Perhaps at the COL promotion board they should look at LT retention. I believe this is a good indicator of command climate and a possible way to eliminate 'toxic' leaders from positions of further responsibility.
The Army promotes people based on results as any good organization. However, the Army has a much bigger mission than simple quarterly profits and so good leaders need to provide results but also be good ethical leaders that care for their subordinates and do not abuse them for personal gain. By measuring and rewarding LT retention, the Army could ensure that those good leaders can be distinguished from the 'bad' leaders that get results at the expense of their subordinates.
Some arguments against this are that some LTs will get our regardless of how good the command climate is (due to money, family, and many other reasons) and some LTs will stay in regardless of bad leadership (due to idealism, patriotism, and many other reasons). Both are valid points but in a large organization such as the Army it would be easy to assemble statistically significant data to create 'band of excellence' that would identify those outliers with great command climate and those with incredible poor command climate.
Other arguments point to LT retention as linked to the current OPTEMPO. By comparing retention results across the Army during one given time period, the 'band of excellence' mentioned above would account for that reality as well. All the commanders would've had similar deployment OPTEMPO considerations.
What are your thoughts?
2008-10-06
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Toxic leadership is the greatest threat to the development of a true professional army. The Israeli's have the proper approach..20 years..and then you're ass is out..We've got graybeards that have turned their political connections into cottage industries..training, mentors..even whole businesses. We haven't had a truly bloody war with a darwinistic promotion system in over 150 years. So, the toxic leaders will continue to prostitute their mean in order to further their careers and like will breed like.
ReplyDeleteAlong those lines what about how much emphasis we put on the importance of the NCO core vs the officer core? Frederick the Great couldn't afford to trust formations without an officer present. Now with the combined battalion changes of command in a BDE NCOs have individual changes of responsibility. How many times do company grade officers get awards or praised for the job they do? It is taboo now to award a LT. Somewhere we decided only NCOs and soldiers are deserving of awards. We are destroying the limited power base our company grade officers have by over emphasising the NCO core. The NCO core is critical, but are we negating the importance of officers?
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