Phoenix recruiting commander briefs at Arizona Youth Leadership Conference

Photo By Maj. Alun Thomas | Lt. Col. Dave Clukey, commander, Phoenix Recruiting Battalion, delivers a speech on leadership at the Arizona Youth Leadership Conference, June 30, Arizona State University – West Campus, Phoenix. (Courtesy Photo)  

PHOENIX, AZ, UNITED STATES

07.02.2018

Story by Alun Thomas  

U.S. Army Recruiting Battalion - Phoenix

PHOENIX – Leadership from the Phoenix Recruiting Battalion attended the Arizona Youth Leadership Conference (AZYLC), June 30, Arizona State University – West Campus.

The purpose of the conference (founded in 1991) is to provide young men and women from high schools throughout the Southwest a chance to develop leadership through patriotic education.

Briefing AZYLC audience members was Lt. Col. Dave Clukey, commander, Phoenix Rec. Bn, who spoke to attendees about leadership skills he has learned and taught in his 20 year Army career, the majority of it spent in Special Forces.

Clukey spoke about the concept of the team within the framework of the Army, using his personal experiences to help guide future leaders in the audience.

Below is Clukey’s speech as delivered:

“I can think of a no better topic to generate nuanced discussion than leadership. In the military we have manuals for everything and we define many terms and codify them as part of our doctrine. Doctrine is basically a foundation and a common language to ensure everyone in the military is talking about the same thing and understands the topic in a conceptually similar manner. All services do this as individual service components, and there is even Joint Doctrine, doctrine specifically designed to assist the different armed services (Army, Air Force, Marines, etc.) better communicate and work with each other.

In the Army leadership is defined as 'the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization'. The Army goes on to provide a core set of attributes under the concept of a leadership requirement model. These leadership attributes consist of: character, presence, intellect, leads, develops and achieves. Officers and noncommissioned officers are even evaluated on their performance and potential based on these leadership attributes.

Why am I telling you this? Although leadership models, history and leadership principles provide an exceptional framework and common understanding for leaders, reference materials and study alone simply cannot provide the experience necessary to develop a leader or make you a good leader. It’s like a compass, it can point you in the right direction, but only you can successfully navigate your way there.

Before I discuss leadership further and illuminate the importance of Team, let me tell you a little more about my background. For majority of my military career I served in the U.S. Army Special Forces or Green Berets … mostly deployed to combat. Here, as in many other organizations, good leadership is critical as is the understanding of Team.

In Special Forces the nucleus of the organization is formed by 12-man Special Forces Operational Detachments-Alpha, SF ODA or simply SF Team. These Teams consist of mature generally senior nonommissioned officers who are highly intelligent, extensively trained and skilled. Most have vast combat or operational experience.

Special Forces are only 12-strong, when fully manned, and infiltrate or move into a contested area for an extended period of time. They may need to live off the land, embed with local people, and will integrate and adapt to the unique cultural norms of the country, region, or tribe.

Special Forces Soldiers are regionally oriented, language qualified, and skilled in team building, cross-cultural communication, and interpersonal relations. They are trained to conduct operations in all operational environments, but are best suited for hostile and uncertain environments.
Special Forces conduct operations that require a highly mature and culturally intelligent individuals who can thrive in ambiguous, asymmetric, and often austere environments. Of note, only Special Forces are specifically selected, organized, trained, and equipped for unconventional warfare. No other Department of Defense force has the same combination of capabilities, characteristics, and attributes.

Leading these Teams are captains, most are young and fresh from the Special Forces Qualification Course. This is a two year course that prepares Special Forces Soldiers for their unique and specialized skill sets. Most new captains assigned to command a Team have little to no experience in Special Operations, yet, they are charged with leading immensely experienced and seasoned Soldiers. How can they do this? They don’t have the experience I mentioned earlier that is so clearly important.

I’ll tell you five things about leadership I learned from my time in Special Forces that you may or may not find in a book.

First, be yourself. People will eventually see through a facade and truly appreciate leaders who listen, are humble, and admit when they don’t know something. Don’t ever try to be something you’re not, pretend you know something you don’t or ask anyone to do something you wouldn’t be willing to do yourself. People appreciate people who are genuine, modest, and self-assured.

But, in order to do this effectively, you need to know yourself. What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What’s your personality type? Are you an introvert or an extrovert? What annoys you?

Analyze yourself, the better you know yourself, the more self-aware you will become, and this will enable you to better relate to other people and better understand how other people may perceive you.

Secondly, and this is probably should be number one: be cool. Nobody likes a leader that is quick to fly off the handle, cannot handle bad news well, or is not resilient. Be even keeled and consistent. Everyone loses their composure once in a while … we’re human, but make every effort to demonstrate self-control and always be approachable.

The last thing you want is to be isolated and not know your people because they dread interactions with you. Whatever you do, don’t be completely unemotional either, nobody wants to work with or for a robot; a little humor goes a long way, as does empathy.

Thirdly; listen. This is important, you have to listen to what your people tell you, listen to what they say, but even more importantly what they don’t say. When listening turn off your transmit button and go exclusively into receive mode. Do not be the leader that talks at people, a conversation requires a two way dialog and feedback as well as for both or all participants to actively listen.

Don’t be the leader who waits for their turn to talk, that means you’re still in transmit mode. Stop thinking about what you want to say and listen. People need to feel heard, it’s important; say it with me and commit it to memory. PEOPLE NEED TO FEEL HEARD.

Fourth, say what you mean, and mean what you say. If you say you are going to do something, do it, or don’t say it. With this, and this ties closely with my first point, know what you’re talking about, do not pretend to be a subject matter expert or pretend to know about something you haven’t researched. Someone once told me a long time ago to never miss an opportunity to keep my mouth shut … sage advice. As a leader never complain. A complaint illuminates an issue without providing a recommendation to solve the problem. BE PROBLEM SOLVERS.

And lastly, this is the hardest one, stop thinking about yourself and what you want and think about the good of the Team, group, organization or your family. Demonstrate through your actions, that your team or the people you are leading are important to you, through your actions. Again, actions not words, be engaged. Find out what’s important to your people, what are their goals, what are their strengths, what are their areas of opportunity? This will enable you to be able to assist and develop them or simply ensure they get what they need to be successful.
When you become selfless as a leader and witness your people succeed, you will experience true fulfillment.

Now that you know this, let’s circle back around to our young Team Leader, how can a newly minted graduate with zero experience in Special Forces lead men of such vast experience, training, and skill when all he brings to the table is his ability to plan? I’ll tell you how … a positive never quit attitude.

I close with this, I have had the distinct pleasure to lead, work with and befriend the absolute best this country has to offer … giants. Men and women who have been wounded, lost eyes and appendages yet still stay committed to their goals and don’t let their injuries or the obstacles life has thrown at them change their course. The biggest thing that separates them as leaders is not their intellect, physical prowess or skill, but their strength of mind and positive never quit attitude.

Every member of a Special Forces Team brings their uniquely trained special skills, but they also bring their background, their experience, work ethic and attitude. Everyone contributes something and everyone on a Team understands that they could never accomplish the mission without each other. Just like in professional sports there are individuals who stand out, but they rely on their Team mates to get the job done, and in a Team there is no space for egos or grandstanders. Everyone simply does their part. This goes for Team leaders too, they lead, set the example, establish the climate and hold everyone accountable.

As a leader you have to commit yourself to a standard, and never accept anything less. You will find that in many cases you may have to train your followers or subordinates to achieve your standard, but that’s the fun part. And remember if you ever lower your standard as a leader – that is the new standard.

I wish you all the best, hope you found value or were able to take something away from this. I challenge each of you to continue to seek efforts to improve yourselves as leaders.”

• Date Taken: 07.02.2018
• Date Posted: 07.02.2018 16:19
• Story ID: 283109
• Location: PHOENIX, AZ, US