Introduction
In the United States, serving at the army is a duty that comes from a sense of responsibility and trust. The two virtues not only revolve around caring for the American public but also for the nation’s resources and the army family. Stewardship within the military ensures that professionals maintain a high trust level for the profession and its existence. Therefore, strategic leaders must reinforce that culture of trust among the soldiers, a special responsibility that allows for accountability and dependability. Stewardship is critical in the army since it helps understand why leaders can create unified teams, generate collective understanding, offer strong leader’s intent, and drills a methodical ingenuity.
Trust is a critical component of the army professionals’ service. It is of paramount significance that every relationship in the army is established on belief. On the one hand, the professionals must have faith in each other; on the other hand, it is an integral aspect of upholding the public’s trust (U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, 2018). The trust culture in the military relies on the decisions, policies, directives, systems, and programs that senior leaders reinforce to effectively serve the public and the government (U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, 2018). Therefore, it is the responsibility of strategic leaders to review issues that can potentially impact the army profession constantly.
Importance of Stewardship of the Army Profession
Since the army profession is the most trusted in the U.S., it is essential to establish a trust culture among the soldiers. In the service personnel and the public, values and ethics are fundamental to the culture, which defines the essence of being an army or soldier civilian (U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, 2018). Therefore, maintaining high trust levels among professionals requires senior leaders to be conscious of the trends, challenges, and improvement opportunities that might affect the military (U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, 2018). The significance of stewardship in the army profession comes from the active responsibility of ensuring that every army and civilian can instill values and ethics in the upcoming generation.
Reasons why having Stewardship is Important to Army Leaders
The most effective army teams have their foundations entrenched in the bedrock of the trust culture in the military. The culture is responsible for the creation of cohesive teams whose leaders do not just build accidental mutual trust with their team members (U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, 2018). Having stewardship in the senior or strategic leaders is fundamental since it helps develop adhesive bonds that cement a truly cohesive team. Therefore, army leaders deliberate and intentionally share their experiences pertinently and consistently with their subordinates (U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, 2018). Trust is crucial among team members, which allows them to overcome the mentality that their position or assignments bind them.
Another reason for the significance of stewardship among army leaders is that it enables them to create shared understanding. The component only exists when an entire team is committed, not just comprehended, to every aspect of a collective institutional goal (Russell, 2018). Stewardship among strategic and senior army leaders helps create an operations direction, aim, and motivation alongside encouraging collaborative efforts among team members. According to Russell (2018), when every member comprehends the specifics of the job demands and the goal completion requirement, they can relate them to the needed mutual trust among them. Through this, it becomes possible to establish a united wave effort, reinforcing the soldiers’ trust levels.
Stewardship among army leaders is also critical since it helps provide a clear commander’s intent. A commander’s intent is a concise expression of the desired end state and operation (Russell, 2018, p. 3). Further, Russell (2018) shows that a leader’s ability to provide intent is simultaneous with how they establish a common understanding with their subordinates. Stewardship enables leaders to expand beyond the reasons for purpose creation and helps in relevance development in a strategic and broad context (Russell, 2018). The boundaries leaders establish in their commander’s intent directly relate to how the soldiers can navigate in the subsequent steps of the mission’s command process.
Through stewardship, army leaders have an opportunity to exercise disciplined initiatives. When leaders build teams that have understanding and mutual trust among members, both freedom movement extent and operation purpose are instilled in the subordinates (Russell, 2018). Through such, soldiers have the confidence to take action without close supervision. Disciplined initiatives are an opening for army leaders to carefully manufacture desired chances to share experience or knowledge (Russell, 2018). Further, it is an opportunity for the leaders to help their subordinates solve problems or task completion, directly related to leader development.
Conclusion
Stewardship in the U.S. army is critical since it helps maintain high trust levels for the profession’s past and future. Senior or strategic leaders must reinforce a trust culture to enable soldiers to be accountable and dependent. Soldiers must uphold public trust, contributing to how they can instill ethics and values in the subsequent generations. Stewardship aids army leaders to unified teams, generate collective understanding, offer strong leader’s intent, and drills a methodical ingenuity.
References
Russell, R. (2018). A Stewardship of the Profession: Using Mission Command as a Mechanism for Subordinate Leadership Development.
U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. (2018). Stewardship of the Army Profession.