August 11, 2015
Dear David,
Re: “Solitude and Leadership: If
you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts.” By William
Deresiewicz
I
have taken my time responding to you because you are asking for my opinion,
thoughts, even reflections on the subject of leadership. The
presentation was tailored and targeted to a specific group, a plebe class early
in their first academic year at USMA. These young men and women are near
identical to those attending the other service academies (USNA, USAFA, USCGA,
MMA). The Army plebes are representative youth from across the nation because,
the selection process dictates appointments are offered from each congressional
district and two from each state, at large, by each senator. As extraordinary
as these men and women are, the classes could be filled from certain regions of
the country exclusively if it were just based on the qualifications, academic
and otherwise, in some areas like Northern Virginia, Maryland, Southern
California, and other areas with high quality schools and strong academic and
sports programs. But, the academies are forced to be geographically diverse.
The
point to the above is that these are elite young prospective leaders based on
their academic, extra-curricular activities, sports accomplishments, and
demonstrated leadership in their high school environment. They know this about
themselves and will learn it about their classmates, up close and personal,
during their four years. They will recognize they are all big fish in a small
pond. To survive they must work together as a class and as a larger unit
(Corps, Wing, Brigade, etc.)
Unlike
other schools, midshipmen and cadets live, eat, go to classes, engage in a
broad array of sports and other activities, and study together. Summer
activities create further bonds and stretches life experience of each
midshipman and cadet. They are taken/forced out of their comfort zones and
exposed to physical and mental challenges with all their classmates watching.
This process builds confidence, self-assurance, problem solving and management
skills, and demands acceptance of personal accountability, responsibility for
and to others, and understanding of what personal integrity and respect for
dignity demand of each individual toward their sworn oath.
Dr.
Deresiewicz almost certainly knows these basic facts about service academies.
Yet he chooses to compare them, in his mind flatteringly, to students at Yale,
Harvard, Stanford, MIT. He states that each of these and other elite private
colleges and universities develop and train the college students to become future
leaders in society.
He then describes the
characteristics of these other leadership bound students as focused primarily
on their own ambition and drive to succeed (my assessment). I do not take issue
with what he says about business and industry, or with his description of the
pitfalls and whimsy that bureaucracies abound with as you forge a career.
Good
and great leaders come from all manner and sorts of backgrounds and education,
humble to elite institutions, and with or without formal education, or social
status, succeed and inspire us across the world. Granting the foregoing, the service
academies do build great and good leaders from among their military service
bound cadre. What is specific to the academies is that each and every graduate
is going to become an officer and is expected to lead. That does not mean we
start as the boss, we get seasoning and learn from our mistakes and poor
judgement, hopefully not fatal errors, but none the less blunders that are
expected and forgiven as we assume more responsibility and accountability.
So
far, my issues with this apparently celebrated speech, are that he confuses the
plebes and service academy types with college students, they are not similar
but in very general comparisons. He fails to acknowledge the culture and
heritage of the military academies that play such an important and significant
role in imbuing [to impregnate or inspire, as with feelings, opinions] cadets
and midshipmen with the calling to lead, to accept our eventual role in the
military service, and I want to emphasize service – service to our country and
all its people. The Mission of the Naval Academy states:
"To develop Midshipmen morally,
mentally and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty,
honor and loyalty in order to graduate leaders who are dedicated to a career of
naval service and have potential for future development in mind and character
to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government.”
The other service academies
have similar missions.
Dr. Deresiewicz goes on to speak of knowing
yourself, concentration and focus, limits and detriments of multi-tasking, and
the essential quality of independent thinking, thinking outside the box, that
his ideal leaders would or do possess.
Finally he speaks of finding and using solitude, a multi-layered type of
solitude, to find strength and wisdom to do the right thing, to risk the
consequences that may come from stepping forward into the face of authority
misused and abused. All interesting and certainly artfully described, the
challenges that leadership ill-used and perverted can present and force the
individual to confront the limits of his or her personal integrity, sense of
right and wrong, and value of human dignity. These types of scenarios are ever
present in military life and certainly in the civilian world. Who you are and
whom you believe yourself to be is something that does take introspection and
requires mental preparation and understanding of what each of us is called upon
to do when faced with challenge of confronting wrong and evil acts.
This speaks to morals,
character, ethics, personal integrity, and acceptance of responsibility and
accountability when called upon by our own values to do what we believe is the
right thing, the just thing. These are indeed solitary thoughts and constructs
that we as individuals given responsibility as leaders, or just citizens in our
democracy, must think through and be prepared to protect and defend ourselves
and our fellow citizens. But that is not the essence of leadership, certainly
not in the military sense that I experienced throughout my career.
If I were called on to speak of leadership, I would be
quick to speak of how solitary the responsibility rests on you in a position of
authority. It is essential that it be so and is part of accepting the
responsibility to exercise your authority and discretion in your leadership
role to achieve the mission or task assigned to your unit. Often, you are in a
position to seek advice and counsel, but just as likely the decisions will fall
to you alone.
As you progress, seeking and
accepting greater responsibility and authority, the greater the solitude and
loneliness of command becomes. You will be guided by your training, experience,
and growing awareness of how to deal with the added load, you will be
proficient in multi-tasking, of splitting your responsibilities through
delegation, of using your instincts and the ideas and suggestions of others to
accomplish the missions. You will feel the losses and failures especially
keenly and you will honor those losses and grieve with your men and women and
be the example of strength and compassion for enduring those losses so your
command can continue their mission. These lessons and the means to carry out
the role of leadership are built step by step: indoctrination, training,
education, dedication to professionalism, platoon leader/division officer,
company commander/department head, executive officer, commanding
officer/brigade commander, general/flag officer, army company/fleet commander.
It all comes down to the willingness and the determination of leaders at every
level along the way to accept accountability and responsibility to carry out
their assigned mission and to take care of their assigned personnel to insure
they are ready to respond and able to carry out their training to successfully
complete the task or mission. To never fail to be the right example for your
people so they will respect and believe in your judgement, and the sincerity of
your devotion to their welfare. It is about facing your doubts and fears, your
failings and weaknesses, and using all that you have and all that you have been
given to rise up and be that shining example authority and responsibility your
troops expect of an officer. You have to believe in yourself, despite all the
doubts and fears inside, for your men and women to believe in you. Yours and
their lives may depend on it all to sudden and unexpectedly.
Finally, effective and inspiring leadership is out there,
doing good and wonderful things every day around the clock. There are also
failures of leadership, a surprising number of them big and small. Such
successes and failures need to be reported and explained and even more
importantly learned from so we can influence better and more successes. The
example worthy of mention is that of General Petraeus and his disgrace and
downfall. Brilliant officer, a warrior who sought front line responsibility, a
great tactical and strategic thinker, forceful and dynamic, charismatic and
charming, destined for greatness, achieved four stars and the attention of Presidents
and Congressional leaders and respected and admired by his men and woman
serving under him. What went wrong and why, was there any excuse for the
egregious moral and ethical failures on his part, what is the impact on those
who served with him, and how will this fallen leader’s legacy affect others in
the Army in the future. What, if anything, is there to be learned from this
utter failure of character and judgement?
The services can rightfully be accused of trying to
minimize reporting of leadership failures in high ranking officers,
specifically, and all officers, generally. This is wrong and a mistake.
Something can be learned from ever instance of command or leadership failure,
in fact I say that it must be examined and circumstances described and
corrective and disciplinary actions taken and explained. Character flaws and
poor judgement that manifest in failures to exercise good judgement, compromise
good order and discipline, or risk lives and welfare of service men and women,
must be exposed to the light of day. Leaders must be the example and where
leaders fail, accountability includes learning from those failures to better
guard against reoccurrences.
David, look forward to you
thoughts and very honored to asked to express them with regard to this speech.
Captain Jim
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