MY LEADERSHIP HISTORY

Author : Capt Hutagalung, checked by Maj Thrush USAF

LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOR IN MY SQUADRON

            Life is never ended learning process, it also happens when I learned leadership in my duty. Like Mr. Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.”[i] I learned many things about leadership from my unit in Indonesian Air Force when I was posted at Squadron 7^th, Wing 

8^th, Suryadarma Air Force Base[ii] in 2010.  Until now, I have met some squadron commanders with different leadership behavior. But, one of the most interesting for me was my first squadron commander during my first two years. He used reward and punishment method for motivation his members. Actually, I did not totally agree with his method at the time, but as a good follower, I tried to execute his order. And I think another leadership behavior probably is more than appropriate with that situation.

       

     As a young officer in my unit, I needed to adapt quickly and learn many things, not only flying but also about my new squadron behaviours. And the most important thing, I needed to know about my squadron commander’s character. He always emphasized professionalism and performance in our daily duty. Especially with a new officer liked me, he behaved very assertive, inflexible and a little bit arrogant, this condition often made me feel uncomfortable. When he started an instruction to me, it was always followed by some pressures and I knew that some punishment already wait if I failed. In my military life, this condition popular with name reward and punishment method and it forced me to always focus with my job and excellent in all I do, because there is no excuse for error. As a junior officer it was very hard to satisfy my commander with my work outcome. Actually, as a human being nobody is perfect and neither am I. Because of that, I made many mistakes and punishment in his regime. More over, I did not have any space to improve my self potential, or just to enjoy my daily life. Every day were a work day, and every work were a hard work.

        
    Furthermore, if we look at the Full Range Leadership Model (FLRM)[iii], reward and punishment method truthfully same with Contingent Reward (CR), with definition; Contingent Reward is a constructive transaction between leaders and followers.[iv] It was part of Transactional Leadership Behavior.[v] As an example, if my commander asked me an order, and if I just did a good job, it was normal, but if I made a failure, it means some punishments waited for me. Because this leadership behavior, it made my self always felt under pressure when received an order from my commander. And my relationship with my first commander was not good enough, because of that pressure I was always afraid to make a mistake of my job. I took action very carefully and did a job to avoid a mistake. And sometimes it made me afraid to do something, moreover in particular condition I better did not do anything when I felt doubt. Eventually, this condition successfully killed my creativity sooner or later.

            On the other hand, I thought that Contingent Reward behavior was not suitable for me in that situation. As a  future leader candidate from Indonesian Air Force and also for my squadron,  I prefer Transformational Leadership Behavior[vi] to be applied in my squadron. According to FRLM, we know that one of the best leadership behavior is Idealized Influence (II), with definition; Transformational leaders exhibiting idealized influence behavior projects themselves as positive role models for followers to emulate.[vii] In my perspective, this leadership behavior was a leader who led by examples. As a leader, everything that we said to our subordinate, it means we should able to do it with ourselves, or give examples first before we give an order. As an example, if we ask our subordinate to come on time every day, it means we should never come late in every activities, moreover we become the first man who arrive. With this leadership behavior, I could try my best to emulate my leader or my commander at that time. And I would use all of resources in my squadron to accomplish my job as soon as possible. I would not afraid to try something new in my job with a purpose to make an excellent job. Finally, this condition  would able to encourage my innovation and creativity in my duty.

            Eventually, I had told about my first time experiences as a junior officer when started service in my squadron. I met a squadron commander who applied contingent reward as a leadership behavior, and this condition disable me from improvement of my self potential. I so afraid to do something, because a failure was not acceptable for my commander. On the other hand, I prefer the Idealized Influence leadership behavior to apply in my squadron. As a leader from military organization, I should do what I said to my subordinate and give a good example for them. Like General Soedirman (The first Indonesian Armed Force Commander) said, “The best place for leader was in the middle of his members.”[viii] Firstly, we need to be a good follower before become a good leader. And as a officer, we should never forget to give a good examples to our subordinate. Lead them by your actions, not only by your orders.

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[i] Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Quotes”, https://www.wordsmile.com/kata-mutiara-bahasa-inggris-kepemimpinan-leadership-artinya

[ii] Dispenau, ww.tni-au.mil.id, content/lanud-suryadarma-0, November 2010

[iii] Dr. Fil J. Arenas, Lt Col Daniel Connelly, USAF and Maj Michael D. Williams, USAF, “Developing Your Full Range of Leadership: Leveraging a Transformational Approach”, The Full Range Leadership Model, August 2014, p.9

[iv] Ibid, p.13-15

[v] Ibid, p.13-18

[vi] Ibid, p.18-29

[vii] Ibid, p.20-22

[viii] General Soedirman, “Quotes”, https://jagokata.com/kutipan/dari-jenderal_soedirman.html?page=2