By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, March 6, 2015 – Investments in leadership will
pay dividends the U.S. military can’t imagine today, the chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff said during a recent interview.
Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey spoke at length about
leadership, and said he is still learning about the subject.
“Leadership is kind of a journey -- not a destination,” the
chairman said. “If you ever think you’ve got it right and you don’t have
anything more to learn about leadership, then you’re probably making a very
serious mistake.”
The chairman said he draws upon a lifetime of leadership
experience. And, he added, he has taken lessons from and has listened to
mentors from a plethora of professions and situations. He has taken lessons
from his parents, friends, military leaders and civilian acquaintances. These
experiences span the range from high school in Orange County, New York, to the
highest levels of government.
Expertise, Humility, Courage
Dempsey said his leadership philosophy has three key
principles: expertise, humility and courage.
“The nation counts on us uniquely to provide expertise in
how to use the military instrument of power to both protect and promote our
national interests,” he said. “I started my career as a tanker, and I
fundamentally wanted to be the best tank commander in the Army long before I
wanted to be a company commander or a battalion commander.”
Learning everything possible about jobs -- whatever job a
person has -- is key, Dempsey said.
“Bloom where you’re planted, because you’ll never know where
you’re going to end up,” he said. “Whatever you do, don’t accept mediocrity.
There’s no place for mediocrity in the world we live in.”
Dempsey said humility is his second guiding leadership
principle, and this touches on building relationships.
‘Leadership is All About Relationships’
“I think leadership is all about relationships,” he said.
“The precursor to building relationships … is humility. Because if people
question your motivation to lead -- if they think you are leading for
self-benefit -- they will be suspicious and far less inclined to approach you.”
Being humble does not exclude ambition, said Dempsey, noting
ambition makes people want to excel.
“But I would always remind myself that in exercising
leadership … that I also had to balance that with a sincere degree of
humility,” he said. “People know if you’re yourself. If you are trying to be
somebody you’re not and putting on airs or lacking humility, it’ll come through
pretty quick. It’s really hard to build relationships without humility.”
Courage is the third principle, he said, and that includes
both physical courage and moral courage.
“You have to decide what right looks like, and then actively
seek it,” he said. “In a world that’s constantly changing and where things seem
ambiguous and you can talk yourself into relativism, you have to have a moral
compass. You have to have that inner voice that says, ‘This is the correct
path.’ In listening to that voice, you then have to have the moral courage to
walk that path.”
Dempsey said moral courage means acting on deeply held
values, and these cannot be abstract ideas. If “duty” is a core value, he said,
then service members need to take the time to understand what that value
entails.
Building Teams to Reach a Common Goal
Leadership is about building teams and that means bringing
together a sometimes disparate group of people to reach a common goal, Dempsey
said. During a recent talk at Texas A&M's Student Conference on National
Affairs the chairman noted that in discussions about national affairs, “you
almost have to talk about who we are as a nation.”
America is all about “the dash,” he said.
“More than any other country in the world, we are a nation
of Irish-American, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Polish-Americans,
Muslim-Americans -- fill in the blanks and that’s really what makes us
different,” the chairman said. “When I go back to my roots, they really
understood that, the way I hope this generation appreciates it.”
He added, “At our most ideal, we are a nation of diversity
and it is that diversity that gives us our identity as a nation and our
standing in the world.”
The dash is what makes America special, he said. Immigrants
to the United States quickly become part of the larger ideal of America.
“In other parts of the world, you will have people who are
of mixed ethnicity and mixed religion but they simply don’t integrate into the
society the way we do,” he said. “And we should never take that for granted. We
have to work at that.”
Best Teams Build Trust
The best teams, Dempsey said, find “that special sauce” that
is trust among people who might not have any reason to come together.
“I just saw a movie called ‘When the Game Stands Tall’ … it
was about a football team that had a 150-game winning streak and they lost a
game,” he said. “It completely shook the fabric of the team and they had to go
back to what made them great in the first place, which is when you become part
of a team … you have to give up some of yourself for the team. The whole
becomes greater than the sum of its parts.”
America is like that, the chairman said.
“When you think about us as a nation, it is certainly an
issue of bringing together people who otherwise might not ever have a reason to
live together or work together or appreciate each other, and when we are at our
best it’s when that kind of a commitment is made,” he said. “Where we trust
that our fellow citizen … will act both for their self-benefit and for the
benefit of the team. Then we find those teams that are extraordinary.”
Today is a time of change and it requires strong leaders,
Dempsey said.
“We don’t know what will happen next but we know it will
happen quicker,” the general said. “The requirement is to be adaptive.”
The key is learning, he said.
Focus on Leader Development
“From the time I’ve had influence at the senior leader level
I’ve put a premium on leader development,” Dempsey said. “And as I look back
and wonder if I got it right in terms of priorities, I can say with great
confidence that my focus on leader development has been the right focus.”
This is because quick, thoughtful, agile leaders can adapt,
he said.
“Because of all the different challenges coming our way,
we’re going to find that some of the equipment we field won’t be exactly right
for everything,” Dempsey said. “It might be right to field a piece of equipment
for Europe or the Korean Peninsula, but it might be ill-suited to what we need
to do in the Middle East.
“So the equipment is not going to be perfectly suited to
need 100 percent of the time,” he continued. “Similarly, our doctrine and our
organization and even the guidance we give … is not going to be perfectly
suited. And so these young men and women out there on the edge -- it’ll be
their responsibility to take what they are given … and apply it in a way that
will allow us to protect our national interest and promote our values.”
Dempsey said his 41-year military career has convinced him
that life where service is involved is a more rewarding life. The chairman said
you can never stop learning about leadership. He recommended “Once an Eagle,”
the Anton Myrer novel about two U.S. military officers serving from World War I
through Vietnam, for reading.
“I take information or pieces from many different areas and
knit them together,” the chairman said.
With leadership, there is a lot to think about, Dempsey
said.
“I wouldn’t mind being at the beginning of this leadership
thing again, because it’s been quite a ride,” he said.
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