselves on their integrity. People with this personality type mean what they say, and when they commit to doing something, they make sure to follow through” (“Logistician”, 2023, https://www.16personalities.com/istj-personality). Going back to the excrement rolling down hill example, a true servant leader will commit to serving those under him, no matter the cost or personal inconvenience incurred. As a man of faith, the first example that I go to in becoming a servant leader is that of Jesus and his actions towards his disciples and everyone he came in contact with during his time on the earth. A specific example of this is when he washed his disciples feet. Seen as an act of servitude, normally performed by the host’s house servants, Jesus took a place of humility when he washed the road dust off of the feet of those subservient to him (John 13:5, English Standard Version). Even though one is in a position of authority, does not mean that they should cease to serve those below them, both in actions and attitude. Additionally, as a Naval Officer, a prime example of servant leadership was in my former Commanding Officer of VT-4, and one situation will always stick with me. As CO of a training squadron, students were the main source of consternation and difficulty, as they were stretching their wings for the first time in their personal and professional lives. When one such student encountered a severe personal issue and needed 2
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emergency leave, my CO took it upon himself to ensure that they got the leave, even though it was contrary to the Commander’s guidance signed by the Admiral, two echelons above. Motivating the efforts of the Department Heads and myself, the Assistant Student Control Officer, we were able to draft a request for exception to policy, which required the approval of our Commodore, and route it to the admiral. spending two full days personally seeing the process through, my CO was able to secure the approval of the Admiral and send the student on emergency leave. I firmly believe that this action will always be in the mind of that new aviation student, and they will always remember the actions of their former CO. I will remember it as well, for my CO had nothing to gain by appealing to the Commodore and Admiral, yet he tenaciously sought to achieve what his subordinate needed. Part 2: Interview Summary Challenges come in all shapes and sizes and oftentimes appear when we least expect it or are completely unprepared for it. One of the most challenging leadership issues was leading a team of highly experienced officers and enlisted. While this seems counterintuitive at first, one needs only to peel back one layer to see why. For some background, the most junior team member had twelve years in the Navy and has just come from an operational Forward Deployed Naval Forces command. The rest of the individuals had on average fifteen years each in the Navy. Normally, an experienced team is easier to lead as they require less oversight and can handle more autonomy. However, with experience brought apathy, and the main challenge with leading this team was to keep them motivated and on task. While it was not completely resolved by the time they left, they implemented several steps to keep the team on track and improve. One of these steps was to maintain a personal level of motivation and enthusiasm that hopefully would trickle down. For it was thought that how can a team be motivated if their leader is not. Several of the core skills used to lead a team came from the leader’s aviation background in a multi-crew platform. Working with a crew in a high-stress environment develops communication skills quickly and efficiently. When flying, the crew is different every day, so you learn how to communicate with different people in a way that they receive it. These skills learned years ago, help to lead a team of different individuals today. Communication however, is more than just verbally talking to an individual, while that is the main part of it. It is vital to communicate a vision in such a way that is not only concise, but also is easily understood by its audience. There were not any decisions that they would change, but they would have implemented their vision sooner. The vision that they had for the team was to have each individual in a specific role, responsible for a specific area, similar to job specialization on an assembly line. With clear roles and responsibility, it was believed to have created an efficient workplace that everyone was glad to be a part of. However, it took time to learn the personalities of each sailor, how they communicated, and what their goals were. In order to elicit by-in, personalities must be learned. By the time this was accomplished, there were only a few months left on their orders, and there was not enough time to implement the change required. This is just accepted as part of the Navy career cycle. Each set of orders as an officer is at most 30 months long, and oftentimes 3
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Windhorst_LDR-601S
jobs are changed at the command every 6-9 months. This allows little opportunity to elicit any sort of meaningful change in any organization. The main resources used were personal experience and peers. Personal experience can tell us what works or does not work, and past failures can be used to bolster future successes. Additionally, the use of peers can be vital to the success of any team. Peers can provide a different perspective to any problem and often bring a fresh view to a difficult situation. Looking at something with fresh eyes can be all it takes to accomplish a goal. Usually one would think that mentors would be more useful than peers. However, it was discussed during the interview that mentors often forget what it was like at a certain position, due to the radio rise through the ranks and switching assignments more often than liked. That is why the opinion of peers was sought out more. Throughout the interview, my Commander consistently alluded and pointed to the importance of effective communication in a team. They pointed to the shortcomings of the Navy’s promotion model, and how difficult it is to effectively lead a team when time as their leader is limited. Past experiences played a significant part of the Commander’s leadership philosophy, and peers was the main resource used to make their decisions if assistance was needed. Part 3: Interview Analysis The command problem presented by the interview was how to effectively communicate a vision to a team when time with them is limited and knowledge of the individuals is scant. Effective communication and servant leadership are two aspects of leadership which have few areas in common. While both are equally important qualities to have in a leader, they do not necessarily overlap. If I experienced the same challenge, I would look to gain knowledge on how to effectively communicate to a team and how to motivate them. Servant leadership can be used by remaining humble, knowing that I am not familiar with the team and going out of my way to get to know them. Additionally, I would spend time researching communication skills, using my free time if I had to. I cannot necessarily say that I would do anything different than the Commander did, because he did do a valiant effort with what he was given. From an external perspective and without knowing any of the nuances of leading the team in question, I would only suppose that I would spend more time trying to come up with different communication techniques until one worked. The main problem that I saw with the team, was that even though the workload was easy, no one wanted to do the work when it came up. Part of this was due to the fact that the Commander had the propensity to do everything himself, because it was easy and he had the answers already. Rather than delegating to those whose job it was to answer the questions, he took it upon himself. The result of this was team members felt like their opinion did not matter. Additionally, they felt as if it was not worth putting in the work, because the Commander would just do it anyways if given the opportunity. So, in hindsight, I would ensure that each member is working in their area of expertise, so that they would feel utilized and like their opinion matters, because it does. 4