Small Unit Leadership: A Commonsense Approach [Paperback]

Required reading for all present and future leaders, this classic is for those who have to get the job done --military or not.Col. Dandridge M. (Mike) Malone, US Army (Ret.),began his army career as a private and ended as a colonel almost 30 years later. During that time, he earned a BS degree from Vanderbilt University and an MS from Purdue, and graduated from the Army Command and General Staff College and the Army War College. Renowned as the army’s leading expert on leadership, both in garrison and in combat, he has taught the subject to noncommissioned officers, West Point cadets, and students at various army service schools to include the Army War College. An audiotape he prepared on leadership, Soldier, has some 50,000 copies in circulation among army troop units worldwide. He died in 1995.1
 
The Purpose of Small-Unit Leadership
 
On the battlefield. That’s where it is that you—Captain, Lieutenant, Sergeant—will do what it is our Army meant for you to do when you were offered the chance to become a small-unit leader.
 
The mission of the Armed Services is to defend this nation. Our Army’s part of that mission is to fight the land battle. Your part of the Army’s mission is to lead soldiers and small units during that battle. As a troop leader, that’s what you’re for and why you are. Your ultimate purpose is to lead. Troopers. On the battlefield.
 
As you study this leadership book, you will see many examples from the combat arms. But this book is not just for the combat arms. It is designed for use by all small-unit leaders in all kinds of units. “How to lead” doesn’t change that much from one kind of unit to another. The missions may vary and the situations may vary, but the central responsibilities of leaders in a rifle company are not all that different from the leadership responsibilities of the leaders in, say, an MP company. Iló¦