Effective leaders can successfully solicit feedback from their soldiers, recognize bottom-up innovation and stay curious, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George said during a recent episode of the From the Green Notebook podcast.

“That’s up to the leader to go down and see things in the right way. It's up to the leader to ask the right questions … to make sure that you are soliciting honest feedback,” he said. “Whether you're a battalion commander, a brigade commander, you're going to have to do that. … How you take that feedback, I think, is really important as well.”

Leaders also understand that new developments and ideas work their way up the chain of command, George said. He cited the transforming in contact initiative, which began with three brigades and put new technology in soldiers’ hands for testing and feedback, and his February visit with one of those brigades, the 10th Mountain Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, during a rotation at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center near Hohenfels, Germany.

“When it's 25 degrees and wet and icy, we learned about battery life for drones and for everything that's happening over there. … We really ... refined a lot of the things that the other two brigades had done,” George said. “And it just kind of reinforced to me that the bottom-up innovation that we have going on with transforming in contact is what we need to do to help transform and change our Army.”

Staying “intellectually curious” and having humility are essential for leaders’ self-development, George said.  “I think any good leader is going to be curious and … wants to be a learner,” he said. “You do have to be intellectually curious and understand that you have a lot to learn. ... Self-development is a big part of that, and figuring out where you have gaps in those kinds of things and making sure that you're filling that in.”

Leaders who genuinely enjoy what they’re doing can effectively model that behavior and attitude for their troops, George said as he reflected on leaders who shaped him.

“I had really good leaders when I was in, and they … enjoyed what they were doing,” he said. “It's not like we didn't have bad days, but they were happy with their life, and they enjoyed it. And I think that that's a big part of what I saw through the years.”