I was fortunate tonight to address the Wake Forest/Winston-Salem State ROTC Battalion at their Spring Ball. While I still don’t believe I’m old enough to address a group formally (my daughter assures me I’m plenty old enough) I wanted to leave the future leaders five easy building blocks of leadership everyone inherently knows. I think they are five fundamentals leaders must do to be successful in the leadership of others. Below is an excerpt from my speech tonight.

So how do you succeed in an environment of persistent danger and chaos? We need to do a bit of backwards planning because nothing I’m going to tell you tonight is anything you don’t already know but I’m not going to tell you how to frame strategy or be a master tactician. I’m going to tell you five simple things as you enter the profession of arms that you intuitively know but we just don’t talk about because they’re almost too common sense. They are instrumental in leading organizations and thriving in chaos. Be yourself, be humble, be agents of necessary change, love your Soldiers, and enjoy your job. Allow me to explain.

Be yourself. You can fake a persona for a limited time but remember that people under duress revert to their base nature. Acting or pretending to be something you think others want to see is not being true to yourself. It’s not being true to your Soldiers. In the end, it’s fraudulent. Be yourself. People will respect and follow your authenticity much more than they will applaud your acting ability. There’s only been one John Wayne and remember he was an actor. Being yourself also means being comfortable with who you are, a confidence of character and commitment. Be yourself.

Be humble. To an extent, this pairs with the first point. You have to know what you are capable of doing. In many cases, knowing what you are incapable of is far more important. Too many people, however, confuse being humble with being passive or apologetic. Know what your capabilities and limitations are then do everything you can do reduce and mitigate your limitations. Many an armor lieutenant has humbled himself to his crew to learn more about maintenance and automotive repair. Self-study is an excellent way to get after your own shortcomings and there are great resources to help like the CALDOL platoon leader forum or the Maneuver Self Study Program. Sometimes humbling yourself is the quickest way to learn. Humbling yourself is more preferred to letting someone else do your humbling for you. Ultimately, your job is to lead a cohesive team of people, a unit, to fight and win. Being honest about your strengths and weaknesses prevents unnecessary heartache and stress down the road. Be humble.

Be an agent of necessary change. Notice the word “necessary.” Innovation implies the status quo is altered. Some status quo items must be altered. Inefficient systems and processes must be questioned. However, being a critic is not enough. Anyone can be a critic. It’s the solution part that is hard. And when no one else is around to fix it I want you to think of these four simple but powerful words;

It starts with me.

Do not be the spring butt looking for things to fix like some hyperactive tinkerer flipping a house. Remember, I said necessary change. It starts with me. It doesn’t even have to be big. It really means don’t pass by a deficiency. Deficiencies come in various shapes, sizes, and forms. There’s the uniform deficiency to the moral dilemma. My friend retired CSM Jeff Mellinger, the last enlisted draftee on active service, has often said “the second you walk by a deficiency you just underwrote it.” Passive endorsement allows protection to tipping points. Many seemingly minor problems add up over time. Allowing leeway to the minor problems or deficiencies sets conditions that are the precursors to catastrophic failure. Fixing it starts with me. Be the agent of necessary change.

Fall in love with your Soldiers as if they are members of your own family. Get to know them. Get to understand their motivations, their passions, be excited about their life events. Celebrate their successes, grieve with them their losses. Salovey and Mayer contend that true emotional intelligence is dependent upon five domains: knowing your own emotions, managing emotions, motivating oneself, recognizing emotions in others, and handling relationships. I would submit to you that the art of leadership requires full investment in each of those five domains, which means emotional intelligence, is an important element of leadership. I firmly believe our ability to understand our Soldiers is a preventative medicine measure just as much as it is a prerequisite for concerned and dedicated leadership to breed environments of trust, the cornerstone of effective mission command. The ability to acknowledge that war is human and humans are emotional beings, therefore war is an emotional endeavor allows for the emotions of leadership to assist in the validity and ferociousness of your enthusiasm. Legitimate enthusiasm is contagious throughout the organization and is rooted in the first principle of “be yourself.” The authenticity of emotion is going to inevitably drive you to falling in love with your Soldiers. And that’s a good thing. Like any good parent, however, you must ensure your love doesn’t mask or dilute the requirement to discipline or correct when necessary as naturally as it is to praise when appropriate. Love your Soldiers.

Lastly, enjoy it. The Army has afforded me tremendous opportunities from the time I entered to right now. I’ve met heroes, even worked for a few of them, and served with the finest men and women our county has to offer. We actually get paid to do some pretty cool things. I’ve lived quite an adventure over the span of my career and so will you.

Be yourself, be humble, be an agent of change, love your Soldiers, and have fun. Five items that, again, begin with four simple words: it starts with me. This adventure for many of you is about to start and you’re about to go out into our Army and the world and make a lasting impact.