Leader is a definition in itself, the one who through the ages and in any discipline has managed to lead a group towards victory. The leader’s philosophy, without a doubt must know and share all the ways to achieve success. Leaders always know deep down that victory is the value that makes those who follow them spiritually grow, and through it the individuals have overcome their initial limitations. Leader is the most valuable figure of the deck because with their energy and advice they will know how to get the best attitudes and skills from anyone around them. We as army leaders must have and apply those special skills that separate us and make us different from the rest.
Setting goals and expectations is essential for teams to work together with a common goal. We as leaders need to move towards a clear and fixed goal in order to apply with greater determination, in this way we know what to expect of ourselves and our team. Therefore, it becomes essential that a leader transmits to the team what the mission, vision and strategy are. We can start by setting an ambitious long-term goal and giving smaller tasks with specific results that will motivate our team and will not divert the gaze from the objective (Wolf, 2015).
Investing in people human talent is the most important and valuable variable of any organization. Therefore, if we want prepared people, we must invest in their training. First, we must select those profiles that we think have potential in those areas and divisions that will help us reach our goal. Once they are part of our team, we must to invest in them so they can continue to evolve and grow professionally and make the organization grow towards the goal. Soldiers with leadership qualities are able to recognize special skills and know how to use them for the benefit of the organization.
Strengthening talent is important to create career plans for each of the soldiers who work with us. Conduct performance counseling in order to give honest feedback about their strengths and areas for improvement. On the other hand, talented soldiers tend to be ambitious at the same time, so it is not always easy to retain them. For that reason, it is essential to take care of them and motivate our talented soldier to do new tasks and go new places. Another fundamental ingredient is commitment, and this is only achieved with good communication between leaders and soldiers. This will make them feel motivated and satisfied.
Communication is key to lead effectively, is essential to communicate with all soldiers to transmit all information and expectations to the team. The key is to communicate with transparency, in a clear and concise manner. However, this flow of communication and information cannot be unilateral. Good leaders always have an open ear towards the concerns of their soldiers. Communication and leadership go hand in hand when we talk about the leaders of today and those of tomorrow (Wolf, 2015).
Active listening involves observing and asking, flexibility and trust, openness and firmness. Actively listening to soldiers is gathering all their ideas and contributions and putting them into practice. When there is active listening in the team all members of the team have a better understanding the reason for their work. Expand their vision and direction according to our strategies and goals (Wolf, 2015).
Motivation is essential in any leader who seeks to be a reference person within their teams. This requires that we create a healthy, optimistic, and fun environment at the same time, but also ambitious and challenging work group. Motivating and inspiring our soldiers and encouraging our enthusiasm for projects is one of the most important skills and the key to success. Motivated soldiers are good soldiers, the more aware we are of our own abilities and the more open we are to them, the more successful we will be as leaders.
Leading by example, we must be the first to work hard, and take the responsibilities that protect our position and do it with honesty, ethics and authenticity. Do not pretend to be what we are not. Leadership ability can also be seen as the ability to deliver responsibility and delegate tasks. Those who transfer responsibility to their soldiers motivate them and guarantee their loyalty.
After all it is important to understand that we all have different leadership styles, and ways delegate tasks to our soldiers but we must be agreed that our main goal as leaders in to inspire and motivate our team to accomplish any mission or task in an effective matter. We must be the example to follow and the inspiration for our soldiers to success in the mission and life. This is exactly what our army leadership philosophy is all about.