Monday, 3 June 2013

What Are The Essentials Of Effective War Command

By Michelle Howe


Being able to lead groups of people in war situations is a very testing and difficult thing to do. A young officer ordering his men in front line combat faces a very different type of task to a general plotting and scheming in rear echelon office. Nevertheless, the principles to be followed remain the same at every level fo war command.

Leadership in a situation of conflict needs to have a clear idea of what it is hoping to achieve, of what its aims are. A leader needs to inspire a group of people, often very dissimilar in their temperaments and motivations, to cooperate in hope of achieving a specific task. A leader is there to provide the glue and the inspiration which bonds a team together; without a leader, a team is merely a crowd.

A sharp intellect is one essential characteristic that a good military leader must possess. Without the fundamentals of a sharp mind and good reasoning ability being in place, making the right decisions will be very difficult. Not being clever enough will also have other consequences, especially when it comes to planning operations.

To complement good basic intelligence, a commander should also possess empathy and human understanding, as the ability to see things from the perspective of other people is crucial. A commander needs to be able to work out how his own troops might react to certain orders. He or she also needs to consider how an enemy will react, and to keep several possibilities in his or her mind at the same time.

Indecision is one quality which no military should ever have. Prevaricating does an officer no favours, whether they are on the front line or developing tactical responses from a back office. Acting decisively is vital in warfare, and there is little time to consider and mull over decisions when lives are at stake.

Calmness under pressure is another quality which is invaluable for any kind of military leader. The pressures of combat situations are unlike any other kind of pressures, with every second likely to bring another range of difficult issues to deal with. Good officers will remain calm even when it is mayhem, and be able to analyse and make considered decisions in the heat of the battle.

A good officer should also have a deep wellspring of military knowledge from which to draw. Studying the battles of the past is one way of achieving this, but so is constant study and revision. A leader must keep his or herself abreast of the latest developments in theory and knowledge, as military situations continually change, with battlefield technology, enemy tactics and methods of treating casualties in a state of constant adaptation and improvement.

War command is a weighty and burdensome responsibility which only certain kinds of people can handle. Successful commanders often display a mix of abilities, traits and emotions which are used to make sure that they get the job done. In the end, a leader has to bind disparate elements together in a common search for success.




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