Influence In The Military

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One of the important aspects of army leadership is to influence people by providing purpose, direction, motivation, all of which are considered as essential elements to accomplish mission. Successful leaders instill a sense of trust, provide direction and delegate responsibilities and above all produce the desired results. So, out of six leadership competencies/attributes, the most important one is the ability to lead soldiers. The sub element of this competency that I am expecting to improve on during this class is the ability to extend influence, particularly beyond chain of command. Army directives, supreme laws, policies and the military hierarchy provides a foundation for army leaders to exercise a legitimate authority and power within the rank. However, when functioning outside the realm of chain of command, or working with multinational partners, leaders need rely on other methods to exercise influence. By definition Influence is the ability to have an effect on the character, development, behavior or action of someone or the effect itself. As an effective …show more content…
We are facing a world where threats are continuously changing and multiple constraints being imposed on us. The United States Army is facing a complex environment as the country is continually moving away from conventional war. Today’s military leaders need to have the ability to meet the challenges of asymmetric warfare. Shrinking defense budget, expanded geographical area of operations and a combination of unconventional warfare impose additional constraints. Therefore, military leaders should always be ready to continuously improve the capacity to shape and adapt to ongoing changes and be able to accomplish more with less. Therefore, it is extremely important for our leaders to have the ability to influence others in order to gain compliance and commitment from not only our subordinates within the chain of command but also from