In developing great units, the most important and impactful responsibility a leader has is creating and continuously fostering a positive leadership climate.
This is important and impactful for both short- and long-term reasons. In the short term, it has the single greatest impact on the individual and collective performance of units. In the long run, it determines the types of soldiers and leaders you are developing for their next assignments and beyond.
U.S. Army culture is embedded in things like the military ethic, Army Values and warfighting and training standards. Climate is the medium that translates this culture into unit norms. In turn, norms are the context for individual and collective behavior and performance. Army leadership doctrine and the professional body of research acknowledge this and tell us that many factors can impact unit climate, but nothing impacts it more than leadership. This is why Army Command Policy states that commanders—leaders—are responsible for unit climate.
My experiences as an infantry battalion task force commander in Iraq and later as an infantry brigade combat team commander, also in Iraq, are testimony to the point I am making. During our battalion task force’s 14-month deployment in 2004 and 2005, we were sent to hot spots across Iraq, from Mosul to Najaf. In the process, we were attached to seven brigade commands. Each command had unique operational environments impacting unit climate and the way their units performed.
Equally true and evident to me and my battalion leaders was the uniqueness of each brigade’s leadership climate and the overwhelming impact it had on their units’ performance. The point here is not which commands had the best leader climates. Rather, it is to reinforce from firsthand experience that leadership has an overwhelming impact on unit climate, and unit climate impacts individual and collective performance.
This experience informed my approach to brigade command a few years later. With over 5,000 soldiers and a footprint including the eastern half of Baghdad, my impact on subordinate unit actions and decisions—tactical and moral—would largely be through leadership climate. This drove my approach to training, leader development and battlefield circulation. As a result, units and leaders often exceeded expectations. On the rare occasions they didn’t, I could underwrite their actions because they were genuinely operating within my intent.
Fostering Climate
So, if it’s that important, how do you create and foster a desired leadership climate? The Army well describes desired aspects of climate—trusting, empowering—but is short on how to achieve them. I will offer a few tips I hope are helpful to at least fuel thought.
The Mission Command framework—understand, visualize, describe, direct, understand (UVDDU)—is a helpful construct for a more conscious and deliberate approach to achieving a desired command climate. The descriptors for Mission Command—trust, intent-driven, collaborative and so on—are attributes associated with positive climates. UVDDU is a framework that can be used to achieve them.
Understand and Visualize
As a leader, you can’t consciously develop a climate unless you know what you want. A good place to start is understanding yourself as a soldier and, by extension, visualizing the type of unit you want to lead.
Before assuming company command, I got great guidance from my future battalion commander, Lt. Col. Dan Challis, who advised me to invest time before command in developing a command philosophy I believe in, not just buzzwords. His primary reason was that it would help me be consistent. “Your soldiers can’t afford for you to figure yourself out on their time and backs … while you jerk them left and right,” he said. I took his guidance to heart.
While our unit was on leave, I spent the time soul-searching what honestly mattered to me as a soldier. What I came up with essentially lasted through not just three company commands, but through my 30-plus years in command and staff positions—and it still serves me as a civilian today.
I boiled down my philosophy to six pillars:
1. Fitness.
2. Execute the basics.
3. Standards.
4. Commanders command; NCOs run units.
5. Teamwork.
6. Do the right thing.
Later, I added a vision statement: A heritage-, tradition- and values-based unit that recognizes that soldiers and families are the core of its strength, and is physically, mentally and spiritually fit, disciplined and executes the basics to standard, is committed to continuously pursuing excellence.
This worked for me. Whatever your philosophy is, take time to understand yourself and visualize the type of unit you want to lead and be part of. It should be as natural to you as breathing. This is your enduring intent. Your sincerity will be evident.
Making the Point
Now that you understand yourself and can visualize the kind of unit you want to be part of, how will you describe it to various audiences?
Challis didn’t much care about how I described my philosophy, but he suggested anything long wouldn’t get read—“like a phone book.” I agree. At the company level, I handed out a 1½-page note with a paragraph tying together the six pillars and a paragraph expanding on each point. I first got approval and improvements from the first sergeant, then addressed leaders to two levels down—squad leaders and above. At the battalion and brigade levels, I made nine slides with backups I used to tailor to different audiences or delve deeper in any given area. On the recommendation of a senior NCO, I also had 3-by-5 cards made with the six pillars and the vision statement on it that we gave to all soldiers.
More important than cards and slides is that you walk your talk and stay on point. Before commanding a battalion, then-Col. Mike Ferriter, now a retired lieutenant general, advised me to stick to a few themes that really mattered to me and find a way to weave them into any forum I was in—training meetings, battlefield circulation visits, counseling, everything.
Spreading the Message
At this point, you can take deliberate action to bring your philosophy to life and permeate your unit climate. The ways to do this are as unlimited as your imagination. These examples worked for me:
Meet with your target audience: Upon taking command, I met with all leaders to two levels down. By keeping my focus with them, I could empower them and let them act with initiative while they gave me good feedback. Besides getting their input and buy-in, discussing their role in fostering the climate was central. In explaining my philosophy, I described what it meant in terms of expectations for them and me. After the initial session, I would meet with this group monthly through physical training.
Newcomer briefs and new leader physical training: Your philosophy will quickly dissipate if you only address it when you introduce yourself to your unit and hope it survives the normal unit turnover. Most units conduct some type of monthly newcomers’ briefing. My leader philosophy was my focus when the command sergeant major and I did these. Additionally, at battalion and brigade level, we did new leader physical training in conjunction with these newcomer briefs. The audience was my target audience—leaders to two levels down. We did good, hard PT together, followed by breakfast. Over breakfast, I’d talk philosophy and expectations, followed by a question-and-answer session about anything they wanted to discuss.
March through history: Taking inspiration from two other units, I created an event that combined a unit history test with an 8-mile march. Later in the day, all involved officers and NCOs met in Class A uniforms for an induction ceremony. Every leader participated in the first event, led by me and the command sergeant major. Afterward, we did it about quarterly as needed for new leaders.
Make time: Everyone knows time is a precious resource. Where you spend your time and allocate unit time sends a strong message. As an example, at the battalion and brigade levels, I chose to conduct three leader training events myself—fitness programs, training management and command supply discipline. I also extended brigade PT from one hour to two. Every leader has the challenge of finding time for things they think are most important. Stephen Covey’s 1994 book First Things First is a good resource for ideas on making time.
Rewards: Like time, rewards send a strong message. At the company level, I bought a 3-foot PT trophy that looked like the Stanley Cup, which is awarded to the best NHL hockey team each season. After each PT test, it was awarded to the platoon with the best average score. I also was liberal with passes and PT time off for individuals who maxed or greatly improved their scores. Our company was the only one in the regiment to earn the division fitness streamer that year. At the battalion level, we had a best MOS competition during Heritage Week, and we also bought trophies for these.
Counseling: In addition to new leader PT, I met individually with everyone I rated or senior-rated. In words and writing, I showed them how the six pillars related to them and their specific job as well as my Officer Evaluation Report support form. It was central to all follow-on counseling.
Understand (or Reassess)
We as leaders must continually assess ourselves to see if we got it right, account for changes and adjust to improve. There are many ways to do this.
Commanders, your senior NCO battle buddy is critical. They are among the few people who can give you candid feedback on how well you “walk your talk.” They are your critical eyes. Shortly after taking brigade command, I was talking with brigade Command Sgt. Maj. Anthony Mahoney about how I wanted soldiers to share their challenges, not cover them, when I showed up. I’m on their team.
He was the greatest advocate of my philosophy, so his response somewhat surprised me. He said, “That’s great, Sir, but you also need to understand now that you’re a [brigade combat team] commander; you’re never going to see reality.” It took me a while to understand what he meant—that just by showing up, the commander changes the dynamic. But Mahoney added with a smile, “That’s one of the reasons you have me.”
It’s important to build feedback into your battle rhythm and that of the unit. Continuously engaging your target audience in two-way communication should build trusting relationships that allow for candid feedback. Late in our battalion’s Iraq deployment in 2004 and 2005, one of my company command teams informed me that some of their soldiers, particularly in one platoon, felt I was volunteering for missions and willingly putting them at risk for the sake of my career. It hurt that some felt this way, but I am grateful we fostered the trusting leader climate that brought the issue forward. We addressed the concerns by directly engaging with the soldiers and clarifying the larger operational picture and our role in it. This was a humbling but valuable experience for me.
Commanders also should solicit feedback from outside their unit. Seek input from the next higher command, garrison organizations, family groups and so on. Feedback from soldiers, and their families, who are leaving the service or moving to a new duty station also is good, because they have no reason to hold back.
Taking in all this feedback, you can enter the Mission Command framework again, adjust and continuously improve your climate.
These efforts should not stop because of combat or operational deployments. Rather, it is the reason for them. Using the immediate needs of the mission as an excuse might bring some short-term mission success but can easily result in burned-out units that lack initiative and are not developing future leaders. Fourteen of my 36 months in battalion command and 11 of my 42 months in brigade command were spent in combat. We were able to sustain a leader-philosophy guided effort on unit climate through both. You can, too.
When soldiers leave your unit, you want the gaining unit to say, “Wow, what unit did you come from? We want more soldiers like you!”
You want to be in a great unit? Foster your leadership climate, and go make one.
Col. Dave Miller, U.S. Army retired, served over 30 years as an infantryman, retiring in 2014 as chief of staff of the 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kansas. He served multiple combat deployments, including as commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, and of the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division. He is a military consultant and is an Association of the U.S. Army leadership fellow.