Leadership Outside U.S Army

1. Leadership Outside U.S Army

Student Name
Institution

2. Introduction

Leadership is all about influence.
A leader stands out from the crowd
A leader is also a manager
There are may theories about leadership; hence so
many definitions of a leader
Some argue that leaders are made while others believe
that leaders are born (Avolio, B., Walumbwa, F., &
Weber, T. 2009).
In Army, management and leadership is part of life

3. Before joining army

Even before joining army, I believe that life has taught
me to be a leader
I have been involved in many situations that required
decision making
I was once a captain of softball back in high school and
even in campus
As a captain I dealt with different characters of people;
some who agreed with me and others who were
opposed to my leadership skills
However, am happy to say that I was recognized as the
best captain in senior high school

4. After joining army

When I joined Cadet and was going through lessons of
professional army, I have learnt about skills of army
such as a leader and a manager
I have tackled many situations outside army that
required me to utilize leadership skills
One of such situation is when my mom went to prison
My family including my dad depended on my mom and
after she went to prison they did not have any source of
income or someone to take care of them
I had to take them in to live with me

5. Leadership skills

When my mother was sent to prison, I was in a
dilemma
Two siblings needed tuition fee
My dad needed medication and regular check-up since
he has heart condition that needs a lot of money for
management
I still had my family that depended on me
My medical insurance could not cover my dad yet I
was running out of cash
I was torn in between taking care of my dad and paying
school fee to my siblings and my own kids

6. Leadership skills

Some of the leadership skills that I utilized is
trying to diagnose the situation
The situations were:
Mom going to prison,
Dad requiring medical attention
My siblings and my children needed tuition fee,
The bills had gone up and I had to handle mom’s
case
After diagnosis, I made several adjustments
to cope up with the change

7. Leadership skills

One skill that I believe to have made an
impact is communication
The situation was a dilemma not only to me
but to my family and communication ensured
that every person involved understood the
reasons behind my decisions
I had to convince my wife why we were
transferring our children to another school
I had to convince my dad that it was ok to
rent the house they were living in

8. Application of lessons learnt

ADPR defined Army as a profession and the
ethics that Army should posses
Some of these ethics include honorable service,
trust, military expertise, stewardship and Esprit
de Corps (The Army profession 2011).
This skills do not only apply when at work but
even when away from duty
The heart of Army profession is full of inspiration
and motivation
When dealing with my mom situation, the lessons
that I learnt on Army as a profession were very
applicable

9. Application of lessons learnt

In army and especially cadet, one cannot work along
Teamwork makes work efficient and effective (The
Army profession. 2011)
Teamwork also makes work easier
This was a lesson well learnt
I believe that were it not through teamwork, I could not
have found the solution in time and maybe the situation
would have been worse
To solve the problem, we combined efforts with my
wife and my father who were very corporative and
supportive

10. Application of lessons learnt

One cannot survive in army without being disciplined
Discipline involved being punctual and attending to
given activities without excuse
To be a leader, I have learnt that being consistent,
observing time and doing things as planned is very
important T(he Army profession 2011).
I could have made decisions but if I did not have the
discipline to accomplish them, it would not have made
any difference

11. Conclusion

Leaders are either born or made but in army one has no
alternative since one has to become a leader and a
manager
The skills learnt do not only apply at work but anywhere
else
At one point I was faced with a situation where my
mother was sent to prison
I had to deal with my dad medical affairs, my siblings’
school fees as well as my own bills
The situation made me to apply some of leadership skills
such as communication as well as skills that were had
learnt in class such as teamwork and discipline
I therefore believe that the lessons in MSL 401 has made
me a better leader

12. References

Avolio, B., Walumbwa, F., & Weber, T. (2009).
Leadership: Current Theories, Research, and Future
Directions. Annual Review Of Psychology, 60(1), 421449.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163
621
The Army profession. (2011). 1st ed. [West Point,
N.Y.?]: Center for the Army Profession and Ethic,
Combined Arms Center, TRADOC