Leadership traits and characteristics

¶ … Leadership Styles:

Charismatic vs. servant leadership

The career of General Colin Powell is by any measure an extraordinary one. Powell was the first African-American Secretary of State and a much-talked about candidate for the presidency in his own right. From the very beginning of his career, Powell eluded conventional definitions of what it means to be black in American politics and created a unique brand of charismatic leadership. Powell self-identified as a Republican but was unafraid to be an advocate for a different point-of-view when debates about the Iraq War raged within in the administration of George Bush. Powell saw the involvement of the U.S. In Iraq as a flagrant contradiction of the principles he had learned while serving in Vietnam, which was to have a clear goal for an intervention; to use military force in a rapid fashion; and also to establish the support of the American people for the intervention through effective PR. [footnoteRef:1] He believed the Bush Administration accomplished none of these goals and refused to remain quiet when he felt that forces were being misdirected. He used his own experience as a guide rather than blindly following those around him. [1: Mordu Serry-Kamal, "Tribulations of General Colin L. Powell," review of Christopher D. O'Sullivan, Colin Powell: American Power and Intervention from Vietnam to Iraq (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009).]

Powell has always striven to lead by example, as seen in his embrace of the philosophy of the army as a place of teaching, not an arena in which perfection must be demanded immediately. In defense of his compassionate leadership style regarding his troops, he noted how when he was a young Army lieutenant he "lost his .45 caliber pistol while guarding a 280mm nuclear cannon. His superior officer found the weapon and merely returned it along with a warning."[footnoteRef:2] Powell's use of this example indicates how he is willing to use his own life as a vehicle of instruction. Charismatic leaders often connect their leadership decisions to personal aspects of their life. Of course, in his career of distinguished service Powell has always honored the military ideals of loyalty and patriotism. But he does so with measured judgment, not in an uncritical fashion, and is willing to use his experiences in Vietnam and the lessons of humane leadership he was taught as well as the military code of conduct as a guide. Charismatic leaders are able to personalize abstract ideals. [2: G. Butler, "Humane leadership," Marine Corps Gazette, 96(2012) 8, 21-25. Available: http://search.proquest.com/docview/1032950118?accountid=8289 (accessed 26 Aug 2013)]

Powell's career is highly paradoxical -- he voluntarily chose the military, a relatively regimented, white-dominated organization in an era where there was tremendous resistance to embodying such a notion of military prowess. That is why he is such a compelling and imitable figure, like many charismatic leaders who use their life's example as a way to inspire their followers. Of course, Powell is not the only African-American to offer such a positive personal example to the world through his service to the military. For example, at the pinnacle of his career, General Daniel James Jr. served as a special assistant to the chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force. Over the course of James' distinguished career in the Air Force, James served in many leadership capacities, including as a staff officer in the Air Defense Division of the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operation and at Royal Air Force Station at Bentwaters, England.[footnoteRef:3] He also gained a reputation as a great public speaker on the subject of patriotism during the Vietnam era when such ideas were not popular. But unlike Powell, James' style of leadership may be called that of servant leadership, or putting his own interests last and putting his country first. Rather than leading by his examples drawn from personal experience, in his speeches and his interpersonal style, James underlined the value of service to one's country and strove to do whatever was necessary to advance the interests of the United States. [3: "General Daniel James Jr., Biography." U.S. Air Force.]