Introduction
An essential part of a successful military operation is leadership, which addresses diverse factors and utilizes several techniques and methods. There is three main leadership levels, direct, organizational, and strategic leadership. Direct leadership takes place between a leader and a small group or an individual. Organizational leaders control from several hundred to several thousand people (Field Manual 1-11). Strategic leadership involves making decisions on a national or regional level. Such critical aspects as purpose, direction, and motivation are commonly provided by the leader and significantly rely on the quality of leadership. By fulfilling the above-mentioned functions, leaders subordinate commanders and soldiers. However, leadership also involves directly leading the staff during the operation and introducing orders.
Communication
One of the primary purposes of leadership is getting the staff to execute the orders. Therefore, communication plays a considerable role in the effectiveness of a military operation. Timely provision of relevant, clear, and understandable orders may influence the coherence of the staff and compliance between a tactical plan and reality. According to some sources, listening is an essential element of communication that not only may provide the leader with valuable information but also sends important signals to the speaker (Field Manual 4-3). Hence, it may be vital to maintain two-way communication during military operations.
The Importance of Order Execution
As already mentioned, the extent to which the soldiers understood the instructions might significantly influence compliance of their further actions with the plan. Strategic and tactical planning is an inseparable part of modern military operations, and hence it is critical to ensure the proper implementation of orders. Moreover, coordinated teamwork is an essential part of achieving the mission objective. Unreliable communication that leads to poor understanding of instructions may cause soldiers to conduct actions that contradict each other. Lack of teamwork combined with potential departure from the plan may lead to unpredictable risks and not only reduce the chance of successful fulfillment of objective but also cause complete failure.
Work Cited
Field Manual. Army Leadership: BE, Know, Do. Headquarters, Dept. of the Army, 1999.