¶ … Training Most Important Area Of Training For Modern Military Leadershi

Resiliency: The single most important area of training for modern military leadership?

The military life is invariably a stressful one and service in the modern military brings unique psychological and physical stresses to troops. According to Bartone & Armstrong (2009), the most important character that must be fostered in contemporary training is that of resilience. "Research over the past 25 years has confirmed that psychological hardiness is a key stress-resilience factor. People who show high levels of psychological hardiness exhibit greater commitment (the abiding sense that life is meaningful and worth living), control (the belief that one chooses and influences his or her own future), and acceptance of challenge (a perspective on change in life as something that is interesting and valuable)."[footnoteRef:1] Of course, technical competency is required and soldiers must be physically fit to withstand the rigors of combat. But resiliency in character is essential, for without it, all of the other components of military prowess mean very little in the heart of battle. [1: P. Bartone, C. Barry, & R. Armstrong, "To Build Resilience: Leader Influence on Mental Hardiness," Defense Horizons, 69 (2009): 1]

One of the reasons that serving in the military is so stressful is that deployments have increased in duration and number. Resilience enables troops to endure the isolation, boredom, and danger of deployment, to cope with situational ambiguity, high levels of work, and a sense of powerlessness in the face of the unknown.[footnoteRef:2] Training troops to psychologically cope with mental anxiety, changes in the environment, and to exercise leadership by setting a model example of such qualities is vital, given that these situational variables are likely to become more common in the future of the modern military. [2: Bartone, Barry, & Armstrong, 2009: 2]

Setbacks are inevitable in wartime. Someone...

There is stress even in the boredom of slow periods in the form of anticipation as well as the stresses of full-fledged warfare. Naturally 'hardy' people are able to reframe challenges in a manner that are beneficial to them: as something positive rather than negative, one reason why soldiers who score high on scales of mental hardiness are significantly less likely to develop PTSD. However, while certain persons seem to have a naturally more resilient temperament than others: "a proactive, committed, high hardy leader can mobilize an entire work group in the direction of greater hardiness and stress resilience."[footnoteRef:3] 'Hardiness' in other words, can be contagious, which makes social modeling of the trait all the more important. [3: Bartone & Armstrong, 2009: 6]
Of course, leaders must still be accomplished in their knowledge of tactics and strategy: the psychological trait of resilience alone cannot ensure victory. But no matter how brilliant a leader might be, if he or she is apt to 'crack' under pressure, often the carefully-honed knowledge becomes forgotten in the panic of the moment. Making decisions during a military action often requires a leader to make uncomfortable choices based upon a cost-benefit or utilitarian analysis. For example, "while the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or mass killings of noncombatants would normally be ruled out, if victory -- depending on what was at stake -- becomes more elusive or defeat more imminent, indiscriminate acts of violence may under certain circumstances be justified."[footnoteRef:4] While the ideal is always to minimize causalities, this is not always possible and a leader must be able to rationally evaluate alternatives and live with his or her decisions. Mental fortitude is required to ensure that such a correct decision is made. Resilient leaders must have a strong sense of ethics given the very nature of warfare itself poses continual…