Morning wasoute.
As a retired military officer, there are profound challenges at work.
As you know, there are both good officers, and bad officers. There are good NCOs, and bad NCOs. There are good Privates, Airmen Basics, and Seaman Recruits, and bad ones.
If some officers are perceived as "aloof", the reason may not always be because they are stuck-up jerks as depicted in Hollywood movies. As a leader, you have to walk a fine line depending upon the circumstances.
The military must function according to discipline and structure. Officers who try too hard to be "one of the guys" can become horribly ineffective, and often hated in the end by the men and women in their command.
The military academies, OTS, and ROTC training that officers receive emphasize (or at least they used to) that an officer who tries to be everyone's "buddy" is not leading, and there are rules of conduct.
On the other hand, a good officer must also be a servant-leader. It is never about "you", but about your command and your men and women. I wish more officers and career military followed that dictum, because not all do.
In my military career, I found that the situation often dictated the strategy of leadership. Sometimes you had to be the hard ass, but other times you had to be the coach, the mentor, or even the friend.
But an officer who wanted to be everyone's friend all the time was never an effective leader, and no one respected him or her.
I had other leadership roles besides actual flying, and those were more "by the book." But flying with a crew (of both officers and enlisted) was different. We were a crew - and we worked, slept, and ate together for weeks at a time. We also looked out for each other during our time off while in countries all over the world, and played cards and had a few drinks together.
We were like a family, and we had to rely on each other constantly.
When decisions had to made, I as the aircraft commander had to make them, and the crew followed my lead. Maintenance, weather, dealing with cargo and passengers, higher headquarters, embassies, etc.
But, that was a more special relationship (being in a flying crew).
To be honest, I found being a leader to be often a hard and lonely role. Rewarding, but lonely.
Absolutely correct. Everyone who worked for me knew exactly what a hard ass I could be and some of them had seen it first hand. I’ll never forget the look on that Captains face when I told him he had to go “explain” to Col. Sue Master Parachutist RN why she wasn’t getting what he promised. One only has to “lock someone’s ankles down” a couple times and the word gets around.
I had to make a decision as Clinic OIC. I had 30 medics and 4 or 5 Captain MDs that worked for me. We did Military Sick Call at 0600 every morning. We would get over 100 people (soldiers) sign up for sick call by 0600. As you know, The Mission” is to get every single one of them seen and back to their unit by 0730. 90% success is the goal.
The problem with that was my guys couldn’t go to PT because those were the hours the Army does PT. I didn’t want my people to struggle with the PT fitness test. So when could they do PT? I called the COl ad explained my plan, exempt my people from morning PT so we could meet the mission requirements and in exchange I would close the clinic MWF at 1500. My guys would do PT for an hour three times a week. In the parking lot. In Panama. I was there every time. My NCO loved torturing me. As a MD with “Silver Wings” no way was I going to let those wings down. If they were sweating, I was sweating. If they were in pain form running in place for ten minutes, I was, too.
In those days rating were inflated anyway but my Col. gave me “Top Block” every rating and consistently one sentence of text. “Gets it done.”
Well stated.
Folks ought to review Worth’s Battalion Orders.
My relationship with the Army was very much “Love/Hate”. I loved the sense of accomplishment i managing a group of people toward a goal, the camaraderie, the regimentation. Being part of something that stretches back to our country’s founding, my ancestors who had served.
At the same time I was at the threshold of a 30 year career as a Neurosurgeon that I had worked VERY hard to attain and the Army wrecked that.. like with a wrecking ball and the Son of a Bitch in DC did it on purpose.
+100!
Thank You for Your Service to Our Country and Citizens.
Stay Safe and Take Care.
You are correct. However, I am sure you heard the term, it’s lonely at the top. I heard it too. I was a USAF Senior NCO. We had to lead too. That was also a hard and lonely role. Not quite like yours, but certainly similar. What we senior NCOs wanted (and I always got) was backing from the brass. If a Lt Col from Command Post would call me, and tell me he wanted me to do something that I knew was not part of my job, I told my boss (E-8) who would go straight to the Major, who would usually set them straight. If it was really serious, the Major would go to the O-6 squadron commander, a former C-141 driver. He backed us.
On the other hand, I told my son, if he ever decided to go Air Force, not to do it as an enlisted man, but get a commission. He did exactly that. I thought it was weird, however. Just as they got their commissions, and threw their caps in the air, they got a fly over by two F-16s and a BUFF. When we graduated from boot camp, we didn’t even get a flight of Canadian geese to fly over. 🤪 My son wants to fly, and nothing else. He may become an instructor pilot later, who knows, but he just wants to fly. He doesn’t want to be a Transportation squadron commander.
USAF Senior NCO, Retired.