Leader competencies are groups of related actions that the Army expects leaders to practice and encourage. They are basically to define and communicate leadership requirements in an organized manner. The Army’s definition of leadership is “the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to accomplish the mission and improving the organization”(ADP 6-22). The Army defines leadership as a step by step process because they know the skills used to become a leader can always be attained and rehearsed. There are three categories of leader competencies: leads, develops, and achieves.
In the lead category of leader competencies, a leader is supposed to lead others, extend influence beyond the chain of command, lead by the front, and communicate. Leading others and extending influence beyond the chain of command focuses on who you are leading with and with what degree of influence and authority. Leading by example and communicating address two ways by which you convey influence. Extending influence includes negotiation, consensus building, and conflict resolution. Many leaders use the saying “actions speak louder than words” because it is a world wide metaphor that can be used as a model to set the standard. Communication is important because having clarity of the tasks at hand will make everything run a lot smoother. Servant leadership is also part of the lead category. Servant Leadership is who chooses first to be a servant by first becoming a servant, a Soldier follows in the footsteps, later choosing a road to become a leader as a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO). When Soldiers become leaders, they do not place themselves or their wants and needs first above anyone else’s.
In the developing category of leader competencies, a leader is supposed to create a positive environment, prepare as an individual, and develop others to be a new leader. Creating a positive environment helps motivate other soldiers to perform to the best of their abilities. Preparing oneself encourages improvement in being a leader and the responsibilities of being a leader. Developing others to be a leader is helping them to have greater responsibilities and achieve higher expertise. Leaders have three principal ways of developing others: counseling, coaching, or mentoring. Counseling is a huge part of leader development. Counseling should always be practiced because it is to help your subordinate focus on their problems and what exactly they need to fix in order to become a better soldier. Coaching is all about guidance and teaching. A coach helps people figure out where they are at in their level of performance. Once the coach does that, they should be able to teach their students some skills on how to improve their performance. Mentoring is placing a person with greater experience with a person with lesser experience. This is to help the person with lesser experience develop, grow, and learn.
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In the achieve category of leader competencies, a leader is supposed to get results. Getting results requires the right level of delegation, empowerment, and trust balanced against mission. As a leader, to get results you have to provide direction, guidance, prioritize, develop and execute plans, and to be able to accomplish tasks consistently. To help your organization function effectively, you must plan, prepare, then execute. You must plan to ensure that your approach to your goal makes sense. Preparation goes hand in hand with your planning. A successful execution plan is solely from all of the work that has been done beforehand. Give guidance from both near and long-term perspectives. A near-term focus is focused on critical actions that must be done as soon as possible. A long-term focus is focused on others to grabbing the future tasks competently and understanding. Achieving the same results depends on doing all the right things that come under other leadership competencies, having a clear vision of the task, taking care of people, setting the right example, building up the unit, encouraging leader growing, etc.
In conclusion, leadership can be developed. Leadership develops when you have motivation to strive to be and do better. When you have motivation, your team will have motivation. When your superior supports you and the people around you actually want to learn, everybody will benefit positively from it. Leader competencies should always be something to strive for, whether you’re a civilian or in the army. Army leaders develop leadership skills in others by creating a positive environment, seeking self-improvement, and providing support. Support includes being able to help people grow and learn. Leadership also includes constantly evaluating people and giving them constructive criticism. In order to give constructive criticism you must monitor what they do and how they do it and reinforce the expectations if needed. You must give your subordinates motivation so that they will want to implement your corrections and have it stick with them.
