Learn the requirements of Army leaders and the leadership philosophy guided by the principles of the Army Leadership Model. Discover the hierarchal rank structure.
Updated: 11/21/2023
Army Leadership Requirements Model | Attributes & Principles
Table of Contents
- Army Leadership
- Army Leadership Requirements Model
- Army Levels of Leadership
- Army Leadership Principles
- Lesson Summary
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the three main attributes in the army leadership model?
The three main attributes of the Army Leadership Model include character, presence, and intellect. Character is informed by the Army values; empathy, warrior ethos/service, and discipline. Presences the qualities and attributes radiated by a leader and perceived by others as demonstrating military and professional bearing, fitness, and resiliency. Intellect demonstrates competency in technical and tactical knowledge, sound judgment, interpersonal tact, and creative thinking.
What are the 3 levels of Army leadership?
The three levels of leadership are first, direct leadership, a face to face first-line contact occurring at the squad through battalion level. Secondly, organizational leadership happens at a higher level, such as at the brigade through corps level, and thirdly, strategic leadership occurs at the national level where policies are developed.
What is the army leadership requirements model?
The Army Leadership Model, informed by history and scientific research, describes who leaders must be, what they must know, and what they must do through the three attributes and three core competencies. These attributes include character, presence, and intellect and are supported by three core competencies, leads, develops and achieves.
What does the army leadership model focus on?
The Army Leadership Model focuses on achieving mission success and improving the organization by influencing human behavior by providing a clear purpose, guidance, and motivation, while maintaining professional bearing and caring for those you lead. Through the development and consistent application of the three attributes and three core competencies, the Army Leadership Model may be realized.
Table of Contents
- Army Leadership
- Army Leadership Requirements Model
- Army Levels of Leadership
- Army Leadership Principles
- Lesson Summary
The Army definition of leadership is the ability to achieve mission success and improve the organization by influencing human behavior by providing a clear purpose, guidance, and motivation while maintaining military and professional bearing and caring for those being led. The Army leadership styles framework is found in the Army Leadership Model. Guided by three Army leadership attributes and three core leadership competencies, the Army Leadership Model empowers leaders to successfully manage high-performing organizations capable of achieving their nation's mission and goals. The Army leadership requirements model requires leaders to prepare themselves and those around them mentally and physically in their competencies and become stewards of their organization.
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The Army Leadership Requirements Model demonstrates the foundation of Army leadership and describes who leaders must be, what they must know, and what they must do through the three attributes and three core competencies. These attributes include character, presence, and intellect and are supported by three core competencies; leads, develops, and achieves. This model is informed by history, scientific research, and what works best for the Army in achieving its goals. By combining the Army attributes and competencies, the Army establishes organizational cohesion, preparedness, and effectiveness.
Army Leadership Attributes
The three Army leadership attributes are explained below.
Character
The attribute of character is one of the critical attributes. It defines who soldiers must be as they serve as the leaders in the Army's organization. Character is informed by army values, empathy, warrior ethos/service, and discipline.
- Army Values: All soldiers in the initial basic combat training learn seven core Army values and are encouraged to apply them on and off duty throughout their career: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage.
- Empathy: Understanding how others are thinking, feeling, and believing.
- Warrior Ethos/Service: Always place the mission first, never accept defeat, never quit, and never leave a fallen comrade.
- Discipline: Constantly demonstrating obedience in both words and actions to the orders and laws regulating the organization.
Presence
A leader will radiate an impression upon their subordinates by demonstrating an emulative example through a military and professional bearing, fitness level, confidence, and resiliency.
- Miltary and Professional Bearing: Acting in a manner that brings credit toward one's organization and community.
- Fitness: Demonstrates adherence to the physical fitness standards of its organization.
- Confidence: Demonstrates a belief in its organization's ability to succeed in the face of all environmental factors.
- Resilience: Demonstrates the ability to recover quickly in the face of environmental stressors while maintaining focus on mission success.
Intellect
Demonstrating the ability to think effectively, make accurate decisions, maintain unit cohesion and achieve organizational goals.
- Mental Agility: The ability to adapt to uncertainty, anticipate future actions, and maintain flexibility.
- Sound Judgment: The ability to draw accurate conclusions based on the information or current situation.
- Innovation: The ability to transform old ideas into new practical usages through the application of creative thinking.
- Interpersonal Tact: The ability to accept concepts, innovations, and ideas from others within your team.
- Expertise: Gaining knowledge in all areas of the organization's processes, resources, and applications toward achieving the organization's purpose.
Army Leadership Competencies
The three Army leadership competencies are explained below.
Lead
Effective leading is critical among the competencies. Leaders influence others through providing a clear purpose, building trust, influencing superior organizations, achieving organizational goals, and demonstrating an example for others to follow.
- Leads Others: Influence both subordinates and superiors to achieve the organization's goals.
- Builds Trust: Develops trust through caring for others' welfare and demonstrating their level of competence.
- Extends Influence Beyond the Chain of Command: The ability to influence positive change amongst both subordinate and superior levels of the organization.
- Leads by Example: Provides an example to subordinates by following the guidance and directions issued.
- Communicates: Provides clear and concise guidance and direction in a manner comprehendible by all subordinates regardless of their cultural differences and lived experiences.
Develops
Guided by the Army values ensures constant growth and development of oneself and others around them.
- Creates a Positive Environment/Fosters spirit de corps: Establishes an environment conducive for all to accomplish the organization's mission. Inspires team members to develop personal ownership of the organization.
- Prepares Self: Conducts the necessary self-preparation and training to ensure competency in the areas required to lead the organization.
- Develops Others: Allows for time for personal development within the areas required as a leader in the Army and empowers others to seek self-improvement constantly.
- Stewards of the Profession: Develop a sense of ownership for all people and resources within their organization and demonstrate a high level of care for others.
Achieves
This is simply demonstrating the ability to accomplish one's mission, achieve goals, or get results.
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Leaders within the Army influence others through three echelons: direct, organizational, and strategic. Direct leadership is the first line of contact that includes face-to-face interaction within the lower-level organizations. Direct leadership occurs at the squad through battalion-level organizations. Organizational leadership occurs at a higher level where leaders make decisions that impact multiple echelons at the lower level without direct contact with the organization's individuals. Organizational leadership occurs at the brigade through Corps levels. Strategic level of leadership in the Army occurs at the highest level of the Army and includes both military and civilian leaders. These leaders develop policies and provide guidance that's disseminated throughout the entire organization. Strategic leadership occurs at the national level.
The Army follows a hierarchical rank structure to govern the different levels within its organization. Two separate rank structures manage these leadership positions; officers and enlisted. Officers are commissioned through a military academy or a Reserve Officer Training Program (ROTC), and are trained to lead and manage at various levels within each organization. Whereas enlisted, also referred to as the backbone of the Army, are noncommissioned officers who specialize in specific areas or job functions. Some technical officers, known as Warrant Officers, specialize in particular skills and areas and provide technical advice to commanders in the ranks. Warrant Officers typically do not fall within the leadership structure.
Army officer, warrant officer, and enlisted ranks structure is shown as:
 |
One officer and one enlisted serve as a command team managing its assigned organization, all reporting to higher-ranking officers and enlisted in a higher level of organizations. The following describes the various elements within the Army structures and the rank of the officer and enlisted serving at each level.
- Team and Squads: The lowest level within this structure are teams led by a Sergeant consisting of four members and a squad led by a Staff Sergeant consisting of 2-3 teams.
- Platoon: Consists of 2-4 squads and is led by a 1st or 2nd Lieutenant and a Sergeant First Class
- Company: Consists of 3-5 Platoons and is led by a Captain and a First Sergeant
- Battalion: Consists of 3-5 Companies and is led by a Lieutenant Colonel and a Command Sergeant Major
- Brigade: Consists of 3-5 Battalions and is led by a Colonel and a Command Sergeant Major
- Division: Consists of 3-5 Brigades and is led by a Major General and a Command Sergeant Major
- Corps: Consists of 2-5 Divisions and is led by a Lieutenant General and a Command Sergeant Major Major
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The Eleven Army leadership principles are:
- 1. Know Yourself and Seek Self-Improvement: It's critical to know one's personal bias, weaknesses, and strengths and how they may impact those around. Understanding this and preventing its adverse effects is critical. Seeking self-improvement toward mental and physical growth must be a constant endeavor.
- 2. Be Technically and Tactically Proficient: Before one can gain the trust and confidence in those they lead, they must first be masters in their profession by gaining the knowledge within all areas of their organizations' capabilities and responsibilities.
- 3. Seek Responsibility and Take Responsibility for Your Actions: Take swift responsibility for mistakes made. Leaders must develop solutions for their organizations' problems at their level immediately without being told by superiors to take action toward the problem.
- 4. Set the Example: Serve as a role model that all desire to emulate. Be willing to show others that one will participate in what one's subordinates are ordering. Share burdens and suffer alongside one's subordinates in all difficulties faced by the organization.
- 5. Know Your People and Look Out for Their Welfare: Demonstrate empathy for subordinates. Provide time for them when needed to listen and provide for their concern. Place people as one's most valued resource.
- 6. Keep Your People Informed: No one likes to be left in the dark. Keep the members of the organization informed at all times. Ensure they understand why things are required of them and how they support the organization's goals.
- 7. Ensure the Task is Understood, Supervised, and Accomplished: Ensure subordinates clearly understand the purpose, intent, and requirements of assigned tasks. Provide macro-supervision allowing subordinates freedom to execute the assigned task and monitor results, ensuring the task is completed on time.
- 8. Develop a Sense of Responsibility Among Your People: Promote organizational ownership and a sense of pride. Demonstrate a level of trust by enabling subordinates to accomplish organizational goals through their methods.
- 9. Train Your People as a Team: Promote diversity, equity, and inclusion amongst teams where every member feels valued. Instill a belief that only through healthy teamwork can the organization's goals be accomplished.
- 10. Make Sound and Timely Decisions: Avoid indecisiveness by making rapid sound decisions through critical and creative thinking. Provide the results of the decision to subordinates in a timely manner.
- 11. Employ Your Organization Accordance With its Capabilities: Leaders must understand their organization's purpose and capabilities and employ them within these limitations. Attempting to accomplish a task beyond the organization's abilities and purpose can negatively affect the unit itself and its superior organization.
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The Army maintains its ability to accomplish its mission through its strong standards guided by the Army Leadership Model. Informed by history and scientific research, the Army Leadership Model describes who leaders must be and what they must know and do. The model is framed by three attributes and three core competencies. The Army Leadership Model empowers leaders to develop the three attributes and three core competencies required of a successful team capable of accomplishing its requirements while caring for its members' welfare and the environment it interacts with. Character, presence, and intellect are the required attributes of all Army leaders. Intellect emphasizes a leader's ability to think through problems, create solutions and make decisions. Strong leaders with character can identify themselves as a leader. Additionally, leaders set the example when following what is known as The Soldier's Rule, which is a guideline for what is acceptable and what is not permitted during the conduct of war.
Leaders employ these leadership attributes and competencies at all three levels of leadership. The direct, organizational and strategic with various levels of influence within each of these levels of leadership. Face-to-face contact occurs at the direct level, with a higher leadership influence occurring at the organizational level. Strategic leadership occurs at the national level through the development of policies. Leaders at all levels create their own philosophy based on organizational goals drawn from their command's philosophy. Army leaders live by the Eleven Principles of Leadership and use them as a guide to continue to assess for areas of improvement and implement improvements in these areas. For example, suppose a leader assesses that the members of the organization they lead do not understand the tasks needed to be completed. In that case, a leader may assess that leadership principle nine, ensuring that tasks are understood, needs some improvement. Leaders use the Army Leadership Model to establish unity of effort throughout the various structures within their organization. Within its hierarchy and rank structure, the officers and enlisted at different ranks implement the Army Leadership Model to accomplish its goals. Each officer and enlisted leader demonstrates their competency within the three attributes and three competencies within the Army Leadership Model. This model focuses on empowering mission success while improving the organization, motivating its members, caring for their welfare, and ensuring its members understand the purpose behind the guidance given.
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Video Transcript
Making a Great Leader
An army leader is someone who has taken the responsibility of the leadership role and uses it to inspire and influence those who follow him or her to accomplish the goals of the U.S. Army. The leader described next is a prime example of a great army leader.
U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal is a four-star general deployed to Afghanistan. His goal was to create the best plan possible that would result in the best strategy for attack. In order for this to have occurred, he realized that he couldn't do it alone. He created a team that he could trust and that could trust him in return. His team had the same vision as he did for getting the job done. He relied on them, and they relied on him. He was able to develop a loyal team by keeping an open form of communication. No matter what an individual's rank was, he would listen to what they had to say. His team felt like their opinions could be heard and that they could contribute to the mission.
General McChrystal exemplified what it took to be a leader. As we go through the different aspects of army leadership, we'll pinpoint what aspects General McChrystal showcased and why it made him a great leader.
Attributes of a Great Army Leader
Attributes contribute to how a person learns and behaves in their environment. They're what pinpoint if someone has the qualities needed to be a leader. The following three attributes are important points for an army leader.
Character
Character measures what a person thinks is right, legally and morally. It's also important to note that integrity is the key point of a person's character. War isn't so black and white when it comes to determining the morality or legality of an army leader's actions. The Solider's Rules are a set of codes that set guidelines for acceptable and not acceptable conduct in war. Army leaders build credibility in their character when they strictly adhere to these guidelines. A leader who maintains integrity ensures that no one can question their personal character.
Self-concept is another point of character. This is how someone identifies themselves. A strong leader has to be able to identify themselves in a role of a leader and take on the responsibilities of a leader.
General McChrystal had known his responsibilities as a leader. He had led his team and ensured that trust was a key aspect of that relationship and that his team was part of the attack plans. His character had exemplified the qualities of a leader.
Presence
This attribute is the impression a leader leaves on their team that encourages them to follow the leader. This includes a leader's demeanor, actions and words, outward appearance, and inward intellect and character. In the army, a leader projects a presence of military and professional bearing, a holistic approach to problem solving, fitness, confidence, and resilience. A strong presence is necessary for an army leader, especially in areas of combat, where stress can have an impact on a soldier.
Taking a look at General McChrystal, he had a strong presence. He had encouraged his team to follow him. He had done this by creating a vision that everyone could follow. He had presented himself with the high military and professional bearing that his rank entailed. His holistic approach had allowed him to collaborate at all rank levels.
Intellect
A leader's intellect is how well he or she can think. This includes thinking through problems, creating solutions, and making a decision. Thinking comes from a person's own individual perspective. No one will think or act in the same way as someone else. This explains why there are different leadership styles. A person's intellect will also determine their ability to understand and acknowledge their strengths and limitations. Being mentally coherent is an aspect of intellect that can help a leader be adaptive in any situation.
General McChrystal's intellect was an important factor in his understanding that he would not be able to carry out his plan of action alone. He knew he needed a strong, capable team and by obtaining one, he had chosen to take on a collaborative leadership role that utilized his strengths along with his team's.
Philosophy of Army Leadership
There is no set philosophy for army leadership. Philosophies will vary for each leader. A leadership philosophy can be an adaptation of the command's philosophy. The army philosophy covers leading your team, training your team, maintaining your team, and caring for your team. This philosophy serves as a guideline for leaders to develop their own philosophy that's incorporated into their team.
This can be seen with how General McChrystal's team operated. His philosophy could have been interpreted as being centered around being the best leader to his team that he could be. He had led his team in a way that encouraged collaboration, he trained his team to be prepared for anything, he maintained his team by allowing everyone to have an equal part, and he cared for his team by listening to what they had to say, no matter their rank.
Principles of Army Leadership
There are 11 principles that are incorporated in army leadership.
- Principle one: Know yourself and seek improvement. This is where a leader can improve on weaknesses and improve on strengths.
- Principle two: Be technically proficient. A leader needs to not only know their responsibilities, but also the members of their team.
- Principle three: Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions. A leader should go above and beyond what's expected of them, but also be prepared that things may not go as planned and that they need to assume responsibility for their part in whatever may occur.
- Principle four: Make sound and timely decisions. Leaders must be able to make logical decisions under stress. Their decisions must be done within the time constraints available to them.
- Principle five: Set an example. A leader needs to be a role model. They should not present themselves as someone who is superior.
- Principle six: Know your personnel and take care of their well-being. When a leader understands their team, the team is able to trust the leader.
- Principle seven: Keep your followers informed. Leaders must keep their team informed of what's going on. Doing so ensures their team will take initiative and boosts team morale.
- Principle eight: Develop a sense of responsibility among your followers. A leader should give responsibility to their team members. Doing so increases a team member's sense of pride and encourages taking on more responsibility. Leaders show their team that they trust them to take on the work.
- Principle nine: Ensure each task is understood. The team needs to know what's expected of them. A leader who is open to help when needed proves that they care not only about the mission but about their team as well.
- Principle ten: Build a team. A leader who develops team spirit leads to an increase in confidence among team members and higher proficiency in completing tasks.
- Principle eleven: Employ your team in accordance with their capabilities. A leader must know the strengths and weaknesses of their team as a whole. A leader goes into a task or mission with the plan to succeed, not to fail.
Because General McChrystal had a team that was able to collaborate and work on mission plans together, he was able to incorporate the eleven principles of army leadership. He had taken on the responsibility of a team because he knew he couldn't take on tasks alone. His team had become stronger and more confident under his direction. His respect for each of them as individuals and not rank, made the team realize he cared about them.
Lesson Summary
Let's take a moment or two to review what we've learned. In this lesson, we learned about what makes a leader through their attributes, which contribute to how a person learns and behaves in their environment. These attributes include character, which measures what a person thinks is right, legally and morally; presence, which is the impression a leader leaves on their team that encourages them to follow the leader; and intellect, which is how well he or she can think. And, as we saw, General McChrystal was a prime example of what a great army leader is. His attributes of character, presence, and intellect were prime examples of why his team in Afghanistan was so successful. He incorporated his leadership philosophy and followed the eleven principles, which provided this lesson with the best example of what an army leader should look like. This is what is expected out of all army leadership. When strong attributes are not present in a leader, and a clear philosophy is not present, it leads to an unsure leader with a team who does not have a clear direction or a vision to work for.
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Army Leadership Requirements Model | Attributes & Principles
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