Photo By Robert Timmons | Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer answers a question about discipline by taking out...... read more read more
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The Army’s top enlisted Soldier spoke to Fort Jackson Soldiers and leaders during the Lt. Gen. Timothy J. Maude Leadership Lecture Series, Oct. 1.
The series, sponsored by the Adjutant General School, celebrates Maude’s “love of Soldiers and devotion to the Army was at the core of his commitment to duty.”
According to the event program, Maude’s success in launching the “Army of One” campaign demonstrated his own passionate belief that service to the Nation was the noblest of endeavors, as well as his broad understanding of the human spirit seeking for something greater than self.
Maude was the senior ranking service member killed during the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack on the Pentagon.
“It is an opportunity for prominent leaders, community leaders and senior leaders in the Army to come and share their thoughts on leadership,” said Col. Chesley Thigpin, AG School commandant and chief of the AG Corps as he introduced Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer.
He spoke about many aspects of leadership and answered questions from the audience.
Weimer is the Army Chief of Staff’s personal adviser on matters affecting the enlisted force. He devotes the majority of his time traveling throughout the Army to observe training and interact with Soldiers and their Families. He sits on a variety of councils and boards that make decisions affecting enlisted Soldiers and their Families and routinely invited to testify before Congress.
“The number one thing about your leadership is do people trust you? Because if they don’t trust you, you have no influence,” said Weimer, the 17th Sergeant Major of the Army.
Leaders must be credible.
“You need to absolutely protect your credibility,” he advised those leaders present. “You need to be jealous about you. It’s your reputation. I would ask you to assess your reputation after today.”
Weimer said “If you can’t trust your leaders, there’s a problem with that, and I think we have some of that going on right now. I don’t think its all because of malice, if you will. I don’t think it’s because we have formations full of leaders we can’t trust. I think the issue is when we don’t have leaders engaged as deeply and empathically as we think we do.”
Weimer also said he was “a firm believer that if you’re not being slightly intrusive, you’re not as engaged as you think you are.” He was speaking about the leader whom a Soldier knew cared about them.
One must be humble and vulnerable to be that kind of leader.
“You’ve got to put yourself out there a little bit, which requires you to be a little bit humble, vulnerable,” he said, “and then you have the ability to be a little bit intrusive. If you try to jump into your formation and immediately be intrusive without a little bit of humility and vulnerability, it’s not going to work.”
The Army isn’t a perfect and won’t be, but leaders must be engaged to effective.
“It all goes back to where I started, which is if people don’t trust and they don’t see your audio and video matching, like physically engaging with IMCOM on your barracks, or you’re not physically picking up the phone and calling HRC and advocating for your people. You may not have the answer, but it’s what are you doing about it?
“That is what your overall report card is going to be as a leader.”
Expectation management is a leader’s responsibility, Weimer said.
“It’s your job to engage with your people from an informed perspective so they understand the why,” he said. “That’s a leader’s responsibility.”
Weimer also answered numerous questions from the audience including one on discipline.
As part of his answer, Weimer took out a copy of the Army’s new Blue Book of standards to be given out at the Association of the U.S. Army annual convention. Every Soldier is to carry the book to help them know what right looks like.
| Date Taken: | 10.01.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.03.2024 10:30 |
| Story ID: | 482424 |
| Location: | FORT JACKSON, SOUTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 8 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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