Although several principles of leadership have evolved as the society and people have also changed, some of them seem to be invariable and everlasting whatever the situation or time. A lot of the main recommendations that General Hap Arnold wrote to his replacement as Commanding General of Army Air Forces still have a lot of influence in the main aspects of my leadership philosophy. Considering the challenges in today´s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) military environment where the Air Force has to operate, strong and solid aspects of leadership must still be followed to succeed: discipline, good assessment from an Advisory Council and adaptability. This essay will explore the importance of discipline for the execution of the commanders’ intent, the …show more content…
In 1805, British Admiral Horatio Nelson adapted his strategy during his face-off to the superior Franco-Spanish fleet, giving more initiative and freedom of movement to his captains. More than two hundred years later, the United States Army had to perform a similar approach to the British Admiral´s when fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, enhancing more human interactions, more dynamic and constantly adapting. In recently NATO missions where I have been flying, I found among pilots a wide variety of tactics, procedures, planning, threat analysis, target profiles...etc. After some brainstorming with squadron leaders, we all agreed that to achieve the mission objective everyone has to adapt his own tactics to the overall success. Consequently, all mission were successful and we could achieve in all of them the commander’s intent. All cases formerly mentioned, which belong to a different periods of time and scenarios, succeeded enhancing a common criterion: