CHARISMA IS A GOOD TRAIT FOR BATTLEFIELD LEADERS

[rebewranger]

CHARISMA IS A GOOD TRAIT FOR BATTLEFIELD LEADERS
Commander commanding
Photo by: Army National Guard/Sgt. Jamar Marcel Pugh
Thu, 03/10/2022 - 06:50

A new approach to the Army’s leadership concepts will be critical to maintaining unit cohesion on a dispersed battlefield, an Army psychologist writes in a new report.

With a reliance on “rational authority,” which motivates soldiers with external incentives such as pay or avoidance of legal problems, the Army is missing the chance to allow leaders to develop “charismatic leadership,” which relies on internal incentives such as loyalty to the leader.

In “Charismatic Leadership as the Bulwark Against Unit Disintegration,” published by the Association of the U.S. Army, author Maj. Karl Umbrasas puts forth that the Army’s “corporate style of leadership” based on formality, meetings and policy could keep leaders from bonding with their units and fomenting “larger group cohesion so important to primary group motivation.”

https://www.ausa.org/news/charisma-good-trait-battlefield-leaders

[DefiantMassRINO]

As a child, I shoveled snow for older people during Winter to make some money.  One of them served in Patton's army.  I asked him, "Which General was better - MacArthur or Patton?"  His anwer, "MacArthur was a pu$$y."

During the Frist Gulf War, many of the command staff were experience combat veterans of the Vietnam War.  They learned how NOT to fight a war.  Hence, the Weinburger principle of 10-1 superiority over your enemy for a ground offensive.

Those lessons learned were lost by the Bush 43 Administration.  The did not heed the Weinburger doctrine when they invaded Iraq in 2003.  They went into Iraq with too light a footprint and let the damned State Department and that incompement Paul Bremer lost the peace.

The greater cost of "wokeness" is that it may drive combat experienced officers to leave the military.  The consequence is that military leaders will make and adapt war plans based upon theory rather than the reality of the battlefields.