Leadership concepts and theories

Leadership of David Petraeus

Leadership

The Leadership and Legacy of General David Petraeus

David Howell Petraeus, born November 7, 1952, is a former American military and public official. He served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from September 6, 2011, until his resignation on November 9, 2012. Prior to his assuming the directorship of the CIA, Petraeus was a four-star general serving over 37 years in the United States Army. His last assignments in the Army were as commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A). His other command assignments include serving as the 10th Commander, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM), and as Commanding General, Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I). As commander of MNF-I, Petraeus oversaw all coalition forces in Iraq.

Petraeus has a B.S. degree from the United States Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1974 as a distinguished cadet in the top 5% of his class. He also was the General George C. Marshall Award winner as the top graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College class of 1983. He subsequently earned an M.P.A. In 1985 and a Ph.D. degree in International Relations in 1987 from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He later served as Assistant Professor of International Relations at the United States Military Academy and also completed a fellowship at Georgetown University.

On June 30, 2011, Petraeus was unanimously confirmed as the next Director of the CIA by the U.S. Senate 94-0. Petraeus relinquished command of U.S. And NATO forces in Afghanistan on July 18, 2011, and retired from the U.S. Army on August 31, 2011. On November 9, 2012, General Petraeus resigned from his position as Director of the CIA, citing an extramarital affair that was reportedly discovered in the course of an FBI investigation.

Discussion

Edward Pappas (2009) explains a true leader is driven by what he or she can do for other people. A true leader understands and listens to people, enlightens people, guides, but does not dictate to people, enables and empowers people, motivates people, inspires people, credits people, helps people, leads people by example, and serves people.

Petraeus' own twelve rules for living appeared in Newsweek (Blackwell, 2012) just the day before his resignation as CIA director: 1) Lead by example from the front of the formation. Take your performance personally, if you are proud to be average, so too will be your troops. 2) A leader must provide a vision, clear and achievable big ideas combined in a strategic concept, and communicate those ideas throughout the entire organi-zation and to all other stakeholders. 3) A leader needs to give energy; don't be an oxygen thief. 4) There is an exception to every rule, standard operating procedure, and poli-cy; it is up to leaders to determine when exceptions should be made and to ex-plain why they made them. 5) We all will make mistakes. The key is to recognize them and admit them, to learn from them, and to take off the rear? view mirrors, drive on and avoid making them again. 6) Be humble. The people you'll be lead-ing already have on-the-ground conflict experience. Listen and learn. 7) Be a team player. Your team's triumphs and failures will, obviously, be yours. Take ownership of both. 8) Don't rely on rank. If you rely on rank, rather than on the persuasiveness of your logic, the problem could be you and either your thinking or your com-munication skills. Likewise, sometimes the best ideas come from bottom-up information sharing. Use direct-ed telescopes to improve situational awareness. 9) Leaders should be thoughtful but deci-sive. Listen to subordinates' input, evaluate courses of action and second- and third-order effects, but be OK with an 80 per-cent solution. There will be many moments when all eyes turn to you for a decision. Be prepared for them. Don't shrink from them. Embrace them. Some-times the best move is the bold move. 10) Stay fit to fight. Your body is your ulti-mate weapons system. Physical fitness for your body is essential for mental fitness. 11) The only thing better than a little com-petition is a lot of competition. Set chal-lenges for your subordinates to encourage them to excel. 12) Everyone on the team is mission criti-cal. Instill in your team members a sense of great self-worth, that each, at any given time, can be the most important on the battlefield.

From this one may reasonably conclude that Petraeus' leadership style is by and large transformational. Transformational leadership involves creating positive change in the followers whereby they take care of each other's interests and act in the interests of the group as a whole. Essentially the leader's task is consciousness-raising on a wide plane. The leader's fundamental act is to induce people to be aware or conscious of what they feel and to feel their true needs so strongly, to define their values so meaningfully, that they can be moved to purposeful action. In this leadership style, the leader enhances the motivation, moral and performance of his follower group. Transformational leadership is all about values and meaning, and a purpose that transcends short-term goals and focuses on higher order needs (Warrilow, NDI).

Michael Gerson (2012) noted that Petraeus was "supremely informed and often breathtakingly candid, an attribute that involves risks but establishes credibility." However, Petraeus' recent public downfall, brought on by his extramarital affair reveals a flaw in his character. Infidelity involves personal betrayal. Innocent people, spouses and children, suffer unfairly. Nonetheless, the manner in which Petraeus faced this public humiliation is to be admired, he admitted to showing "extremely poor judgment," and told the employees at the CIA, "Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours" (Gerson, 2012). After a career dedicated to high standards, Petraeus chose to apply those standards to himself.