Military Review English Edition March-April 2014 | Page 9

STRENGTHS-BASED LEADERSHIP

Utilizing Subordinates’ Strengths
Almost all leadership functions described by the
soldiers interviewed were aimed at providing subordinates with the knowledge, skills, and abilities
needed to be successful now and in future endeavors. According to Army leaders, assigning soldiers
tasks they have a natural affinity toward is one of the
most successful means of creating competent junior
leaders. When individuals invest time and energy
in their talents, they are more likely to experience
success. These success experiences are an important
source of efficacy information (referring to people’s
beliefs about their capabilities to succeed), and can
positively affect how individuals feel, think, motivate themselves, and behave. According to Albert
Bandura, placing individuals in situations that
increase self-efficacy has also been shown to result
in improved productivity and job satisfaction.9 The
following quotations from the interviews conducted
by ARI demonstrate how Army leaders capitalize on
subordinate strengths:
At the end of the day, I would assign the lieutenant who had great communication skills
to be the guy who would interact at a more
complex level with the Iraqi Security Forces,
and the guy who was completely inarticulate
but could kick down the door and do raids
is the guy I would generally assign to more
kinetic operations.
I have one guy who’s great—he’s the PT
stud. The other guy’s a horrible PT guy . . .
but [he’s] good at commo. He’s my commo
NCO, and that’s how I handle him. . . . He’s
not [actually] a commo NCO, he’s a scout,
but he’s good at it [commo]—he knows what
he’s doing. . . . Seeing what he’s good at [I
say] “ok man, you’re my communications
NCO.”10
By taking advantage of the natural talent of his
NCOs, the leader in the second example ensured
the best-suited person handled each task. While
the need to look beyond a person’s MOS or branch
seems self-evident, it is important to view subordinates as individuals with uniquely individual
talents. Soldiers are much more than their military
experience; they come to the Army with skill sets
and talents that may or may not be pertinent