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From my earliest days as a second lieutenant, I was fortunate to have been tutored by some of the finest NCOs ever to take new-and for that matter, even more experienced-officers under their wings. Whether platoon sergeants, first sergeants or command sergeants major, I will forever be grateful for their guidance. I can still name each of them, and to this day most are close friends. I have been equally fortunate in also having had some of the Army's most seasoned and wisest leaders as my bosses. Most had extensive combat and troop duty backgrounds, and although they had different personalities, the main characteristic all had in common was that they liked soldiers and soldiering. While they never held leadership classes as such, their day-to-day example made strong impressions on every officer and NCO who ever served with them. I could not possibly do justice to all of the leadership principles I learned from so many of the commissioned and noncommissioned officers I was privileged to serve for and with, but these are a sampling of some that stuck with me and made a difference.
* At least once a day and at every critical step of planning (and more often in combat), stop and ask yourself and those around you, "How is the law of unintended consequences going to screw this up, and what can we do to fix it before instead of after that happens?" This principle applies to squads and platoons as well as to brigades and divisions and everything between. Good leaders are inherently skeptical and through experience have a sharpened sixth sense for recognizing critical events along the execution route. Since the law of unintended consequences operates around the clock and always in high gear, developing what-if contingencies to compensate for potential obstacles at each critical point is a must: if X happens, what do we do to avoid Y, or how and what do we need to still reach the next critical point? Inexperienced leaders sometimes assume that smart planning equals smart execution. Experienced leaders have learned this isn't so. They understand unintended consequences and anticipate potential problems, and they stay ahead of the situation by making continuous worst-case estimates and timely decisions.
* Civilians have jobs, but soldiers...