Military Review English Edition March-April 2014 | Page 12

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin E. Dempsey talks with soldiers and marines stationed at ISAF Headquarters and Camp
Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan, 20 July 2013. (DOD, D. Myles Cullen)

for soldiers. This overlap between developing and
caring can be seen in the following examples from
the ARI interviews:
If your leadership is talking to you . . .
[just] to check the boxes, you know that
they don’t care about you. It’s important
to me that my commander cares whether
or not my kids are doing good in school,
whether or not spending 13 months in
Iraq, you know, straight . . . what it does
to a 5-year old, 7-year old, and 11-year
old—that type of stuff. It’s important that
he knows me as an officer, just like I need
to know my privates.
Showing that interest in that soldier, by
developing him, he feels like he wants to
stay. [He might say], “the squad leader
genuinely cares about me, I feel like I’m
on the right path.”21
10

A number of leaders interviewed by ARI expressed
unease over showing care and concern for subordinates. Because military leaders may need to ask
soldiers to perform difficult tasks, or may be required
to take corrective action with a subordinate, they
want to maintain professional relationships with
their soldiers. However, showing care and concern
for subordinates does not mean that leaders must
be overly considerate or nurture unprofessional
personal relationships with their soldiers. On the
contrary, most military leaders interviewed by ARI
highlighted the importance of achieving balance in
their leadership approach.22 For example, most leaders will experience a time when they must provide
stern, even harsh leadership to get the job