Leadership: Loving and Taking Care of Your Soldiers

Loving and Taking Care of Your Soldiers by Major Joseph N. G. LeBoeuf Spec. Richardson has just reached an important professional milestone, promotion to sergeant. Ah, yes, "buck sergeant, E5, now a supposed leader, as least that is what his stripes indicate. His unit is currently short of squad leaders, normally a staff sergeant, E6. So, by virtue of his newly-won stripes, SGT Richardson is now thrust into anew and difficult role, SQUAD

LEADER. No longer a follower, but a leader.

Quotas for NCOLeadcrship schools will not be available for at least six months. There is a critical field training exercise next month and an annual ARTEP on the horizon, plus an IG is just three months down the road. So, SGT Richardson... What are you going to do now?

Many of us, officers and NCOs alike, know this feeling all too well. The anxiety, the stress, the sometime feelings of absolute panic associated with being thrust into anew leadership situation, a position of great responsibility, and, more often than not, not really knowing what your next move should be. But your soldiers are waiting! Well, what should a good leader do? How should it be done? Or, even more to the point, what is a good leader? The behavioral science and psychological literature will throw lots of ideas at you about what a good leader is, and what a good leader does: contingency models of leadership, path-god theories, expectancy-value, and many more ideas that describe leadership activity and leadership behavior.

These ideas are wonderful and have an application but, for some reason, they don't seem so wonderful, or even practical, when you're standing in front of your squad or platoon trying to figure out, "What do I do now?"

Well, SGT Richardson, let's not lose hope, because there is a philosophy of leadership that can and will help. Within all the theories of leadership, there seems to be a common, underlying, thread that provides an answer, leastwise, a starting point, to the question of "What do 1 do now?" This thread is that a good leader is one who loves and takes care of soldiers. That's right, you've got to love them, the good and the bad, and take care of them all.

A good leader is one who loves and takes care of soldiers - all of them.

But wait a minute, is that all good leadership is, loving and taking care of your soldiers? Well, not really. It is not as easy as it sounds. Let's examine what it really means to love and take care of soldiers. Therein lies the key to being a good leader and the key to good leadership.

At first glance, one might think: What's so new about taking care of soldiers? That's easy... ensuring they have chow in the field, they gct their pay and they have their personal problems attended to...

WRONG!

Now, don't get me wrong, these things are very important. Any leader who forgets these basic things is doomed, leastwise he is on a rocky road. But there are other, more important, but maybe not so obvious, tasks involved in truly loving and taking care of your snl-diers. Let me give you a feel for what this really means.

Taking good care of your soldiers means an awful lot. Taking care of your soldiers means providing them good, hard-hitting, training: training that will ensure they will survive on a modern battlefield, currently characterized by a degree of complexity and lethality that is difficult to fully comprehend. Good training is that which is well thought out, carefully planncd, properly resourced, and vigorously executed. Good training is also that which is properly evaluated, with immediate feedback provided to your soldiers, and appropriate remedial and corrective action taken. Good training 48 ARMOR - “You have to love the good ones and the bad ones; and the bad ones often take a whole lot more love. This means having the courage to get the bad ones out of the Army, before they injure themselves and others. ‘ I is ”hard, consistently performed to the required standard. Good training is that which emphasizes those skills required of soldiers in a combat environment, emphasizing all-weather, all-terrain, and day and night operations. These are the characteristics of good, hard training, and this is taking care of and loving your soldiers.

Taking care of soldiers means good, hard training!

Taking care of your soldiers means ensuring that your men understand how to properly care for and maintain their equipment, both in garrison and in the field. Good leaders have to know as much about cquipmcnt rnaintcnance, if not more, than their soldiers. If good leaders don’t know, they lind out! Taking care of your soldiers means establishing appropriate clothing, equipment, and weapon’s maintenance standards and procedures, and consistently enforcing them. Dirty weapons, deadlined vehicles, and unserviceable equipment equal combat ineffectiveness, and that is not what it means to take care of your soldiers. If your soldiers’ “stuft“ doesn’t work, it could get them killed. Good leaders know all about these things and teach them to their soldiers. Taking care of soldiers means enforcing HIGH STANDARDS. ALWAYS!

Taking care of soldiers also means establishing and enforcing a system characterized by high standards of personal appearance, professional conduct and military discipline. Poorperformance must be consistently and effectively dealt with, and good performance must be consistently and appropriately rewarded. You’ve even got to love the had soldiers and do what’s right for them and the Army, even if it means pursuing some form of punishment or even discharge from the service. Bad soldicrs take a lot of love and care, but a good lcadcr cares. Bad soldiers bccome bad soldiers somehow, and that somehow is often a rellection upon the leadership they receive. Bad soldiers often take a lot of caring to make them good soldiers, but that is what good lcadership is all about: getting the most out of your soldicrs, the good and the bad.

Good leaders sel the example, A L WAYS, both on and off duty. Profcssional conduct, charactcrizcd by high moral and ethical standards, is the name of the game. Good leaders are disciplined, and their behavior reflects that discipline both on and off duty. Remember, you are a leader 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Good leadership is not something you turn off at the end ol the &ty day. 11 follows you around like your shadow, always present, a constant reminder of your responsibilities. It cannot be shunned. Taking care of soldiers also means that the leader must be technically and tactically proficient in all aspects of subordinate and unit performance. This is not an easy task. You already know that. It requires that leaders continuously assess their individual abilities and take appropriate actions to correct deficiencies and obtain and maintain required skills. When you are proG-cient, you then can ensure that your soldiers are. A lcader must lead by example - deeds surely speak louder than words. You will not be able to fool your soldiers, they will know if you know what you are doing, so be prepared.

Well, SGT Richardson, what do you think? Sounds like a lot of things to do. You’re right, hut they’re doable, without the knowledge of a lot of leadership theories. But this is by no means an exhaustive list of what it means to take care of your soldiers. It could never be. But 1 hope you now have an idea of what it rea/@ means to lake care of your soldiers and thus be a good leader. But it takes work -hard work and practice - lots of it, so get started.

Remember, taking care of your soldiers means that you also have to love them. You have to love the good ones and the bad ones; and the had ones often take a whole lot more love. This mcans having thc courage to get the bad ones out of the Army, before they injure thcm-selves and others. Loving means keeping the good soldiers in the Army, standing up for them in times of trouble, and readily admitting to them when you have made a mistake. If you do all these things, taking care of and loving your soldiers, you will be a good leader, and they will never let you down. Major Joseph N. G. LeBoeuf Is a 1974 graduate of West Point. A combat engineer, he is currently attending Command and General Staff College. Prior to CGSC, he was assigned as assistant professor and course director of the General Psychology course in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at West Point. He has held a variety of command and staff positions in the United States and in Germany where, during his last tour, he was the senior aide to the VI1 Corps commander.

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