Leadership

Working these last few weeks as the acting First Sergeant for my company, I've talked a few times with junior NCO's about leadership. Shockingly, I'm sure, I have strong opinions about leadership. I've served under a few good leaders and a lot of bad ones. I thought I'd put down some thoughts on what I've come to believe after 22 years in the Army.
This will probably go to several parts so I'll make a tag for these posts.

First and most important, I think, is that leaders have to understand that they get what they deserve. Unless you are stepping into a unit or group that has suffered under poor leadership before you get there, you create the atmosphere in your unit. You teach your troops how you want them to act towards you and react to you. For good or for bad. You get what you give.

If your troops are undisciplined, slow to respond to orders and generally don't give a shit about the unit, (with rare exceptions,) that's the leaders fault. It may have been different once, but for a long time now all Soldiers have been volunteers. So we are starting with troops who want to be in the Army. There is a certain number of kids who realize they made a huge mistake and they can be a problem, but even they will usually step up if you treat them right.

But for the most part, if you have a bad Soldier, a leader created that bad Soldier. A failure of leadership took place, or more likely a series of failures. From what I've seen it's also pretty rare that poor leadership effects only individual Soldiers. More likely an entire squad, platoon or company will be effected.

At some point, when I have time, I'm thinking I'll write about a couple of specific aspects of leadership.
Being liked vs. being respected.
The fine line between hardcore and stupid (setting the example.)
Responsibility vs. authority (and exactly why you have to do what I say.)
Answering questions.