Compliance with Army regulations: An indication of good leadership, or not?

COL Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 00:20:29 -0400

My Philosophy pontificated. An indication of good Army leadership is leadership that consistently accomplishes Army missions and requirements in accordance with Army regulations. Army regulations are a historical database of learned procedures, that when complied with, accomplish the missions and requirements of the Army as it is defined in Army field manuals and Army regulations. Consistent accomplishment of Army missions is key. Example; consistent compliance to the operations manual of an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and or Abrams main battle tank, ensures the proper defined operation of the vehicle in the accomplishment of Army missions. If consistent compliance to regulations produces sustained mission accomplishment, then adhere to Army regulations often. If sustained mission accomplishment is not achieved by consistent compliance to Army regulations, then officially modify the regulation often until sustained mission accomplishment is achieved. Good leaders adhere to established guidelines and make official recommendations for adjustments to guidelines when optimum mission accomplishment is not achieved.

Response by SSG Roger Ayscue made Jun 2 at 2015 12:27 AM

SSG Roger Ayscue — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 00:27:38 -0400

You MUST follow the regulation. If there is something inherently wrong with the Reg, the go to your senior Support Chain and try to get it changed. But to just run off doing your own thing is never the right ting to do...

Response by Capt Michael Halpin made Jun 2 at 2015 12:32 AM

Capt Michael Halpin — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 00:32:10 -0400

The best leaders are not measured by how well they follow the rules, rather they are measured by how well they accomplish the assigned mission. Often accomplishing a tough mission will necessitate breaking some rules.

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made Jun 2 at 2015 6:14 AM

Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 06:14:18 -0400

Compliance is a requirement more than an indication.

However, failure to comply may be an indication of the opposite.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 2 at 2015 9:01 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 09:01:05 -0400

One - Compliance does not equal leadership. Compliance is easy, and anybody can do it. Leadership is difficult, and not everybody is able to effectively lead.

Two - Regulations are created as "rules" for enforcing uniformity and discipline. They help guide and assist in decision making. A Field Manual is created and used to explain "how to" accomplish a given task, but is not a regulation. They are tactics, techniques, and procedures. A Technical Manual (TM) for a piece of equipment is not a regulation, it is an operations guide. You follow the TM to understand how to use a piece of equipment.

Army missions are not completed by compliance to the regulations, they are completed by using the best practices supported by Field Manuals. Accomplishing the mission is the business of leaders, but it is never done by simple compliance. A leader at every level inputs his or her thought process, bias, and end-state. The output is either mission accomplishment, or guidance to the next leader below them.

So to answer your question, sir, yes, a leader should comply and enforce regulations. But that had nothing to do with Army mission success. To accomplish an Army Mission, leaders at every level must understand the mission, understand the desired end-state, process the output of the leader above them, make a decision, and either accomplish the mission or give an output to a subordinate leader. Simple compliance will not accomplish anything of substance.

Response by CW5 Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 2 at 2015 10:57 AM

CW5 Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 10:57:55 -0400

Regulations are rules. Field Manuals are guides. A good leader understands that there is a point to where black and white turns to gray. That is the human factor. A good leader knows the different between intent and result. A good leader can balance the risks versus rewards and believe it or not, legality is a planning factor.

The saying goes something like this: Accomplish the mission and return home with honor and distinction. You need to determine what is honorable when considering a course of action. That may be clarifying something with JAG, or your boss, peers and/or CSM but in the end, the decision may be yours alone.

And above all, a leader takes action (which may be to stand back and wait). If you have to ask higher before doing everything, you're stuck in a feedback loop while the fight is happening all around you. Use MDMP, use your staff, delegate work (but verify), further your study of human knowledge and leadership and you will be armed with what you need.

Response by SMSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 2 at 2015 3:40 PM

SMSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 15:40:47 -0400

Lead from the front, you cannot do that if you are not following and enforcing regulations. However that does not mean that simply following is enough, I would argue that is a very basic start of leadership and the easiest one for lower ranks to accomplish first.

Following regulations gives you credibility, leadership is built on that. But much more goes into leading.

Response by SGT Kevin Brown made Jun 3 at 2015 12:46 AM

SGT Kevin Brown — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 00:46:42 -0400

Sir, comliance with regulations is mandatory and following the field manuals and technical manuals is our job. With that said, a leader, though he must adhere to the above, also has the human factor. The ability to make a decision, even if said decision is outside the box. Most of the regulations and manuals are changed because such men have done things outside the box. Being a good leader is what you do with that information and the decisions you make based on that knowledge and the mission at hand.

Response by COL Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 3 at 2015 9:15 AM

COL Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 09:15:34 -0400

Response by MSgt James Mullis made Jun 4 at 2015 5:44 PM

MSgt James Mullis — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 17:44:46 -0400

A great deal of harm has been done by "leaders" who live and die by blanket compliance with the rules. There is always the possibility for an exception to a rule or regulation, you just need to go high enough in the chain of command for the decision to be made. A good leader knows when to seek out that exception and when not to.

Response by Capt Michael Halpin made Jun 4 at 2015 9:22 PM

Capt Michael Halpin — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 21:22:10 -0400

Throughout my 40 career, both in the Marines and in civilian life, the worst bosses were those whose primary leadership principle was "The rules are the rules!" On the other hand, I remember what I had to do to get a couple of state airport grants. I had to break a couple of procedural rules to get it done. I always admitted publicly what I did. I was always reminded that I had broken the rules, to which I always asked do you want me to give the money back? They would simply smile and walk away.
Leadership is much more than following rules. It is a balancing act to fulfill the first mission of any leader - getting the job that you were hired to get done. I was recently reminded of how the Navy fired almost every submarine commander they had in the six months following Pearl Harbor. Why? Because they were following all of the rules but not sinking any Japenese ships. So the Navy replaced them with commanders who could sink ship but didn't give a damn about rules. After the war they replaced these commanders with those who follow rules. The lesson? When a job absolutely has to be done the rules become secondary to accomplishing the mission. It is true that "It is better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission" if you hope to accomplish anything difficult in life.

Response by SGT Hector Rojas, AIGA, SHA made Jun 10 at 2015 7:21 PM

SGT Hector Rojas, AIGA, SHA — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 19:21:45 -0400

Sir, I am sure there is a place somewhere where everything that is on paper makes sense...on paper.

From a "NCOs make it happen" point of view, I can tell you that good leadership is that which understands that the mission is important but the people accomplishing is even more so.
Being the 'yes sir' company commander will invariably result in low morale because well...the CO doesn't know when to say no we cant, or we will but we'll need these adjustments made, etc.

So with that said, most of the time, in order to accomplish every single mission that is placed in front of us, regulations are bent, or ignored, or "tweaked". I understand your point of view, by the book everything will work out, but real life is not quite that simple sir.

Take this for instance: Our TMC is roughly 8 miles away from our hangar, so whenever our soldiers do go, they barely have time to make it because by regs they have to be present at first formation in order to get the slip...so they can go (our TMC had only a 30 minute window where they see soldiers for sick call). So, regulation is playing against us, so, sometimes we bend, tweak and adjust.

Or if we did everything by the book, aviation maintenance would take 4 times longer than it currently does. Mind you, we still do it by the book, it's just that as you get experience, you know what tasks can be combined with others to get to the same end result. By the book. But then QC wants you to do it step by step as outlined in the book...yet PC expects you do it in 1/4 of the time that it would take you if you do it the way QC wants, and so on and so forth. Mission would not be accomplished.

Regulations always make sense when they are written and developed, but sometimes months and years have passed since they were created and they do not reflect the advances we, doing things by regulation, encounter in the field.

I'm sure that getting all greens in the DSR is an accomplishment in the daily staff meetings but it comes at a price that more often than not is never recognized or quantified.

Response by SGM Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 20 at 2015 11:21 AM

SGM Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 11:21:37 -0400

MAJ James Hill,
I am a strong advocate for enforcement of the regulations as well as the manuals that compliment and further elaborate on them. To me it comes down to discipline and my believe that without a disciplined fighting force we are not going to be sussessful against our enemies.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Oct 18 at 2015 7:34 PM

MAJ Ken Landgren — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 19:34:51 -0400

I admit there were a few times when I looked the other way when it came to Personnel Actions. As an example I helped a female E-7 with 18 years avoid the Medical Board. She was smart and had a Masters Degree, she was a fighter as well, and wanted to finish the marathon she started 18 years ago.

Response by MSG Alfred Aguilar made Oct 19 at 2015 8:04 PM

MSG Alfred Aguilar — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 20:04:18 -0400

Read Catch 22.

Response by CPT Jack Durish made Aug 29 at 2018 11:16 PM

CPT Jack Durish — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 23:16:10 -0400

If you don't follow the regulation you better succeed in accomplishing your mission spectacularly

Response by CW3 Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 24 at 2019 11:07 AM

CW3 Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 11:07:32 -0400

Something being legal doesn't make it always right, and something being right doesn't make it always legal. You can substitute "in compliance with regulations" for "legal" in that statement. It doesn't change the intent or meaning.