Why Should I Trust the New Lt? What Platoon Commanders Need to Do to Be Trusted by Their Chain of Command By Will Meddings There are plenty of stereotypes about new platoon and troop commanders. Whatever rank you are, you’ve come across them. Platoon commanders with poor administration. Troop commanders who get lost. Platoon commanders…
Team of Teams: A Leadership Model for a Complex World By Dan Snelson The 21st century is a time unlike any other. Modern technology allows instant global communication for everyone, making the world no longer just highly complicated, but increasingly complex. It is this complexity, argues General Stanley McChrystal in his 2015 book Team of…
Make Your Guiding Principles Useful By The Army Leader Early in my first tour in the Army I received a copy of an unusual document I’d never come across before. Two sides of A4, typed and headed; it was the Commanding Officer’s Command Philosophy. ‘His philosophy?’, I thought. ‘Does he think he’s Plato?’ Since then…
Intelligent Disobedience by Ira Chaleff at the Centre for Army Leadership Mr Ira Chaleff is one of the leading thinkers on followership. In this video he talks about intelligent disobedience: The critical skill for mission success and upholding military reputation. He explains why followers must be allowed to speak up to their leader and how…
Trusting Us and Trusting Them – A Leader’s Role – Part 1 By Maj Will Meddings In 2015 the NATO Kabul Security Force created a joint UK-US integrated command battalion to provide security in Kabul. With a UK commander and a US Command Sergeant Major, it was the first integrated unit like this since the…
A Junior Officer’s Thoughts on Staff Leadership By Maj Mark Shercliff We are taught to equate military leadership with the adrenaline and tempo of operations in the field, yet the reality is that many of our opportunities to exercise good leadership are actually in the different (but still challenging) environment of a staff headquarters. Staff…
Dealing with the Power/Truth Imbalance By The Army Leader “All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.” Sophocles, Antigone The topic of speaking up and getting your voice heard has been a hot one recently, with two articles…
David Marquet. Intent Based Leadership. Hear (but don’t see) David Marquet, former submarine Captain and author of ‘Turn the Ship Around‘ explain how he used mission command and genuine empowerment (he calls it ‘intent based leadership’) to turn around the way his submarine worked. David was posted to a submarine of a different type to…