Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Debra Richardson | Col. Raul E. Gonzalez, Integration and Assessments Division chief stationed at Fort...... read more read more
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HOHENFELS, Germany—Action films have historically portrayed Army leaders as stern, robust and no-nonsense, teaching young Soldiers important lessons through humor and punishment. Most Soldiers remember their first days in uniform, fearfully responding to demands and instructions shouted from various drill sergeants during basic training. With minimal delay, one of those fearful, anxious Soldiers is identified as a leader and placed in charge of their peers.
Harnessing new, inexperienced Soldiers and giving them high levels of responsibility and authority is commonplace in the Army. Army leaders need to have strong moral character and be competent, agile, and knowledgeable, and it is understood that strong, natural leaders will progress up the chain of command, serving in mentorship roles with increasingly more responsibility.
But how does the Army bridge the gap between innate leadership and the intentional development of great leaders?
Col. Raul E. Gonzalez, Integration and Assessments Division chief stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, grew up in the ranks of infantry and Ranger units. As a young captain, Gonzalez was offered an opportunity take a teaching position at the Virginia Tech ROTC program in 1997. He credits this experience with helping to develop his own style of leadership, which he refers to as “Hard Leadership.”
“In the Army, especially in combat arms, physical training and understanding weapons systems and equipment are things you enjoy doing, and you become very good at it, and it’s a very competitive environment,” Gonzalez explains. “When I transitioned to Virginia Tech, it was a very different environment, and I had a very different type of leader.”
In today’s fast paced environment, leaders can be overwhelmed with strength reports, training preparation and planning, maintaining physical fitness and medical readiness, and ensuring the readiness of hundreds of subordinates, all while maintaining awareness for today’s complex, expeditionary environment. These competing priorities can hinder a leaders’ ability to be attentive to Soldiers and their morale.
While at Virginia Tech, Gonzalez fell under the leadership of retired Col. Dennis Cochran who taught him many lessons on the hard things of leadership.
“He taught me how to be compassionate, how to be understanding, and he taught me truly what care means, in the whole vernacular of taking care of Soldiers,” Gonzalez says.
The Army teaches leaders to ensure a Soldier’s physical well-being, but Cochran emphasized the need to ensure their mental and emotional well-being.
Gonzalez says it’s easy to hold a leadership position, but the harder task is to be a little more humble, patient and understanding in order to truly connect with the human domain and improve an individual as a person and as a Soldier.
“I’ve found that this is seldom talked about, especially in a combat arms environment, because it is typically more of a ‘hooah hooah’ environment where we are taught to put aside our emotions and our feelings,” explains Gonzalez. “In this culture, we fail to realize that humans are emotional beings with feelings and thoughts, and Soldiers will perform a task much better if they know their leader understands that.”
While Army culture creates command climates that reward conformity, Gonzalez sees the value in rewarding merit and supporting Soldiers by developing emotionally intelligent leaders who understand that Soldiers have unique needs, abilities and dreams.
“I’ve never had a retention problem in any of my organizations, and I’d like to think I can attribute it to the command climate that we provided because it was a brotherhood of caring and understanding; that I am going to do for you even what I may not do for myself,” says Gonzalez. “Once you have that bond, it’s truly a special thing.”
Gonzalez says he has explained Hard Leadership to those in his command, to include a detachment command, two company commands, a battalion command, and a brigade command, with the expectation that leaders are provided the opportunity to see it, experience it, and learn how to integrate it into their own unique leadership style.
“To be a great leader, you have to be true to yourself,” says Gonzalez. “Get grounded in the basics and develop how you’re going to convey those basics to your organization. Most importantly, live it; people will always remember what they see you do rather than hearing what you do.”
| Date Taken: | 05.05.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 05.05.2018 07:00 |
| Story ID: | 275840 |
| Location: | FORT BLISS, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 3,506 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Army leader focuses ‘hard’ on empathy, compassion, by SFC Debra Richardson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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