Empowering Subordinates: Personal Statements

My leadership philosophy is to my empower subordinates to make decisions and

accept some risk when doing so. I value training, mentoring, and developing confident,

competent leaders. I believe that to retain quality Soldiers, I need to providing tough,

realistic, quality training to keep them engaged in the unit mission. I believe in “powering

down”, I trust my subordinates and peers to make competent decisions. I am not a

believer in a “zero-defects” mentality; generally, we learn more from honest mistakes

than we do from success, and without accepting an appropriate level of risk to seek

innovative solutions to complex problems, we will not achieve the level of excellence,

which we are capable. I value competence, creativity,

Subordinates must want to be in charge. That requires

more than two days a month, and two weeks a year. I expect all Soldiers to live by the

Army values, and the NCO Creed.

Furthermore, I expect my subordinates to maintain a high state of readiness, and

maintain their individual readiness while not in an IDT status. That will involve

maintaining physical fitness both on and off duty. Also, develop a good sense of mental

and emotional toughness to persevere through challenging times, so when we have to

take care of each other and ourselves we can. I feel it is not only OK to seek help, I

expect it, for Soldiers and leaders at all levels. We are going to strive for a Mission

First, People Always-We attitude, so we can always accomplish our mission. However,

Soldiers are our most important resource, taking care of Soldiers is the job of every

leader, officer and NCO, and I will accept nothing less from my subordinates.We are a

family; treat everyone with dignity and respect! Diversity is not a reason to celebrate in

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Haight, James SFC MIL NG | UNITED STATES ARMY

and of itself; great organizations achieve greatness by diverse people working together

toward a common