By Maj. Gen. Guy S. Meloy, U.S. Army retired

From my earliest days as a second lieutenant, I was fortunate to have been tutored by some of the finest NCOs ever to take new—and for that matter, even more experienced—officers under their wings. Whether platoon sergeants, first sergeants or command sergeants major, I will forever be grateful for their guidance. I can still name each of them, and to this day most are close friends. I have been equally fortunate in also having had some of the Army’s most seasoned and wisest leaders as my bosses. Most had extensive combat and troop duty backgrounds, and although they had different personalities, the main characteristic all had in common was that they liked soldiers and soldiering. While they never held leadership classes as such, their day-to-day example made strong impressions on every officer and NCO who ever served with them. I could not possibly do justice to all of the leadership principles I learned from so many of the commissioned and noncommissioned officers I was privileged to serve for and with, but these are a sampling of some that stuck with me and made a difference.

• At least once a day and at every critical step of planning (and more often in combat), stop and ask yourself and those around you, “How is the law of unintended consequences going to screw this up, and what can we do to fix it before instead of after that happens?” This principle applies to squads and platoons as well as to brigades and divisions and everything between. Good leaders are inherently skeptical and through experience have a sharpened sixth sense for recognizing critical events along the execution route. Since the law of unintended consequences operates around the clock and always in high gear, developing what-if contingencies to compensate for potential obstacles at each critical point is a must: if X happens, what do we do to avoid Y, or how and what do we need to still reach the next critical point? Inexperienced leaders sometimes assume that smart planning equals smart execution. Experienced leaders have learned this isn’t so. They understand unintended consequences and anticipate potential problems, and they stay ahead of the situation by making continuous worst-case estimates and timely decisions.
n Civilians have jobs, but soldiers have missions. The difference, of course, is that a mission consists of both a task to be accomplished together with the purpose for that task. But even if you have already established leader’s credentials, “trust me” is not an answer or substitute for purpose. Explaining to troops the purpose for every task—large or small—is every bit as important as explaining what the task itself is.

• Whether you are talking police calls, guard duty, team sports, unit competitions, training or combat operations, regardless of the size or type of unit or the importance or nature of the task, respecting and insisting on unit integrity all day every day increases unit cohesiveness exponentially.

• Loyalty is three-dimensional, not two. Horizontal loyalty among leaders within an organization is every bit as important as vertical loyalty between superiors and subordinates. Unfortunately, some don’t understand the full inferences of three-way loyalty, and some respect it for day-to-day matters but bail out when it gets dicey. Loyalty is not something you turn on or off depending on whether you agree or disagree with the boss. If leaders expect subordinates to be loyal to them even if the subordinate disagrees, then leaders at all levels have a clear obligation to be similarly loyal to their bosses. Organizations that treat loyalty as abstract rhetoric rather than a fundamental way of life may look good on the parade ground, but you don’t want them on your right flank in combat.

• Leaders may not always feel cheerful, and often are as tired, wet, cold or hot as the troops. But attitudes, whether good or bad, are contagious. This means that leaders don’t have an option. No matter the conditions or circumstances, as a matter of duty and responsibility leaders are obligated (always—no exceptions) to appear positive, confident and decisive, because that’s also contagious. People who do not understand or can’t accept that may be in leadership positions, but they aren’t leaders.

• Leadership by example is as crucial as it is fundamental. But there is only one way to create a genuine command climate that promotes deep-rooted confidence in the chain of command and encourages tell-it-as-it-is leadership from top to bottom and bottom to top: leaders have to practice what they preach—and there are no time-outs or shortcuts.

• Pay attention to important details, but know what’s important and what’s not important. It’s also important, however, for leaders to know that what’s important and what’s not important can change, and it’s their job to know when which is which.

• People masquerading as leaders seem to prefer offices and foxholes. Good leaders are interested, curious—and mobile. They like to walk around, and they like to be visible and approachable. In garrison they visit unit orderly rooms, mess halls and barracks after duty hours and on weekends and holidays. In combat they check positions, ammunition and weapons personally, often in the middle of the night. They are the first to cross the line of departure, but the last to eat; the first to wake up, but the last to sleep. And they are unremittingly tough when it involves keeping soldiers healthy and alive.

• Never mislead soldiers. One of the most unforgiving things a leader can do is make a promise to soldiers, then for whatever reason, not be able to deliver. Promises to troops should never be made based on what leaders assume or hope will happen, because more often than not these will backfire. By the same token, never shade or put a spin on bad news. Not only is it fundamentally dishonest, it also deceives the troops. Soldiers need and deserve to know that what their leaders tell them is going to happen, is actually going to happen, and what they say will not happen, won’t happen. Either way, commitments should be made based only on factual information about which leaders are 100 percent certain.

• The easiest and usually quickest, but also usually wrong way to solve a problem or consider a decision is to smother it with preemptive assumptions, because when Murphy claims 4-out-of-5 assumptions were, are and will always be wrong, he’s right.

• Do not hassle troops. Having to do a task a second time because of poor supervision or standards is hassling troops. Changing standard procedures to satisfy the last minute whims of an inspector is hassling troops. Assembling troops at 0930 for a 1000 formation is hassling troops. Arriving at a range, then learning the ammo requisition bounced because it was submitted late, is hassling troops. Asking a subordinate unit for a routine administrative report because higher headquarters was “too busy” to assemble already available data, is hassling junior leaders whose attention ought to be on their primary duties. “Never, never hassle the troops, and never, never let me hassle the troops” should be one of the top 10 items incoming leaders make clear to their subordinates.

• Delegate authority and provide the resources for junior leaders to succeed and to grow professionally. An NCO can serve as a range or drop zone safety officer as well as, and in many cases better than a lieutenant. Squad leaders can evaluate and report the status of their squads and inventory individual and unit equipment, it doesn’t require officer certification. It’s more than just delegating to NCOs, of course, as officers need space and time to grow as well. As a brigade commander, I once had a battalion commander who for 14 months had refused to take leave. Although a fine officer, he was apparently convinced that his battalion would go to hell in a hand basket if he wasn’t there. After urging him repeatedly to take a well-deserved (and in my view, a much needed) leave, I finally told him, “I have talked to (your wife) and starting tomorrow morning, I am placing you on leave for two weeks. I am also directing you not to phone anyone in your battalion day or night, and you are not to come closer than one mile to the battalion area.” As I knew it would, the battalion continued to operate smoothly in his absence, officers and NCOs stepped up and thrived on the opportunity, and to the commander’s relief (and I suspect his amazement) the battalion was still carried on the Army’s rolls when he returned. Leaders at every level need to understand that delegation begets ownership, ownership begets commitment, commitment begets professional growth, and professional growth begets a smarter, stronger Army.

• Leaders cannot overemphasize that individuals and units fight exactly as trained; combat makes troops more experienced and sometimes smarter, but not always; casualties are a function of good or bad training as well as good or bad leadership; training does not stop just because someone is shooting at you; and in war as well as peace, the chain of command has a continuing responsibility to identify and correct individual and unit deficiencies.

• It’s the leader’s job to know what essential individual and unit skills do and do not need improvement, but what many don’t appreciate is that one of the best ways to find out is to question the troops. Ask soldiers (and especially NCOs) what they think, as their opinions are often innovative and insightful. Soldiers want to be involved. Once they are involved, you can count on their commitment. To achieve this, however, leaders need to learn the art of asking the right questions the right way at the right time—and “Where are you from?” is not one of them.

• It’s human nature to want to replicate success. That’s why repetitive mistake-free training is the easiest to conduct but the least productive, and do-it-again-until-we-get-it-right training is the hardest to conduct but the most productive. Avoid training that duplicates already acquired individual and unit proficiency and concentrate instead on essential skills needing improvement.
n Take appropriate action to correct individual and unit mistakes. But there is no need to hyperventilate—the key word is “appropriate.”

• Never accept or submit adverse reports on a subordinate or a subordinate unit without first double-checking the information, because once it’s received—right or wrong, deserved or not—it leaves a permanent mark.

• Pay grades and ranks are not synonymous. Do not fall victim to the impersonal computer-driven languages of readiness and personnel reports that identify present-for-duty strengths by pay grades. Noncommissioned officers are not digitized E5s or E6s; they are people who through demonstrated performance and professional know-how have been promoted to sergeants and staff sergeants. Officers are not 01s and 03s; they are second lieutenants and captains. Soldiers of every rank deserve more respect and have earned the right to be identified and referred to by their official titles. If someone writes or reports, “This unit is short five E6s,” make an immediate and indelible correction: “No, we are not short five E6s, we are short five staff sergeants.”
n Promotions to any rank are important. From private first class to corporal is, to the private first class, as important to him as the promotion from second to first lieutenant is to the second lieutenant, or to the major promoted to lieutenant colonel. Regardless of the rank involved, every promotion deserves to be conducted with respect, official recognition and appropriate ceremony.

• Perhaps some of the most thoughtful advice I ever got came from Capt. (later Col.) Arch Carpenter, who had two combat jumps during World War II at the age of 19, and by the time he retired wore three combat infantry badges and several Silver Stars and Purple Hearts. He understood the law of unintended consequences better than any officer I ever knew and was the most completely professional company commander I ever served for. Watching him in action for just half a day was better leadership training than 90 percent of all the leadership manuals ever written. I will always remember the day that one of the platoon leaders became highly agitated over a bone-headed but relatively harmless decision by one of his squad leaders. Regrettably, he had come down unusually (and publicly) hard on the errant squad leader, and if that wasn’t bad enough, he grumbled about it most of the day. That evening, during a meeting with the company officers, Carpenter, talking to all of us, but mostly, I’m sure, to the still agitated lieutenant, counseled us with this thought, “If you don’t have a contagious sense of humor, you’re probably in the wrong profession. If you don’t enjoy, admire and respect soldiers, you’re in the wrong profession. And if you aren’t willing to let your people stumble once in a while, pick themselves up, and carry on as better soldiers for having learned something, you’re definitely in the wrong profession.”