Military Review English Edition November-December 2013 | Page 80

There will be many forces at work to keep this
unannounced visit from happening. Subordinate
leaders will do their very best to get back on the
planned agenda, making the most of all limited
opportunities. The aide-de-camp—if the senior
leader has one—will be calling ahead to make sure
the leader’s time is not wasted. By establishing a
climate of trust and communicating clear guidance, the leader will help subordinates overcome
their natural resistance to show the total picture—
good and bad.
Senior leaders who really want to “see” their
subordinate units will use some combination of
all these potential methods. While presence is
important, constant visits are informative but very
difficult. Surrogates expand the leader’s range but
must have both the senior leader’s and the subordinates’ complete trust—or the surrogates will not
be able to see any more than the commander will.
Standardized briefings are useful and can enable
identification of organizational and systemic

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problems; but they can become onerous “oxygen
suckers” when they become encyclopedic and
extraneous. Bellwether units may offer a senior
leader an appropriate representative sample, but
all soldiers and subordinates deserve the attention
of the leader’s personal time and all the benefits
derived from personal interaction. Finally, developing the skills that enable a leader to see the true
essence and heart of a unit amidst the artificiality
of an official visit is difficult, and leaders learn this
ability to discern only by experience.
The leader who can see subordinate units in their
natural state will enjoy better situational awareness and be able to tie the strategic, operational,
and tactical levels together more seamlessly. The
leader will more accurately assess whether his or
her guidance and intent is reaching all levels of the
command. Through understanding the agitating
effect of the “light” provided by their own presence, senior leaders can take the steps described in
this paper to “see” their own electrons.MR

November-December 2013

• MILITARY REVIEW