What is Army Leadership
Leadership philosophy is one of the most important things an Army leader can bring to a unit because it is the intellectual foundation upon which all action is based. A leader without a philosophy of leadership is like a house built on sand: the first wave that comes along will exhaust it and quickly a succession of waves will reduce it to nothing. Leadership philosophy on the other hand is like a castle built on rock: no wave can wear it down, no assault can penetrate it. As an Army leader, the leadership philosophies that I would bring to a new unit would be 1) to always be honest, as honesty demonstrates transparency and forces one to be accountable for one’s thoughts, words and deeds; 2) to always be supportive no matter the situation; and 3) to inspire my unit to want to achieve its potential and develop towards the ideal forms pointed out by Plato so many centuries ago—the one, the good, and the true (Santas, 1980).

In the military it is not uncommon to identify attributes such as honor and integrity with philosophies of leadership. The reason for this is that leaders are expected to uphold and embody high-minded principles so that others are reminded of what they themselves should strive to be. Some expect that leaders are meant to authoritarian, to make all the decisions for underlings, who never think they have to one day think for themselves. However, the Army does not teach such a version of leadership. The six principles of mission command are based on the idea that even followers are expected to lead and make decisions on their own at some point—and effective command leaders are responsible for making sure that followers know that (ADRP 6-0, 2012).

Some of the most important components of leadership are the ability to communicate effectively, the ability to listen, the ability to create a sense of shared understanding, and the ability to inspire with...…know, however, that the reason is simple: the soldier has no fundamental awareness of or belief in the good. The reason Plato focused on the good is that he knew this was the prime motivating force—the ideal calling to all people and urging them to be better, to climb upwards, to rise above the pitfalls and find the goodness, truth and beauty in life. Even soldiers need to be aware of beauty for it humanizes and makes us appreciate what we have and why we have to fight to keep it.

My philosophy of leadership would ultimately come down to showing my unit why it matters that we do what we do and that we do it well. Every member counts because every member is part of the whole—and the whole would not be whole without each one of us. My job as a leader would simply be to show the way and then allow them to begin to grow and reach up to embrace the good.…