Leadership and Communication

Over the past few years, really since I joined the Army, I have come to know all kinds of leaders and leadership techniques. Some of them good, and some not so good. However, some of the best leadership that I have found are not my leaders in the Army. Don’t get me wrong, I have some awesome leadership to learn from at my Reserve Unit, but I like the style of leadership that I see from some of the management from my civilian job. Leadership is a characteristic that transfers over very easily from military to civilian or civilian to military, and all leaders have their good and bad characteristics. However, the style of leadership that I would like to convey when I get to that position more closely mirrors what I see every day in my civilian job.

Now I am starting to develop my own leadership style by taking on extra responsibilities. I recently took over as Team Captain for my store’s InFocus Team, which is the team that manages shrink and safety issues for each Home Depot store. I have only held this position for about three weeks so I am still in the learning phase, but I have awesome leadership who allow me to ask a million questions and present any idea I have without fear of said idea being stupid. I am basically being allowed to run with anything I come up with, but I am also constantly checking in with the managers above me to make sure that I am on the right track and that everything is still within proper standards.

Communication in leadership is critical, and the communication train must travel both up and down. It is important for subordinates to communicate with their leaders, starting with their immediate supervisor and going up. However, it is just as important for leaders at the top of the chain to ensure that each message travels all the way down. This is often where communication has the most problems in any company or organization. As the message travels down, it often does not get to the bottom of the chain and subordinates are feeling left out of the loop, which often leads to preventable mistakes being made and unnecessary penalties. This is what I would like to change when I am in future leadership positions. I have been under many awesome leaders, but the biggest problem I have seen with most is a lack of communication. Even though communication has never been my strongest characteristic, as I have always been shy and quiet, it is what I would most like to change. Not only for myself, but also for those who may be under me in the future, or for the leaders that I currently have and will have in the future.