Mission Command Essay

What is the Art of Leadership

Mission command is defined in the Army Doctrine Publication 6-0 as “the exercise of authority and direction by the commander using mission orders to enable disciplined initiative within the commander's intent to empower agile and adaptive leaders in the conduct of unified land operations” (McBride & Snell, 2017). The philosophy and concepts of mission command can be found in the six guiding principles of mission command, which are: 1) using mutual trust to build a cohesive team, 2) creating a sense of shared understanding, 3) being clear about what the commander’s intent is, 4) exercising an initiative that is disciplined, 5) using mission orders, and 6) accepting prudent risk (Hutchings, 2018). Thus, one can see that the most important concepts in the philosophy of mission command are trust, communication, understanding, discipline, guidance and prudence. This paper will show how I plan to apply the philosophy and concepts of mission command in my future duty assignments following graduation from the SMC by always being mindful of and ready develop and use trust, communication, discipline and all the other core concepts of mission command to make my team effective and successful.

Teamwork

Teamwork is ultimately what is at the heart of mission command, which recognizes that every person is part of a larger team and that team part of a larger whole as well. Just like oil is used to make an engine operate smoothly, the elements of teamwork—trust, communication, understanding, support—all help to make the team run like a smoothly operating engine. That engine in turn helps to drive the rest of the organization, whatever it may be. One of the most important ways that I myself can apply the philosophy and concepts of mission command is to develop and implement my social and emotional skills, as these are like the cylinders that contain the pistons: they can be used to create the right sense of energy, urgency, stability, and camaraderie that needs to exist in a team (Fredrickson, 2001).

I have seen leaders come and go who lack all sense of social and emotional intelligence. They do not know how to communicate well with others, how to sense when something is wrong, how to pick up on the fact that a worker does not understand the orders and thus needs more explanation. Leaders who have no social and emotional intelligence are like ships that have no compass. They are pointed in the right direction and when a storm comes and blows them off course they continue to go in the line they imagine they were holding from the outset when in reality they have been buffeted off course. Because they have no tools to use to tell them as much they are basically sailing blindly and recklessly off course, and they do not even know it. When a leader has developed social and emotional intelligence skills, however, and is able to understand how words, tones, and triggers impact the minds and hearts of people that leader is better prepared to face any squalls that may arise and keep the mission on…

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…show workers that he trusts them to make the right decision and that he is also available should the problem prove complex or challenging to the extent that the team feels it needs direction from the leader (House, 1996).

By working with my teams, I intend to help them solve problems. I intend to provide them with the resources they require so that they themselves have all the tools their job will demand of them. Managing human and budgetary capital is but one part of this process. Promoting self-management and making sure the teams have the knowledge to do their jobs and make good decisions is another part of the process. Staying positive and reinforcing my teams with whatever assignments I am given will also help for us to make a lasting contribution to our organization and allow us to accept a prudent amount of risk. There will always be a time when the way forward is uncertain. One must base one’s decisions on what one knows, what one can tell from the data one has, and trust that if conflicts arise one will have options available to face them.

Conclusion

The concepts and philosophy of mission command are rooted in the six principles of mission command, which focus on trust, understanding, communication, definition, and effective decision-making. In my future assignments, I plan to implement the concepts and philosophy of mission command by focusing on using communication skills effectively—i.e., by employing and further developing my social and emotional intelligence skills—and by being a leader who empowers…