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2011 Chip Laingen
1Laingen is the Communications and Research & Development Director
forMinnesota Wireand Executive Director of theDefense Alliance .
Commander Laingen is a 21-year veteran of the United States Navy. Hewas the special assistant and speechwriter to the Secretary of the Navy
during the tenures of the 70th and 71st Secretaries. A graduate of the
University of Minnesota NROTC program, he earned a B.A. in
International Relations and an M.A. in Public Affairs from the Humphrey
Institute of Public Affairs.
Commander Chip Laingen, United States Navy (Ret) 1
2010 - 2011Executive Leadership Fellow
Center for Integrative Leadership, University of MinnesotaMarch 21, 2011
Exploring Integrative Leadership
Traits in the U.S. Military Officer
Corps
EXPLORING INTEGRATIVE LEADERSHIP*
*Papers that are part of the Exploring Integrative Leadership Series can be accessed
online at www.leadership.umn.edu
http://www.mnwire.com/http://www.mnwire.com/http://www.mnwire.com/http://www.defensealliance.com/http://www.defensealliance.com/http://www.defensealliance.com/http://www.defensealliance.com/http://www.mnwire.com/ -
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Introduction
Leadership is Influence. That
simple declarative sentence is
presented at the beginning of an
intensive two-week course of study
on leadership at the U.S. Naval War
College. The attendees are senior
officers who are about to embark on
tours to command ships, squadrons
and shore stations. And the use of
that one wordinfluencesparks
the beginnings of debates they will
have about the most effective
leadership traits and styles for theirprofession. They have all
discovered, after an average of 18
years in the military service, that
while their organizations culture of
discipline certainly facilitates
achievement, truly successful units
are the ones whose leaders can work
across boundaries, inside and
outside of their units, to influence
rather than to order desiredoutcomes.
The men and women who are
members of the U.S. military officer
corps exhibit highly integrative
leadership traits, particularly after
many years of service. The cultural
environment, training, and
operational and administrative
dynamics they face all contribute to
this reality. This paper will explore
these dynamics for the purpose of
adding applied leadership lessons
and potentially applicable
behavioral and thought processes to
the various fields of study
associated with integrative
leadership. The leadership dynamics
of military officers will be presented
in the context of four broad
categories: integrative thinking and
behavior; leading and serving
teams; the military culture; and
expectations from outside the
military service.
The intention herein is not to
suggest that military professionals
have a monopoly on any aspect of
integrative leadership traits; nor to
suggest that other disciplines mustemploy military leadership
principles in order to be successful.
Rather, the integrative leadership
challenges within the military
present a rich and unique
opportunity to identify and study
individuals who have been
immersed in those challenges. This
may help inform and expand upon
the models and practice ofintegrative leadership being
developed and employed as the
discipline is further studied.
I. The integrative thinking and
behavior of military officers
Military officers are often described
as jacks of all trades and masters
of none. This is true even among
those officers trained in highly
technical fields, or with specialized
skills, such as nuclear propulsion or
pilot training. They are
systematically moved from one unit
Military
professionals do not
have a monopoly on
integrativeleadership traits, but
the leadership
challenges
presented in the
military present a
rich opportunity to
learn from
individuals who
have beenimmersed in those
challenges.
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to another including from coast-to-
coast, and overseas, regularly
exposed to newly-embraced
management theories and shifting
administrative systems, and are
expected to handle challenges, both
physical and intellectual, sometimes
well outside that for which they
may have received formal training.
This leads to an often frenetic, but
ultimately integrative outlook with
regard to leadership challenges. The
following dynamics will attempt to
illustrate this phenomenon.
Dynamic 1: Systems-level anddistributive
1thought processes
are highly developed among U.S.
military officers due to the
complex and interrelated nature
of equipment, mission realities,
and high stakes outcomes from
the threat and actual use of force.
In a Seahawk helicopter off the
coast of Somalia in the darkness of
an early morning, a Navy flightcrew is tracking a small speedboat
that has been identified as hostile
due to its recent and rapid
departure from an ocean-going
supertanker being held by pirates.
The aircraft commander is
Lieutenant Menendez, who is
beginning a mental checklist of
items that involves a myriad of
1In the military context, distributive
refers to inter-connected units that are part
of the same network of available assets for
a commander on scene.
realities and various levels of
thought, including:
Two sets of rules of engagement,
written by both the flight crews
own Navy and by the multi-national
naval force on station, designed to
address the many possible scenarios
for interaction with the suspect
vessel and its crew
International Law of the Sea
statutes and precedents such as
proximity to territorial waters,
demonstrated actions of the suspect
vessel both prior to and during the
current event, and the right tochallenge the hostile vessels
movements
Two sets of standard operating
procedures (SOP) promulgated by
the aircrafts host ship and parent
squadron, and their applicability
(or not) to the current situation
The current mission status of the
aircraft (fuel state, weapons
readiness, weather and ambient
light conditions, crew fatigue, and
additional mission demands)
The locations and capabilities of
the host ship as well as other
friendly assets, and their awareness
of and readiness for the situation.
The aircraft and its host ships
interconnected electronic system
can work together in adistributive wayusing a
network system that is able to
communicate with and ultimately
control other sensors, vehicles and
weapons in the same network,
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thereby requiring a mature thought
process by Lieutenant Menendez
that is equal to the powerful
potential outcomes this represents
A need to attain mutually shared
outcomes of the multi-national
naval force on station that represent
not only the military realities of the
use of force, but also the effects on
regional and global perceptions of
the use of force; and the domestic
public relations and political
outcomes expected in each of the
forces home nations.
Lieutenant Menendez will likelydemonstrate on-scene leadership
that integrates many of these
complex realities as she
communicates with her crew, her
ship and the multi-national chain of
command. If that leadership is
successful (i.e. truly integrative),
her resulting actions will help lead
to outcomes that are not just
confined to resolving the immediateissue at hand, but will also be
beneficial toward advancing
challenging goals held by many of
the actors involved, such as
maintaining the openness and safety
of the sea lanes of communication, a
return to regional political stability,
and ensuring the use of force is
rationed and scaled to maintain
positive international public opinion
for its use.
This dynamic of military
leadership, a systems level and
distributive thought process, is
not part of rote military regulations
or discipline, but is instead
cultivated within individuals over
time. Officers in particular are often
put in charge of (or operate, as the
pilot in the example above)
expensive, highly complex and
technical equipment; yet many of
these officers have liberal arts rather
than technical or engineering
backgrounds. While they are
expected to demonstrate technical
knowledge of the equipment, they
are not expected to demonstrate the
ability to repair it. Thatresponsibility is assigned to the
enlisted ratings. Rather, the officer
must have an appreciation for the
interrelated nature of the
equipments various systemsand
for how it degrades or improves
other units to which it is often
connected electronically. And, most
importantly, this depth of
knowledge and range of thought isvalued for its ability to evoke
informed decision making related to
the entire network in which the
officer and the team is operating
when a failure occursnot just to
find ways to bring the equipment or
a suitable alternate on line, but to
systematically analyze and react to
the effect on outcomes should the
failure continue to persist.
This type of systems-level
thought produces, over time, the
ability to consider and analyze the
way multiple elements are linked
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not just equipment, but thoughts and
opinions, processes, decisions,
administrative and operational
systems, potentially conflicting
rules of engagement or standard
operating procedures among allied
units, even differing foreign
policies. A senior officer, for
instance, engaged in something as
complex as an international treaty
negotiation, has the advantage of
career-long reinforcement of
systems-level thinking and the
outcomes that are possible under a
myriad of scenarios.Also informing the systems-level
thought processes of military
officers are a host of developed and
employed skills that go well beyond
traditional military onesincluding
diplomacy and negotiation,
recruiting, administration, and
training and education. While
officers have often been justifiably
described as jacks of all trades, andmasters of none, it is also true that
the diversity of situations in which
systems-level thought is developed
is a continually self-reinforcing
dynamic that produces an individual
who can sometimes bring masterful
integrative thought to a wide variety
of challenges. They can often do so
with the maturity and patience that
comes with exposure to previous
complexity and risk, and have
witnessed both good and bad
outcomes in a variety of situations.
Other non-military professional
disciplines, of course, require
systems-level thinking to influence
effective leadership behaviors and
positive outcomes for cross-sector
challenges. Yet there is arguably
much less emphasis on
specialization among the military
officer corps (particularly with
increased seniority) than say, within
the medical profession, where
increased specialization frequently
occurs over time. And, because in a
sense leadership is the principal
skill required of a military leader,secondary to his chosen technical
specialty, the organization
emphasizes a broader understanding
of how leadership influences
systems and their interrelatedness
whether those systems be within a
ship, units within a battle group, or
even the differing cultures among
competing tribes in a war zone
where nation-building is theprincipal mission.
Dynamic 2: The U.S. military
officer corps transfers its leaders
often, and to positions that are
sometimes radically different in
scope and responsibility than
previous ones, exposing them to
new cultures (both organizational
and international) and diverse
stakeholders, requiring wholly
new skills and approaches to often
complex challenges.
There is less
emphasis on
specialization within
the military officer
corps than say, within
the medical
profession, where
increased
specialization occursover time. Military
officers must
demonstrate a broad
understanding of how
leadership influences
entire systems and
the relationship
between systems.
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U.S. military officers are highly
nomadic in their careers, both
geographically and in terms of the
shifting scope and type of
responsibilities they are given with
each re-location. On average,
officers are transferred every two-
and-a-half years, and more often
than not their new positions involve
duties that little resemble those of
their last posting. But while their
individual tours are generally non-
sequiturs on their face, the exposure
to a diversity of challenges,
interpersonal relationships, cultures
and organizations is cumulative
towards development of integrative
leadership skills.
Perhaps the strongest impact this
career lifestyle has on an officer is
the sense of urgency it instills. He
or she is already immersed in a
culture that is often all about speed.
Technology advances have meant
In a small office in Crystal City, Virginia, adjacent to the Pentagon, Lieutenant Colonel Jackson, U.S.Army, is reviewing classified communications from the U.S. military attach to Ukraine. His boss, the
civilian and politically-appointed Secretary of the Army, is headed to Ukraine in one week. As theSecretarys speechwriter, Colonel Jackson has been tasked with crafting an address to the Ukrainedefense ministrys senior officer leadership school. In the speech, the Secretary will lay the groundworkfor two new, key messages, on behalf of the Secretary of Defenseforward basing of U.S. aircraft and
potential Ukraine membership in NATO. Colonel Jackson is an artillery officer by trade; finding the rightwords, and tone for this critical U.S. policy speech will be informed by his highly diverse career up to this
point, that included the following assignments:
Six months at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, learning the Russian
language
Two years at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, in the Ph.D. program,
where he wrote his thesis on the need for expanded European financial and military contributionsto collective global security issues
Two-and-a-half years as an officer instructor at a civilian land-grant university, where he also, on
his own time (but financed in part by the Army) received his masters degree in English, with a
minor in rhetoric
Three years as an artillery unit commander in Seoul, South Korea which included duties asCommunity Outreach Officer for the regional multi-national army presence.
Lieutenant Colonel Jacksons real challenge is not writing the speech itself, but rather to understand the
different relational frames by which each partner, the U.S. and Ukraine, view their nascent political-
military relationship. Those frames have complex histories and diverse individual and organizational
players, and inform desired outcomes that are different for each partner. His own ability to perceive thosedynamics will help to produce a set of messages that signal U.S. understanding of Ukraines interests,
and thereby strengthen the message of mutual self-interest in the basing of U.S. assets.
Colonel Jacksons career has included tours that are clearly related to the challenge at hand. The one
that comes to mind for him as he starts to outline the speech is the one in Korea. As a Community
Outreach Officer, he learned that policymakers were just as concerned about the cultural impacts of a
foreign military presence as they were with the regional political perceptions among the countrys
neighbors. As a result, his speech will include language that attempts to preempt such potential
concerns, thereby laying the groundwork for a collaborative decision making structure.
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the time in which actual military
action takes place is compressed,
along with its requisite decision-
making. And even outside of actual
conflict, an officers career
progression tends to be rewarded by
the aggressive pursuit of readiness
standards and goals. Add to that,
then, the knowledge that the day the
officer checks aboard his new unit,
he may be beginning his transfer
preparations as soon as 12 to 18
months later, and the desire to make
an impact on his unit is accentuated.
In this milieu, when faced withissues that require cross-sector
leadership, officers quickly learn
that there is an initial urgency
required not only in decision
making, but in learning about the
men and women who report directly
to him; about those he can only
hope to influence well outside of his
chain of command; and about the
cultural, administrative andoperative environment in which he
will be leading. This is certainly the
case with the example above, as
Lieutenant Colonel Jackson
attempts to quickly assess the
perception frame of his audience in
the Ukraine.
Coupled with urgency, officers
witness another element of their
nomadic existence: while military
discipline and the shared culture of
mission accomplishment allows for
orders to be given and carried out
fairly readily, individuals within
units know that their officers come
and go routinely. An officer has the
realization if he desires to make an
impact through changeand
change is resisted in any
organization regardless of the level
of disciplinehis charges can likely
wait him out and resist change,
knowing he will transfer fairly
quickly. Effective leadership will
therefore come more readily by
developing trust, and implementing
change by working across any
boundaries that may exist. This
requires more indirect leadership(influence, essentially) that initially
and most fundamentally requires a
rich understanding of those with
whom the officer is working, even
given the shared values and
mission-focused mindset of those he
is leading. What were the positive
and negative management and
leadership traits of the officer who
came before him? What successesor failures of the unit or individuals
within it might have impact on how
his own leadership style will be
effective? What are the highly
individual family and other life
stressors faced by his personnel?
These realities taken together
an urgency to perform at a high
level and a desire to deeply assess
those within an officers sphere of
influencecan be beneficial for
challenges that require integrative
leadership. If there is a need to
exert leadership skills outside of his
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own unit, as in the example of being
an effective community outreach
officer in a foreign country, an
officer faces the added hurdles of
cultural, language and even geo-
political differences. Most officers
will interact with such diverse
actors during their careers, in
cooperative and non-cooperative
settings, including foreign military
and diplomatic officers, personnel
from non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), and a wide
spectrum of people when they are
involved in peace-keeping andnation-building activities. Acting in
these contexts, where he has no real
authority over those with whom he
is interacting, an officers leadership
is purely based on influence. Here,
the need to fully examine the
complexity of literally foreign
perceptions becomes paramount to
success. As an officer matures, his
ability to bring previous lessons tobear with an outsiders perspective
becomes a force multiplier (to use
a military term) for addressing
cross-sectoral challenges. He has
likely already had experiences with
other cultures, languages, and with
similar problems in other locations.
And his sense of urgency to act
becomes tempered by a desire to
perceive, to frame and to influence
as a precursor to action.
II. Military officers and the teams
they lead and serve
As an institution, the U.S. military
is heavily invested in teamwork.
Men and women are, of course,
highly trained on individual skills,
trades and equipment, and the
military values the ability of the
individual to demonstrate initiative
to strengthen the chain of command,
should it become severed in a
combat situation; hence the Armys
slogan a few years back: An Army
of One. While that is true, the
principal reason that slogan was
quickly and quietly retired is that in
the military culture, the team trumpsall. The power of one is nowhere
near the power of many, particularly
when teamwork among the many is
well orchestrated. This fundamental
precept of teamwork provides
important dynamics to the concept
of integrative leadership for military
officers, including the significant
diversity of the military, an
emphasis on servant leadership,and recognition that the team is
often involved in high stakes
outcomes.
Dynamic 1: The U.S. military
is a highly diverse workforce that
embraces inclusiveness thanks to
a management system that is
arguably the most merit-based in
society, team-oriented and
provides significant
responsibilities to individuals.
The Commander-in-Chief sits in
the large wingback chair in his
private office in the second floor
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living quarters of the White House.
His steady but tentative hand hovers
over the pad of paper in his lap as
he contemplates the momentous
order he is about to pen in his own
words, well aware of the far-
reaching effects it will have on men
and women in uniform, and for the
society whose freedoms they
protect. He begins to write:
"It is hereby declared to be the
policy of the President that there
shall be equality of treatment and
opportunity for all persons in thearmed services without regard to
race, color, religion, or national
origin (Executive Order 9981,
1948)
It is late at night, July 25, 1948. The
next morning, President Harry S.
Truman signs Executive Order
9981, ending segregation in the
U.S. military and also establishes
the President's Committee on
Equality of Treatment and
opportunity in the Armed Services.
The military is a bureaucratic
and conservative organization,
highly resistant to change; and this
particular change and others like it
mandated by presidential authoritywere neither easy nor automatic
even after a presidential directive.
Full acceptance and implementation
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of Trumans order took years to
realize in practice following the
order. Integration of gays in the
military did not occur until 2011
(with a bill signed into law by
President Obama), though the
Dont Ask Dont Tell (DADT)
policy had been in place for nearly a
generation prior to that and
provided a transition period.
Women are only in the past several
years entering into the most senior
ranks in any numbers, with the
combat exclusion for women still in
place for the foreseeable future.Nonetheless, the military has
arguably led American society as an
institution that has come to
epitomize equal treatment,
inclusiveness and opportunity based
on performance.
For the vast majority of those in
the U.S. military, the very nature of
the rank structure and its strictly
controlled advancement system laidout in Title 10 of the U.S. Code
provides an inherent and instant
legitimacy for anyone in uniform.
And the exemplary history of fair
application of the Uniform Code of
Military Justice (UCMJ) reinforces
a similar sense of justice within the
military structure. These realities
have established a level playing
field on which inclusiveness is more
of an accepted norm than exists
among the public it serves. In this
environment, there is a tendency for
those leading a team, and those
within the team itself, to more
readily look to others for the
individual, unique strengths that
each can bring to a challenge; and
less of a tendency to negatively
perceive others by a label that in
their often high stakes environment
appears relatively meaningless
such as race, gender or sexual
orientation.
Apart from the diversity of the
U.S. military itself, many officers
also find themselves working with
foreign military units in joint
exercises, on combined staffs, orthrough exchange programs.
Military units are increasingly
involved in peace-keeping and
nation-building operations. This
further expands an officers
exposure to diverse opinions,
administrative systems and cultural
backgrounds, providing a still richer
perspective for his approach to
difficult problems.These realities tend to reinforce a
highly inclusive atmosphere in
which a leader can look to his team
for advice and counsel as he faces a
challenging issue and even look
upon others across boundaries as
having legitimacy that allows for a
starting point when negotiation is
necessary. He can more objectively
perceive, appreciate and empower
individual team members for what
their diversity can positively
provide, rather than for what it can
inhibit. Because the U.S. military is
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an extremely diverse organization, a
leader can access, when necessary, a
lot of skill and perspective from the
toolbox of people even within his
own unit. Over time, this further
means that leaders will increasingly
recognize the power of integrative
leadership, and more readily seek
out diverse thought and opinion as
they realize the inherent power of
this approach.
Dynamic 2: Servant
leadership is a prevalent value in
the U.S. military due to the risk
and sacrifice asked of those beingled, that leads to mutual trust up
and down the chain of command,
and empowerment of, and
knowledge and responsibility
transfer to subordinates.
The concept of servant
leadership was originally codified
by Robert Greenleafin his 1970
essay titled The Servant as
Leader. Its centralpremise is that
truly effective leaders demonstrate a
high level of care and concern for
those who work for and with them.
In the U.S. military, servant
leadership is discussed in officer
training with an even higher level of
intensity: if those we lead are
willing to fight and potentially die
for their fellow warrior, unit and
country, then a leader has a moral
obligation to serve them; know
them, care about them, reward
them, and provide them the tools
they need to feel valued andeffectively do their jobsand to do
so at a level worthy of the degree of
sacrifice being asked.
Military officers who most
readily embody servant leadership
tend to have clear and open lines of
communication with their
subordinates, and thus have
thorough and intimate knowledge of
Theodore Roosevelt, leading the Rough Riders in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, demonstrated
a care and concern for his troops that illustrates the level of servant leadership prevalent among U.S.
military officers, described here from Nathan Millers 2009 biography of Roosevelt:
Rumors of a stockpile of supplies on the beach reached Roosevelt, who took a detail of thirty or forty
men with pack mules to see if they could obtain some for the regiment. They scrounged around and
found some sacks containing about eleven hundred pounds of beans, but a commissary officer refused
to let them have them. Producing a well-thumbed book of regulations, he pointed to a subsection stating
that beans were to be issued only to an officers mess. Roosevelt went away and as he later related,
studied on it and came back with a request for eleven hundred pounds of beans for the officers mess.
Why, Colonel, your officers cant eat eleven hundred pounds of beans, the officers protested. You dont
know what appetites my officers have, replied Roosevelt as he ordered the sacks to be loaded upon the
mules.
The military bureaucrat insisted that a requisition would have to be sent off to Washington. Roosevelt
responded that he didnt care as long as he could take the beans back to his regiment. As he signed the
requisition amid warnings that the cost would probably be deducted from his pay, the sacks were loaded
on the mules. Oh, what a feast we had, and how we enjoyed it, Roosevelt told his family. (p.298)
Military officers areasked to lead those
willing to fight and
potentially die for their
fellow warriors, unit,
or country. Servant
leaders in the military
have a moral
obligation to serve
these men andwomen; know them,
care about them,
reward them, and
provide them the tools
they need to feel
valued and capable.
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them. They know their strengths
and weaknesses, what they need to
be most effective, and what external
forces are affecting them, and how.
This in turn strengthens their
knowledge of the diversity inherent
in the unit, and builds a further
appreciation for that diversity as a
resource.
Risk is also an important element
of servant leadership in several
ways. Most importantly, as
described, in the military context
there is requisite appreciation for
the often great risks taken in supportof the units mission or values. But
there is also risk for a leader who
asks his subordinate men and
women to fully open up to them, as
it leads to expectations that are
sometimes difficult to fulfill. While
empathy can be appreciated in and
of itself (it is therapeutic for many
to just have someone listen to
them), having unrealistic needsunmet can lead to frustration. And
the chain of command, in the end, is
paramount. Thus, servant
leadership that is not balanced with
well-communicated boundaries of
authority can lead to challenges to
authority at inopportune moments,
as when combat mission
requirements call for blind and
instant obedience to orders.
On balance, an understanding of
servant leadership can enhance the
ability for a person to exhibit
integrative leadership. Because it
enhances the two-way
communications, trust and mutual
risk-taking within a unit, there is a
resultant increase in the degree and
effectiveness of teamworkand
therefore a desire to use all of the
skills resident in that team to solve
the most difficult challenges that
arise. And there can be an
acceptance of the precepts of
servant leadership even outside
ones own normal sphere of
influence. Its embrace can
encourage an appreciation for
others work and sacrifice that maybe dedicated to goals or even values
other than ones own. This can be
especially the case if one has a
mutual, professionally-driven
respect for the others profession
that may have a very similar code
but is subsumed in a wholly
different culture. Thus a military
officer, used to finding shared
values on a more human level, mayhave a greater tendency to look for
common ground when working with
those he is trying to influence cross-
sectorally.
Dynamic 3: Military officers
have an innate sense of the need
to immediately trust those with
whom one is working thanks to a
team orientation on problem
solving, and a belief that the
stakes are generally high because
of the potential outcomes of the
decisions being made.
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At a Forward Operating Base in
the Afghan desert, First Lieutenant
Willis Grant is sending a call-for-
fire request against a hostile
enemy location that he has not
actually seen himself. Lieutenant
Grant made the decision to do so
after receiving several pieces of
data and permission from the
following sources:
Civilian Human intelligence
information from an Afghan
citizen who just hours ago was at
the target location
Special Forces from a unit otherthan his own who are close to the
scenedata sent by secure
satellite transmissions detailing
the enemy threat
A remote spotter from another
military service who is at a
nearby locationspecific map
grid coordinates to make up for
the failure to receive GPS
targeting data
An on-scene commander from
another nation within the
combined allied force who has
tactical mission authority
permission to engage the target
In order to get his job done the
Lieutenant has had to use his trust,
instinct and training, in very short
order, to: gather information froma local civilian national and two
remote individuals from other units;
receive permission from the
command post of an army from an
allied nation; and send his coded
summation to an airborne command
post that will further relay the
information to an unmanned, armed
drone. Lieutenant Grant has
complete trust in this disparate team
that the attack will lead to the right
outcome.
The team that is operating
successfully together in the example
above is a complex multi-national
one. Despite the fact that most of
the team members are military (with
the exception of the Afghan civilian
informant), they are from various
units, different services and severalnations, all of which have unique
cultures of their own. Yet the team
is a cohesive one for three
interrelated reasons.
First, the bond of military
hierarchy is common which
effectively instills trust by rote and
discipline; second, these disparate
players have worked together before
(and in fact exercise continuouslytogether), testing individual and
organizational reactions to crises,
working through differing
perceptions of threats and breaking
down barriers that may have existed
from pre-conceived notions. The
latter is an important element for
integrative leadership, according to
Barbara Crosby and John Bryson
(2009) of the Humphrey Institute:
Cross-sector collaborations are
more likely to succeed if leaders
make sure that trust building
activities (including nurturing
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cross-sector understanding) are
continuous (p.211-230). And
third, the stakes regarding the array
of potential outcomes of their
individual and collective actions are
generally highboth in terms of
their own immediate, personal
security, and for the longer term
outcomes of their mission, including
the ultimate goal of an end to
conflict.
This analysis is intuitive in the
sense that it describes a building of
trust among team members who are
engaged in the same mission againsta common opponent. But it may be,
too, that the relatively high level of
diversity of many military teams, as
in this example, has an impact on an
individual officers ability to trust
others outside their normal circle to
a degree higher than among other
professions; or at least allows them
to be more open to gaining trust
from diverse sources. And while theability to gain trust may require a
higher initial threshold of
acceptance given the stakes and
often short time frames involved,
once established that trust tends to
be consistent and fiercely held. Both
elements can certainly be useful in a
situation that requires effective
integrative leadership.
III. The military as a unique
cultural milieu that fosters
integrative leadership traits
The U.S. military is undeniably a
multi-cultural cauldron, reflective of
the nation. While the diversity of its
individual members is capitalized
upon by the best of its leaders (as
described in a previous section),
there exists a unique, shared culturethat supersedes the individual and is
valued for its simplicity and its
connection to a sense of duty. That
reality requires a unique balance
from leaders who can appreciate the
inherent value of diverse thought
and deliberation; yet who can also
bring that diversity to bear for a
common purpose, often do so
decisively, in a fast-pacedenvironment and under great stress.
Dynamic 1: There exists a well
defined, shared sense of purpose
and set of core values that
underpin the culture of the
military.
Within each of the military
services there exists a set of
unquestioned values that service
members learn, live and abide by
each and every day. They are few
in number, and simply stated as
in the manner above; yet there are
whole classes and exercises
Honor, Courage, Commitment(Core Values of theU.S. Navy and Marine Corps)
Integrity First, Service Before Self, Excellence In AllWe do (Core Values of the U.S. Air Force)
Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor,
Integrity, Personal Courage (Core Values of the U.S.
Army)
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dedicated to reinforcing each value,
from boot camp damage control
scenarios for enlisted personnel that
illustrate a specific value, to formal
seminars at command leadership
school for officers. These are deeply
ingrained and methodically
reinforced throughout a service
members career.
This dynamic introduces a
challenge for an officer: first, he
must constantly work to create an
environment that champions and
rewards individual thought and
action. Effectively doing so willreinforce the need for initiative even
among the most junior individuals,
particularly during the stress and
unpredictability of combat
situationsa well-known and much
emulated hallmark exhibited by
U.S. military units. Second, he must
simultaneously foster a shared sense
of mission and purpose that includes
strict adherence to a common set ofvalues, and an unquestioning
obedience when situations call for
decisive action. This balance of
individual action and unit
cohesiveness, when achieved,
ultimately reinforces an officers
ability to analyze diverse thought
and look for ways to find common
purpose, and therefore his ability to
exercise integrative leadership. It
also leads to a heightened
confidence that diverse thought is
not a barrier, but a dynamic to be
understood and tapped into. Taking
this analysis to its extreme, an
integrative military leader can also
examine an enemys core values (or
potential enemy), likely to be
dramatically different than his own,
as a center of gravity that can be
exploited and attacked if the need
arises. Strange (1996) notes that the
U.S. Marine Corps, based on the
writings of Sun Tzu and Von
Clausewitz, defines an enemys
center of gravity as primary
sources of moral or physical
strength, power and resistance
(pp. 93-96).Another important element of the
military leader who understands the
power of shared values and
common mission is effective
communication on a level that taps
into their power, rather than just
assumes their existence and
acceptance. Aristotle intimated that
the influential leader does so by
appealing to the characterof thosebeing led in three fundamental and
interrelated ways: an appeal to
character (ethos); an appeal to
reason (logos); and an appeal to
emotion (pathos) (Shay, 2000). This
appeal to character is powerful, in
that a search for shared core
valuesor even human values for
those well outside ones normal
sphere of influencecan be
tremendously beneficial for building
effective cross-sector leadership.
Dynamic 2: The military
maintains a relatively constant,
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fast-paced tempo of operations
and training even during
peacetime. This results in a
culture wherein officers are
predisposed to regard most
situations with urgency, and with
the need for extensive contingency
planning.
Central to the unique culture of
the military is a predisposition
among its members to remain on the
move, at the ready at all times,
putting the mission first, before all
other things. Hence the tradition of
maintaining the watch, evenduring circumstances when there is
little if any call to do so, other than
to reinforce the tradition of
individual and unit vigilance. And
officers tend to be highly engaged
not only with the issues they face,
but also with the issues they could
be faced with. Readiness for any
situation is paramount, particularly
given the speed at whichcircumstances can go from
monotonous to life-threatening. As
a result, contingency planning is not
simply something done at a high
level with regard to grand strategy
for potential conflicts; it is also a
constant for military leaders for the
most mundane of topics. Asking
what if is a recurring mantra in an
officers head: What if my engine
fails here? What if the
Congressional committee before
which I am testifying asks me if I
have coordinated with other
agencies? What if this civilian
Afghan informant is not
trustworthy? What if my deployment
is extended and my family has to
move without me? What if the
enemy is not where we thought it
was?
As the individual asks those
questions, he is also formulating
solutions, and in most cases with
various options that are situationally
dependent on a range of potential
outcomes. A well-known phrase in
the military is No battle plan
survives contact with the enemy(Helmuth von Moltke). For officers,
the enemy is often loosely
defined, and can include a senior
budgeting office threatening the
funding for a program upon which
the unit relies for equipment
modernization, or even an
administrative system that is not as
flexible as his operational
requirements suggest they shouldbe.
The result of this somewhat
manic degree of planning is a
cultural dynamic that may appear as
paranoia, but in reality is a
disciplined way to help guarantee
outcomes that are if not completely
as planned, are at least expected and
manageable. This can positively
impact integrative leadership by
reinforcing individual traits that are
more innovative, inquisitive and
adaptive when working across
sectoral boundaries.
People FirstMission Always.(U.S. Navy slogan)
Semper Paratus(Always Ready.Credo of the U.S.Coast Guard)
Come on youbastardsdo youwant to live forever?(Gunnery SergeantDan Daley, U.S.Marine Corps)
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IV. Expectations for military
officers from the broader public,
nationally and globally
According to the 2010 Gallup
Confidence in Institutions poll,
the U.S. military is the most trusted
institution in America by a wide
margin (Saad, 2010). In fact, the
military has been rated number one
in Gallup's annual list continuously
since 1998, and has ranked number
one or number two almost every
year since its initial 1975 measure.
With trust comes expectation to live
up to that trust, a fact that militaryofficers are well aware of. Despite
high profile exceptions such as the
Tailhook misconduct among
naval aviators in the early 1980s,
and the Abu Ghraib prison guard
incidents in Iraq beginning in 2004,
military officers tend to be more
willing to risk their own lives than
to risk their careers in betraying the
trust of the public which they serve.And, as the U.S. military has been
increasingly active on the world
stage, even going beyond traditional
military operations with the
evolving nature of conflict and post-
conflict operations, citizens of other
countries look to U.S. military
officers with a similar level of high
expectations for their general
conduct, and for their ability to
work across boundaries of nations,
culture and language.
Dynamic 1: There exists a high
level of personal excellence, and
moral and ethical conduct
expected of the military by the
public which it serves, including
on a global scale.The military officer corps has a
highly developed sense of what
their service to the nation
represents, and what their conduct
means for the legacy of that service.
From the very first day they enter
training as candidates, officers are
provided with a sense of obligation
and responsibility equal or greater
to the respect returned by virtue oftheir rank. The element of servant
leadership described in a previous
section includes serving the
On the door of an office in the outer ring of the Pentagon, a
standard placard that identifies its occupants looks like thousands
of others in that enormous building, designed originally as a civilian
hospital, and derisively known among its occupants as the five -
sided wind tunnel. Next to the placard, however, is another sign;
neat, and expertly aligned, but clearly unofficial. It displays a singlephrase that proclaims: Imperfect people striving for perfection.
The office is home to a public affairs staff group, its officers
dedicated to maintaining the public image of the service whose
motto has always been: The FewThe ProudThe Marines.
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militarys higher purpose and
shared values, not simply the
individuals within ones unit.
Indeed, the officer swears an oath to
serve and protect the Constitution,
and the warrant on her commission
contains a catchall phrase that
drives home the sense of higher
expectations: that she will perform
all manner of things thereunto
pertaining.
There is also significant visible
symbolism that surrounds an
officers existence, including the
uniforms that are worn. The rankand unit insignia, even aspects of
the color and cut of the uniform
itself, all have elements that
reinforce the traditions of
excellence they are expected to
uphold. A naval aviators gold
wings insignia, for instance, have a
nearly invisible bump on one of its
anchors flukes. That bump, known
as a becket, is symbolic of theholes that existed on anchors of tall
ships in the 18th
century, to which
an extra line was fastened ensuring
a way to raise it should the anchor
chain break. Its meaning goes
deeper, symbolizing the need for
redundant planning to ensure
success, the importance of systems
design even for the simplest, but
critical items of military hardware,
and the need for teamwork among
shipmates who must help ensure
others follow procedures to
guarantee success.
This level of symbolism is
ubiquitous and seems over the top
for those outside the culture; it is in
fact central to building unit
cohesion and pride, esprit de corps,
and constant reinforcement of a
culture that requires adherence to a
standard upholding the high
expectations of the public it serves.
The wearing of a uniform also
provides a reminder of the need for
personal excellence as the
individual is a highly visual
example. The term Leatherneck
for U.S. Marines comes from theband of leather that was sewn into
the high collar of dress uniforms for
added stiffness, forcing the wearer
to hold his head higher and
straighter to reflect his pride.
Another interesting reality that
affects a military officers
behavioral expectations is that the
nature of conflict has evolved in
recent years and officers faceentirely new expectations that have
evolved at the same time. Since
World War II, wars have become
Cold Wars and undeclared
conflicts; conflicts have become
United Nations police actions;
and police actions have now
become operations as the U.S.
enters a period of aggression against
non-nation state actors engaged in
terror, with the possibility that such
warfare could last far longer than a
full 20-year or more career. The
nature of conflict now includes an
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awareness among officers that post-
conflict outcomes are not what they
were for previous generations of
officers. Those outcomes lead to
ongoing peace-keeping and nation-
building operations, for which
officers have expanded their jacks
of all trades portfolios to include
negotiation, language, civil-military
liaison, oversight of construction
and institution-building projects,
and many other non-traditional
military roles, or duties far removed
from the scope of their training.
Finally, the military culture ofexpectations is different than the
citizenry they protect because there
exists a requirement for members to
remain apolitical in the conduct of
their duties. Far enough up the U.S.
military chain of command the
leadership becomes non-uniformed,
and politically appointedand
ultimately, elected, in the case of
the Commander-in-Chief. Thus,while U.S. military personnel are
obviously citizens who can vote and
hold strong opinions, they are
prohibited from active political
advocacy while on duty, or in
uniform. This tenet means that
officers generally view those in
senior leadership positions,
particularly civilians, as having an
inherent legitimacy and due respect
irrespective of the political view
those individuals may hold. This is
not blind obedience, but more a
faith in the constitutional and
electoral system to which the officer
is duty-bound. Thus an officer,
particularly a more senior one, is
forced to look for common ground
and ways to work with those even
outside of his own uniformed
culture, including the politically-
appointed, civilian officials who are
senior to them. In multi-national
venues, that may include foreign,
allied officers or civilians who may
legally outrank them in given
situations.
All of these realities tend to
reinforce higher personal andprofessional expectations among the
officer corps. And as leaders,
officers then tend to exhibit traits
that respect and understand different
roles, expectations and cultures
among those with whom they must
interacthence building upon their
ability to be effective integrative
leaders.
Dynamic 2: The military isconstantly asked to be at a high
level of readiness in all respects,
even during times of relative
peace, and regardless of the level
of resources provided for its
assurance. As such, many officers
have become adept at challenging
the status quo in order to ensure
peak readiness of their unit.
In a speech to the entire Brigade
of Midshipmen at the U.S. Naval
Academy, the Secretary of the Navy
delivers an effective reminder to the
young, future officers of the Navy
In the 21stcentury, the
resolution of conflicts
often entails ongoing
peace-keeping and
nation-buildingoperations which
expand an officers jack
of all trades portfolio to
include negotiation,
multiple languages, civil-
military liaison, oversight
of construction, and
many other duties far
removed from theirofficial scope of training.
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and Marine Corps. He precedes it
by flashing an image on the giant
screen of the field house. It is a
page taken from the program
published for the Army-Navy
football game nearly sixty years
ago. The image is a bow-on
photograph of the battleship USS
ARIZONA plowing through a heavy
sea. The caption next to it states: It
is significant that despite the claims
of air enthusiasts no battleship has
yet been sunk by bombs. The date
on the program is November 29,
1941just eight days before PearlHarbor was attacked from the air
and the ARIZONA itself was sunk at
its moorings.
The Secretarys message is a
visually poignant one, given that
stark reminder of historic tragedy:
central to their role as leaders is the
need to constantly question the
accepted norms and deeply held
beliefs that are part of their rigid,
military culture. The message is
highly counterintuitive to the young
midshipmen, all of whom have been
immersed in a system that is deeply
rooted in, and reliant upon, the
many traditions that make up their
daily routines. But this is the
beginning of a constantly-fought
balance that the most effective
leaders among them will achieve
over years of service. The very
traditions that bring excellencethrough rigid standards and esprit de
corps are also potentially the cause
of blindness to a world that
constantly evolves around them,
including the norms of the society
they are sworn to serve and protect.
This balance involves risk, and
not the type of risk that one
normally associates with men and
women in uniform. The military isgenerally a system that rewards risk
in battle, but not one that rewards an
officer for questioning the status
quo, whether it is an accepted
tactical maneuver in the face of an
enemy movement, or a simple
administrative procedure. Yet, as
with the blind adherence to the
battleship as the central,
undefeatable capital naval asset, the
consequences of not challenging
tradition can be even more
devastating. The very best officers
strike an effective balance, take
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risks on and off the field of battle,
and honor tradition by protecting
the more fundamental needs for the
institutions survival.
Adding to this dynamic is the
fact that the military has become
significantly smaller than in
previous generations, even as the
scope and frequency of operations
has steadily increased since the end
of the Cold War. While technology
has enabled force reductions
through more capable, automated
systems, the same use of technology
has led to a desire to field thenewest advances in systems as they
evolvewhich in itself is occurring
at an ever-increasing rate. The
result is an officer corps that
continually questions the
applicability of its current hardware
and systems, and strives to improve
or replace them. And most recently,
the embrace of greater efficiencies
throughout the military has furtherreinforced the tendency for officers
to evaluate change with regard to
the effectiveness of their units and
the individuals within them.
There exists, then, a constant
balance between these competing
realitiesbut they are not wholly
incompatible, and in fact can
reinforce each other. In terms of the
impact this dynamic has on the
integrative leadership abilities of
officers, it tends to foster a sense for
the need to continually evaluate the
resources around them, to re-assess
how they can influence the people
and assets that can bring about
action, and to question outdated
norms that would otherwise be
impervious to change. All of this
creates, ideally, a willingness to
look, listen and learn from non-
traditional sources that can have real
power in their diversity.
Conclusion
Leadership is influence. Even in the
rigid context of the military themost effective leaders know that
real success is more the result of
influence than orders. Officers who
have served in the military,
particularly for long careers, tend to
exhibit traits of leadership that are
highly integrative, making them
effective in a variety of challenging
situations. These traits are
developed because of dynamicsthey face in their roles as leaders:
the complexity of the inter-related
operational and administrative
systems within which they operate;
the teams they lead and serve while
championing the individuals within
them; solid core values that guide
their behavior and decisions in a
context of constant urgency; and
high expectations of the society and
world in which they serve.
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References
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Greenleaf, R. K., & Spears, L. C. (2002). Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature ofLegitimate Power and Greatness 25th Anniversary Edition (25th ed.). Paulist Press.
Helmuth von Moltke the Elder - Wikiquote. (n.d.). . Retrieved March 25, 2011, from
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Helmuth_von_Moltke_the_Elder.
Miller, N. (1992). Theodore Roosevelt: A Life. New York: William Morrow Publishing, p. 298.
Saad, Lydia. Congress Ranks Last in Confidence in Institutions. (June 22, 2010). RetrievedMarch 25, 2011, fromhttp://www.gallup.com/poll/141512/congress-ranks-last-confidence-
institutions.aspx.
Shay, J. (2000). AristotlesRhetoric as a Handbook of Leadership. Retrieved March 25, 2011,
fromhttp://www.dnipogo.org/fcs/aristotle.htm#1.
Strange, J. (1996). Centers of Gravity & Critical Vulnerabilities. (2nd ed.). Marine CorpsAssociation.
Truman, H. (1948).Executive Order 9981: Desegregation of the Armed Forces. Retrieved March25, 2011, fromhttp://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=84&page=transcript.
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