Buy an essay on General aspects of the leadership that are applicable to the military organizations

Nowadays, any organization, including military institutions, understands that their ability to be competitive requires attracting, retaining, and developing top leadership talent. The nature of leadership in today’s complex, continuously changing environment poses new challenges. leaders have to be able to manage work teams, often across geographic and cultural boundaries.
Needless to say, leadership isn’t a constant thing; it’s rather a process “of social influence in which one person can provide the support to others in the accomplishment of the certain task”. (Chemers, 1997)
The leadership is also ability and there is another definition for that: “Effective leadership is the ability to successfully integrate and maximize available resources within the internal and external environment for the attainment of organizational or societal goals.” (Chemers, 1997)
It should be mentioned that leadership involves skills and abilities that may be useful in any occupation.
Obviously, various theories of leadership exist. They study and review “traits, situational interaction, function, behavior, power, vision and values, charisma, and intelligence, and other factors” (Chemers, 1997)
It’s not true that the leadership is reserved for only a very few people. Leadership is not an ethereal trait and “it’s a myth that only a lucky few can ever decipher the leadership code.” (Bennis & Spreitzer, 2001)
Leaders should understand what should be done in order for them and for the organization to be effective; also they should know the critical processes of leadership, that is, how the functions fit together in the accomplishment of the certain task.
This paper is dedicated to the issue of the military leadership which has too many things in common with the leadership in business but it also has some differences. In my opinion, the major differences between the leadership overall and specifically the military leadership are that the military leader needs to have a powerful charisma and authority. And the authority is absolutely crucial in army relations.
Why charisma is so important for the military leader? The relations between the leader and his team have some emotional aspect. Charismatic leaders have been described as having exceptionally high levels of self-confidence, a need to influence, with an attendant ability to dominate, and a strong conviction in the moral righteousness of their beliefs. Of course, charismatic leader will make a significant impact on soldiers.
The military leadership: basics
It is quite interesting that researches from various business schools have shown their deep interest in the military leadership.
“Business schools continue to borrow examples from the military and devote considerable attention to the types and styles of leadership.” (Keithly, 1997)
Consequently, a conclusion could be made that military organizations have been dealing with the issue of leadership for centuries.
“Although combat leadership, certainly combat command, is usually more demanding than non-combat leadership, the same traits are critical in both situations.” (Keithly, 1997)
Of course, the leadership in war actions differs from the leadership in a peacetime. “Any noncombat environment changes radically once the combat threshold has been crossed.” (Keithly, 1997)
There are some similarities in organizational leadership, and the military leadership. Especially the fast development of communications and technology influence the need in the change of leadership approaches.
I should note that military culture is a specific one. The leader should share those cultural views of his soldiers. “Military culture is learned; broadly shared by its members; adaptive to changing conditions; and symbolic in nature (rank insignia and language jargon make sense only within a military context). Military culture is characterized by its combat, masculine-warrior paradigm.” (Keithly, 1997)
Unfortunately, often there is no differentiation “between combat and non-combat leadership in education programs of the U.S. Armed Forces”. (Taylor, 2000)
It is not the news that military seldom has the opportunity to switch from non-combat to combat leadership.
“In the modern volatile world in which the military will be involved in an increasing array of operations, with very different mission profiles, failure to distinguish between types of leadership could become a more salient problem.” (Taylor, 2000)
The purpose of the US army leadership training is “to develop leaders capable of maintaining a trained and ready Army in peacetime to deter war, to fight and control wars that do start, and to terminate wars on terms favorable to US and allied interests.” (Taylor, 2000)
Modern challenges of military leaders
The situation in the modern army requires a new vision, ability to communicate efficiently yet quickly and new decision-making capabilities.
Modern military leaders should be highly qualified, be flexible and also they should be able to operate with new technologies.
They have to understand the need of continuous learning, which is an important part of leadership development; leaders should be able learn faster than they ever did before.
There is no doubt that great military leaders should be able to inspire, to share their enthusiasm with subordinating teams. They have to announce the army’s strategic and tactical plans in a clear and simple form.

References
Bennis, W., Spreitzer, G.M. (2001). The Future of Leadership: Today’s Top Leadership Thinkers Speak to Tomorrow’s Leaders. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco, 82.
Chemers, M. M. (1997). An Integrative Theory of Leadership. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Mahwah, NJ, 1
Keithly, D. M. (1997). A Charismatic Dimension of Military Leadership. Journal of Political and Military Sociology. 25 (1). 131
Taylor, R.L. (2000). Military Leadership: In Pursuit of Excellence. Westview Press. Boulder, CO. 2-4.