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Article: The hardest key to leadership: moral authority at the small unit level.
- Article from:
- Infantry Magazine
- Article date:
- September 22, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 U.S. Army Infantry School. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The military services often consign the whole of moral leadership to the realm of rectitude--that is, the individual leader as an upright, honest individual. There is nothing at all wrong with expecting leaders to behave in an ethical manner, but leadership is more complex than that. One could not describe Napoleon as a particularly moral or ethical man--in fact, quite the opposite. Yet, he had great moral authority over his Soldiers.
Why?
There is good reason for demanding that today's leaders be moral in their behavior. It is rather hard to demand high morals from Soldiers if their leaders are not moral themselves. It is just this lack of morality ...