Leadership Challenges
Facing the Army
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Institutional
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Leadership Challenges
Facing the Army
Over the
past decades, the United States Army, the
most instrumental and vital branch of our military has seen a robust growth in
terms of capacity and strength. The army has been actively engaged in missions
all over the world especially in volatile regions in Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia where the United States has
strategic interests. Training is a core pillar in the United Army an aspect
that has enabled it to operate in almost every region in the world without
being limited by cultural challenges. The United States has been allocating
sizable investments to offer the best training to its personnel in uniforms to
maintain units that can operate in dynamic theatres involving local politics,
urban warfare among others (US Department
of Defense, 2014). However, over the recent past, the United States army has
faced a significant challenge in leadership development. This is a current
challenge facing the US army. This paper sets to discuss the challenge of
leadership development currently affecting the United States Army.
Leadership Development as a Challenge
The United
States Army Press released a statement of the current challenges facing the
army and which have the potential to affect its operations in missions
worldwide. Among the several challenges listed was that of developing army
leadership (Bradshaw, 2018). The military and the army differ from all other
institutions in the United States in many ways but most importantly its highly
dynamic form of personnel management. As expected with all the branches of the
military, service men and women are categorized depending on their experience
in the army, accomplishments, and level
of training. These ranks in the army establish what is referred to as the chain
of command that allows operational
efficiency through a code of discipline. The ranks allow communication to flow
from senior commanders to low-level
officers such as platoon members in the infantry. Although decisions are open
to negotiation in most cases, orders from
a senior commander are not questioned. Military ranks keep on changing at a
significant rate for the army personnel. For both commissioned and
noncommissioned officers, experience, for instance, results to rise in the rank
of an army personnel. As an officer crosses the threshold of one rank to the
next, their scope in terms of expertise, skills and responsibility increase too. Additional training and
mentorship, in this case, are key and
vital to develop leadership capacity among the new ranks.
Every year
thousands of officers serving in the army cross the threshold of a new rank
which necessitates new training to impart new skills that match their new
capacities. The challenge for the army is to offer the required training for
leadership development centrally the high rate of rank crossing (Bradshaw, 2018).
For instance, in most cases, many junior officers cross the threshold and rise
to new ranks of senior non-commissioned officers (NCO). This immediately shifts
their responsibilities within the army. In this case, senior NCOs have the responsibilities of assisting
commanders in the development of strategic planning, monitoring their execution
and also offer training to their juniors. More complex challenges meet junior
officers as they transit from junior
soldiers to senior non-commissioned officers too. The increased responsibilities and added complex tasks are
daunting to the senior officers in their new ranks. Without the appropriate
leadership development in new ranks, complex tasks often result in operational failures and losses. Therefore,
the challenge of leadership development is one which the army and the military,
in general, cannot afford to overlook. Military
leadership development is a challenge for
the United States Army for several
reasons which include, fixed resources, increased requirements with limited
training durations and overseas deployments (Crowley, Shanley, Rothenberg & Sollinger, 2013).
Training for new responsibilities and complex tasks requires significant
resources. Although funding for the army is not a problem, the budget is
tightly fixed to meet different operational
needs. Therefore, getting enough resources has
been a deterrent to high-level training
in leadership development. As the requirements for training officers in new
ranks increase, the training duration has not which has often limited
leadership development. Battles and conflicts are constantly evolving which has
often led to new strategies. Learning new strategies together with the existing
ones requires longer time durations which is often a limitation due to the
urgency of the personnel to fit in new roles. Additionally, the United States
army global approach requires that officers are mostly in deployments all over
the world. This is a further hindrance to
leadership development when soldiers have limited time for training due to operational tasks. Therefore, soldiers have to
wait until they complete their tours to train for new ranks at home.
Nonetheless,
the army’s leadership development challenges could be overcome by attaching
training officers in overseas bases,
constantly revising training programs to increase their scope and duration and
increasing investment to leadership development (Crowley, Shanley, Rothenberg & Sollinger, 2013).
Soldiers will have a long training duration, better resources and also ability
to train even while overseas. This is the way to overcome leadership
development challenges within the army.
Conclusion
The United
States army a branch of our military has a pivotal role in our security. Over
the years, it has seen a robust growth in personnel and operational efficiency.
However, with the growing needs leadership development has become a challenge
for the army due to fixed resources, increased training needs with limited
duration and overseas deployments. To solve the challenge of leadership
development, the army should increase funding to training, constantly revise
training programs and attach permanent training officers to overseas bases. This will result in better leadership development and
operational efficiency.
References
Bradshaw, C. (2018). NCOs confront leadership challenges. Army University Press. Retrieved from
Crowley, J. C., Shanley, M.
G., Rothenberg, J., & Sollinger, J. M. (2013). Adapting the army's training
and leader development programs for future challenges. Rand Arroyo Center Santa Monica CA. Retrieved from
US Department of Defense. (2014). Operational and maintenance overview. Fiscal
year 2015 budget estimates.
Retrieved from
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