Operational Leadership- What Is It?

This monograph focuses on identifying, defining, and analyzing, operational leadership. Leadership is professed to be the most important element of combat power yet it remains essentially a theoretical construct defined more by its attributes than its effects. Leadership is more than the sum of its parts. Doctrine defines leadership as the process of influencing others to accomplish a mission by providing purpose, direction, and motivation. Nevertheless, this definition seems broad and reflective of our difficulty harnessing and putting leadership, the concept, in precise form. Hence, it is from this point that the author departs to identify and analyze the relatively new term in our lexicon, operational leadership. Operational leadership will be examined primarily through the constructs of vision, mentoring, and organizational culturecommand climate. Leadership at the operational level demands a thorough understanding of war. This understanding is more than just technical and tactical competence. A true understanding of war is borne of history, theory, education, training, and experience. Leadership is an amalgamation of these and other elements therefore, it is difficult to assess the effectiveness of leadership because no one component is dominant. Thus, operational leadership is not the result of a finite acquisition of traits or characteristics, but rather, a continuous, learning process. Nevertheless, there are some key characteristics that operational leaders should possess. Specifically, this monograph will examine operational leadership from a perspective that the author considers critical to developing, maintaining, and sustaining effective leadership at the operational level.