A511.2.3.RB – Supportive Behavior

January 22, 2016

Richard Martinez

MSLD 511

               

                Early in my career in the military I had a lot of what we would consider poor or bad leaders. I refer to them now as hostile leaders. For them it was more about getting the job done and rarely being a supportive leader. Within the first five years of being in the Army I had only one solid leader that I would consider a mentor and supportive leader. It would be another 10 years before I had another leader of his caliber. I’m not saying that all my leaders were bad but they all lacked in several areas and one of those was being a supportive leader. As time changed from the mid 80’s to the early 2000’s leadership styles in the military were changing fast and there were a lot more solid and good leaders. One of the areas that we were learning as leaders in the military was in the area of being a supportive leader.

                When I became a Squad Leader in the Army it was my first leadership position for me. I had learned a lot of bad leadership behaviors from my early leaders. It was more of do as I say not as I do type leadership. I quickly learned that this was not the way to go. I began to study military leadership on my own time to get a better understanding of what it truly was. I found out that a lot of my leaders really knew nothing about leadership. I learned that true leadership involved taking care of your Soldiers and this meant learning supportive behaviors. Monitoring or observing was one of the first things I learned. You have to get to know your personnel and understand who they are and what their capabilities are.  This also involved observing their progress for any issues or problems or outstanding work performance. I learned early on to do monthly evaluations of my subordinates which showed their specific progress in many areas and anything that was not done or done incorrectly. If that was the case then I had to show them the proper ways of doing it. Show them guidance and support. This also included being there for a Soldier when situations outside the job arose.

                The text book list several key guidelines for being a supportive leader, I strongly feel that in my current leadership style I utilize the majority if not all of these guidelines in my leadership with others whether it is direct or indirect leadership. These include showing acceptance and positive regard, providing sympathy and support when the person is anxious or upset, bolstering the person’s self-esteem and confidence and be willing to help with personal problems. It is very important to take care of your personnel in order for them to focus on the job. I learned that a happy Soldier is a very hard working Soldier. It’s very important to create a positive work environment with confident leaders and personnel.

                Another aspect of supportive behavior is developing subordinate skills. I had a leader teach me to always ensure that you teach your personnel to learn and perform at the next higher level than they are currently at. Basically teach them to take over my job. This shows them that as a leader I have concern for their development and advancement. I provided coaching to all of my subordinates at any time even during our off times and weekends. Another part of coaching was giving career advice and how to advance. Training was not an issue since it was mandatory in everything we did in the military. This did have an effect on my leadership when I retired from the Army and I gained a civilian job. A lot of my personnel were not trained properly or at all. I had to develop a program to get all of my personnel properly trained and create advanced training as well. This did include leadership training as well. I encouraged my personnel to learn from other individual’s successes and failures. There is a set of core values that I learned early on in my military career that I still use today and teach all of my subordinates. The core values are Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage. If you take the first letter of each of these core values they spell LDRSHIP. This was an easy way to remember them. I have applied and live by these core values and they have greatly enhanced my leadership skills and style.