What Being an Army Green Beret Taught Me About Leadership
Men's Journal Editors - Yesterday 6:54 PM
This article is an installment of The Everyday Warrior series, featuring advice, key interviews, and tips to live a life of impact, growth, and continual learning.
For over 31 years, I served our nation as a soldier—my first decade as a military policeman and the rest in the U.S. Army Special Forces. During my time, I served in every enlisted leadership position from front line supervisor to sergeant major. In every one of those positions, I learned something from those I led and those I followed. While the lessons are innumerable and hard to distill, there are five principles that have stayed with me. They pay dividends no matter what field you’re in.
Leadership matters
Culture matters
People matter
Teams matter
Growth matters
1. Leadership Matters
There are several definitions, but I would like to share what the Army taught me about leadership via the ADP 6-22 (Army doctrine reference publication).
“The activity of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization.”
I first memorized this in 1993 while I studied for my Sergeant’s oral board, part of the promotion requirements to become a leader in the Army. These words have shaped who I’ve become and are the foundation of what I want others to know. Leadership is influence, purpose, motivation, direction, accomplishment, and improvement. Hopefully, the days of, “Because I said so” leadership are gone or at least subsiding. Employees want to know two basic things: why and why me? It’s easy to think of the why in terms of profits, but to the individual, profits are not that important.
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/what-being-an-army-green-beret-taught-me-about-leadership/ar-AAYL2R4?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=67cd9c47ea294e0da670202caa08d1a6
