There are two main types of philosophies that are used by leaders to assist with soldiers on a daily basis, they are known as followership and servant leadership. In order for leaders to be successful they need the support of those ranked under them. We can successfully complete more tasks if we all assisted each other and resolved any unnecessary conflicts by exchanging our different opinions and helpful criticisms. Though these two philosophies can corresponds with each other, they can likewise be very diverse.
In order to become a successful leader in the military you must first understand followership. As mentioned in the BLC power point, a followership must have the ability and readiness to shadow a leader. Conquering this concept will allow the team to positively succeed. Followership must have the willingness to follow a leader. A leader would not be successful if there were no followers. A followership can assist the leader and be very helpful in completing task and offering helpful concepts on how to improve the team.
A servant leadership has several characteristics including persuasion, commitment to the growth of people, healing, conceptualization, awareness, foresight, building a community, and stewardship. This type of leadership engages others when forming a decision. It is mainly based on moral and thoughtful manners. The foundation of servant leadership applies the army values and ethics to ensure proper development of soldiers are accomplished. As a servant leader, there will be times were you will ask your fellow soldiers about their views on a certain situation. This type of leadership will use compassion when trying to comprehend an individual’s thought process and attempt to relate.
Both philosophies honor the army values which requires individuals to honor one another regardless of the individual’s ranking, to be loyal, respectful, and complete assigned responsibilities. Being engaged with your soldiers will allow them to respect and gain the trust needed to be successful.
In conclusion, both philosophies follow the army values, and are aimed at improving an entire organization. A followership is more of an ability and awareness to follow a leader, whereas servant leader has multiple characteristics and embraces others to follow their lead. Servant leadership takes others opinions and concerns into consideration prior to assembling a final decision. As the BLC slide mentioned: in order to be a leader you must have followers and via versa. To be a successful leader an individual must remain open-minded and attempt to succeed in both philosophies.