Posted on Feb 23, 2015
LTC Operations Officer (Opso)
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As we move through the ranks many of us have seen military leaders fail to act or admit that a problem exists. What do you think the biggest issue is that leaders do not address or fail to admit exists?

How do we solve it?
Posted in these groups: Leadership abstract 007 Leadership19acf2bc Issues
Edited 10 y ago
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Responses: 9
SSgt Thomas L.
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Edited 10 y ago
I think John Q. Public sums it up pretty well here. There is excessive "dog and pony" type leadership, where a VIP will visit for a "look" at operations... but that visit is NEVER an accurate reflection of actual operations. It's actually very disruptive to operations, with man hours wasted "painting the grass green" (something I actually did at Beale!) and planting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of flowers (something they did at McGuire) to impress those VIP visitors. The whole ethic of gripes going up and orders coming down is stunted. Most gripes do not make it up. Each branch of the military is expected to do "more with less" but there is a natural conclusion to that. Eventually, they will be expected to do everything with nothing... and all the 4 star visits in the world won't save them. http://www.jqpublic-blog.com/look-were-involved-air-force-constellation-visits-minot/
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SGT Jim Z.
SGT Jim Z.
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I remember when I was a young PFC stationed in DC when SMA Kidd was on his farewell tour. We met briefly in Korea and he ask where I was PCSing to and I told him the Pentagon, fast forward a month in half later and SMA Kidd was visiting the Old Guard who lived on the 3rd and 4th floor of my building and I told my 1SG he does not care for the dog and pony show. Well the next day SMA Kidd was peeved to see an Old Guard Soldier still buffing and waxing the floor when he arrived. He proceeded to chew out the Old Guard 1SG. Yes I agree dog and pony shows are disruptive and do not accurately give the picture.
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LTC Instructor
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Edited 10 y ago
Well, LTC (Join to see), we obviously can't talk about it without admitting it exists!

I agree with MAJ (Join to see) that junior leader (officers and NCOs) development is sorely lacking in the Army Reserve (although it may go further than that). I would add actual mission readiness. Readiness metrics are fine, but getting to the battlefield means very little if units don't know what to do when they get there.

I have been out of the mainstream Army Reserve for over a year now, so perhaps the focus on the more base readiness aspects has abated.
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SFC Cryptologic Network Warfare Specialist
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LTC (Join to see)

Doing the right thing themselves
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