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I'm starting back up with my "How to Fight" series, but as I was working up the articles on the mechanics of troop leadership and battlefield command, it occured to me that we needed to start with an article that helps everyone understand what leadership is, and how to exercise that leadership, both on the battlefield and in other situations. This is important because we are now going from the theory of battle tactics to its practice, and the challenge in eRepublik is that you are really not playing Risk. You are not just pushing little wooden pieces on a board, you are pulling together small to large groups of real people to attain a common purpose. So the first question is:

What is leadership ?

Leadership accomplishes the mission and nurtures the organization and its members by providing purpose, direction, and motivation. A good leader is defined by what he or she is (BE), what he or she knows (KNOW), and what he or she does (DO). The following list is drawn from U.S. Army and Marine Corps publications on leadership and reflects the collective experience of those organizations on how to lead.

1. Be:

- Technically and tactically proficient
- Loyal
- Respectful
- Dutiful
- Honorable
- A person of integrity
- Courageous
- A person who has empathy for others

2. Know:

- Yourself and seek self-improvement
- Your troops
- What works and what doesn't
- What your unit needs
- How to listen actively

3. Do:

- Lead by example
- Keep your troops informed
- Demonstrate care for people
- Ensure the task is understood, supervised and accomplished.
- Train your unit as a team.
- Make sound and timely decisions
- Develop a sense of responsibility in your subordinates
- Employ your command in accordance with its capabilities
- Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions
- Enforce standards
- Encourage initiative

For more information you can see

Http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usmc/leadership.htm

http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/Repository/Materials/fm6-22.pdf

While US Army leadership doctrine emphasizes the qualities of a good leader, the Marine Corps teaching emphasizes what a leader must do to be effective. In practice, these two approaches go hand in hand. What a leader does, he or she is. And unless a leader is dedicated, sincere and knowledgeable, that person cannot reach his or her potential as a leader. The most important thing to understand about leadership is that, in the en😛

IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU. IT IS ABOUT THEM – IT IS ABOUT THE PEOPLE YOU ARE LEADING

Imagine your favorite teacher. What did you like about that person ? Well, your favorite teacher was your leader. He or she had an influence on you. And I will bet that this teacher had many of the traits listed above. She knew something you did not, and lived to give you that knowledge as well. He saw something in you that you didn't see in yourself, and helped you become a better person. They pushed you to the limit, but only because they knew how hard the problem was and what it took to solve that problem. That's what leaders do. They are fair to the entire class, because they know you as individuals. And they bring out the best in all of you, not by just lecturing to you, but by drawing on what you already know, by letting you help teach the class along with them.

One of the greats of Army leadership used to teach his classes at the Army War College that leadership is a function of the entire unit, not just the commander. The commander needs to know the most, needs to know everything going on in the unit, but the commander is not leading when he or she is doing everything, making all the decisions, not letting others lead. So, a “good leadership climate” is not one in which just the person at the top is making all the decisions and giving all the orders – it is one in which everyone shares in the task of leadership. Malone is widely quoted as saying,

“The very essence of leadership is its purpose. And the purpose of leadership is to accomplish a task. That is what leadership does--and what it does is more important than what it is or how it works.”

Malone summarizes this in the following equation: LEAD = TEACH.

Now, this is of interest to me not only because of my military background, but because of my in-game persona, Samuel Seabury. I think “Mad Mike” Malone didn't get these ideas all by himself. The Catholic Church has been leading by teaching for nearly 2000 years. The term “Magisterium”, used by Catholics to explain the authority of the papacy and the bishops, is based on the Latin word for teacher, “Magister”. So the Pope leads the Roman Catholic Church, and the bishops lead their dioceses - by what they teach.

So, as a commander and battlefield leader, you are always and everywhere a teacher. I'm teaching you right now, and to the extent that you are learning these lessons, I'm influencing you to teach others the same. That's how it works. That's how you can pull together not just the dozen or fewer people you can directly influence – social scientists tell us that the optimal span of control for a single leader is between three and seven people – but entire armies that number in the hundreds and thousands.

Both the Army and Marine Corps literature emphasize that, even in a military context, the exercise of leadership takes both an authoritarian and a democratic aspect. In order to lead effectively in stressful situations, you have to know what techniques meet the demands of the situation. You may prefer one technique over the other, but to be a fully competitive, effective, and well-rounded leader, you need to be able to adapt your leadership style to the situation and the person(s) you need to influence. Here are the techniques laid out in FM 6-22:

1. Pressure is a technique that uses explicit demands to achieve compliance. For example, you might force your subordinate to complete a task by a certain date with negative consequences if the task is not done on time. When using indirect pressure, you will use persistent reminders of the request and frequent checking toensure compliance. Pressure is a good choice when the stakes are high, time is short, and previous attempts at getting the subordinate to commit have not succeeded.

2.Legitimate requests are made when you as a leader employ the authority of your office.. In the military, certain jobs must be done regardless of circumstances. When you invoke your position, you are suggesting that there are specific consequences for failing to comply with a lawful order.

3. Exchange is an influence technique that you might use when you make an offer to provide some desired item or action in trade for complying with a request. When you use the exchange technique, you must control the resources or rewards you are offering. Obviously, not following through with a promise made when the follower complies and meets his part of the deal is very bad leadership, and will undermine the followers' willingness to respond to similar requests in the future.

4. Personal appeals occur when the you as a leader asks a follower to comply with a request based of friendship, loyalty and mutual respect. This might often be useful in a difficult situation when mutual trust is the key to success. For example, you might appeal to the follower by highlighting his or her special talents and and the professional trust you have in that person to strengthen him prior to taking on a tough mission.

5. Collaboration occurs when the you as the leader cooperate in providing assistance or resources to carry out a directive or request. In this case, you make the choice more attractive by being prepared to step in and resolve any problems. This method of influence is often used in dealing with other persons or organizations that lie outside of the chain of command.

6. Rational persuasion uses evidence, logical arguments, or explanation to show how a request is relevant to the goal. This is often your first approach to gain compliance or commitment from followers and is likely to be effective if you are recognized as an expert on the subject being discussed. You may resort to the example of your own experience to demonstrate that some task can be readily accomplished because you have tried it and done it in the past. In some cases, it may necessary to actually perform that task to show that it can be done.

7. Apprising involves an explanation by you as a leader as to why a request will benefit a follower. In contrast to the exchange technique, you do not control whether the follower gains the benefit from doing what is requested, so you need to consider whether the promised benefit is credible or not.

8. Inspiration occurs when you the leader fire up enthusiasm by arousing strong emotions to build conviction in your followers to perform a task . As always, overuse of this technique can lead to disillusionment and burn-out, and so this technique is best used sparingly, for the most critical situations.

9. Participation occurs when you as a leader ask a follower to take part in deciding how to address a problem or meet an objective. Active participation builds commitment on the part of the followers to execute the tasks that need to be performed. This technique, therefore, is the most important of the democratic methods of leadership. It does require more time and effort on your part to gain a committed consensus among your followers. While it may be useful in some circumstances as a method of battlefield leadership, time constraints often preclude its use in that context.

10. Relationship building is a technique in you as a leader build positive rapport and mutual trust with your followers. You can do this by showing genuine personal interest in your follower’s well-being, offering praise, and understanding a follower’s perspective. When this technique is consistently used over time, it can help gain commitment from followers, however it is unwise to expect immediate short-term benefits.

The techniques described above are most relevant to the exercise of formal leadership, that is leadership by virtue of office and formally chartered or delegated responsibility. You should always remember this: You can always delegate authority. You should never delegate responsibility. True leadership means taking responsibility for your own actions as well as the actions of others. There is not place, either in the real world – or in this game – for finger pointing, backbiting, or trying to shift the blame for your own mistakes on others. Real leaders never do that.

Both US Army and Marine Corps doctrine recognize the existence and importance of informal leadership, which is leadership that lies outside the formal chain of command or organization structure. Voegelin calls institutions “structures of ordered power” - that is a great phrase, because it suggests how the exercise of leadership within an organization can either bring order or disorder to that organization. Keeping Mike Malone's quote in mind, you can see that the exercise of informal leadership can be a very powerful force. The US Army FM 6-22 states it this way:

7-62 “When extending influence beyond the traditional chain, leaders often have to influence without
authority designated or implied by rank or position. Civilian and military leaders often find themselves in
situations where they must build informal teams to accomplish organizational tasks.”

Informal leadership is defined as follows:

“A type of leadership that is not based on command or other designation of formal authority. Informal leadership occurs as an individual exerts influence others for the good of the organization.”

Let me cite an outstanding example of informal leadership in wartime. Douglas MacArthur's father, Arthur MacArthur, was a lieutenant in the Union Army at the Battle of Missionary Ridge. There was no order to attack up Missionary Ridge that day. General Grant had ordered the center of the Union Army to conduct a feint against the center of the Confederate line. MacArthur advanced with his regiment, the 24th Wisconsin, to take the gun pits at the base of Missionary Ridge, as they had been ordered. But once the gun pits had been taken, the Union troops were subject to the fire of the cannon on the crest of Missionary Ridge. So, spontaneously, without orders, the Union soldiers climbed out of the gun pits and charged up Missionary Ridge, an apparently suicidal move. Lieutenant MacArthur went forward, advancing with the colors of the 24th Wisconsin. General Grant asked his staff “Who ordered those men up the ridge?” and then said, “Well, it will be all right if it turns out all right.” After two successive color bearers of the 24th were shot down by cannon fire, Arthur MacArthur himself seized the regimental colors charged to the top of the ridge, and planted the colors there. Arthur MacArthur won the Medal of Honor that day, and went on to be the youngest colonel in the Union Army, and retired in 1909 with the rank of Lieutenant General. Arthur MacArthur made it to a reunion of his regiment in 1912, died there and was buried with the flag he bore up Missionary Ridge draped around him.

So, this is a great example of the leadership you can exercise each and every day. See what needs to be done. Go do it. Get others to join you. Teach them what you know. And you, too, will be a leader.