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Leadership Eras Of The U.S. Navy Of The 20Th Century

Throughout the history of the United States Military, good leadership and management skills have been the cornerstone of all its successful leaders. These skills have been of upmost importance in terms of not only for mission readiness but for overall welfare of troops and sailors. Now, more than ever in history, the environment the U.S. military operates is rapidly changing, therefore the U.S. military needs multiple types of leadership capabilities and styles to accomplish the mission that is tasked to us. As a leader, one must be aware of their environment, a good leader knows when to micro manage a situation and when to look at the broader spectrum of things. However, a leader must first learn from experience how to deal with their subordinates in a hands on approach before being able to fully trust those same people and stand back and lead from a more open situation. Therefore, a military leader must first be a type III leader before then can learn to become a type IV era leader and be successful in producing a efficient and effective product from his or her command. The era of leadership the current U.S. military needs to be also ever evolving and not be stuck in one era, but embrace and be able to adapt to the situation and mission currently at hand.
According to the textbook, Leadership and Management, there are four distinct eras of leadership; they are classified as eras I, II, III and IV. These eras can flourish in different situations and depend on two things: the environment the organization is currently in and the type of leadership scope is sought at the time. The two classifications of an environment are “stable” and “chaotic”. Chaotic refers to changing the environmental elements such as the mission, procedures, location, etc. in a relatively short time, (weeks to months.) Stable is the opposite of chaotic in which the environment does not change in the matter of weeks to months. As for leadership scope, the two different scenarios...