February 6, 2024
by Stephen T. Messenger
I once took over a struggling unit and my boss told me: “The good news is that you’ve been selected for this important leadership position. The bad news is, if there were no problems here, we wouldn’t need you.”
When in charge, you will be under attack. Hopefully, no person is trying to thwart your plans—although that does occasionally happen. But you will certainly face a number of challenging problems that often seem frustrating at best and debilitating at worst.
It’s your job to wear the armor of a leader and be resilient to life’s attacks.
A Soldier’s Body Armor
The third principle every leader requires is the proverbial armor of a soldier. The Army currently uses the Modular Scalable Vest with Advanced Combat Helmet. This armor combination is designed to protect soldiers in battle from explosions, shrapnel, or bullets in the most likely and vulnerable parts of the body.
Donning the armor, which weighs about 22 pounds by itself, you immediately feel more protected. The weight, snugness, and Kevlar plates create a mindset that you have more survivability on the battlefield and can confront the challenges of the enemy. If you ever have the opportunity, I encourage you to try it on just to feel the security it instantly provides.
The reason soldiers wear this on the battlefield is because it’s necessary. In war, it’s not a matter of if you’ll be attacked, but when. It’s why the military has armored vehicles, reconnaissance patrols, bunkers, and sensors—to protect themselves from the inevitable. While the physical protection is important, so is the mental.
The Need for Mental Armor
Military historian and psychologist Duane Schultz wrote about the need for mental armor in his article Combat Fatigue: How Stress in Battle Was Felt (and Treated) in WWII. He found that more than 504,000 soldiers were taken off the battlefield due to “psychiatric collapse,” a term for reaching the mental breaking point. This number roughly equals 50 infantry divisions. Approximately 40% of all medical discharges were psychiatric, and 65% of all combat veterans in Europe stated they could not perform in combat due to extreme fear at least once.
It’s accepted that every soldier in continuous combat has a breaking point. In a 1946 report on combat exhaustion, the psychiatrist authors wrote, “Each moment of combat imposes a strain so great that men will break down in direct relation to the intensity and duration of their exposure.”
As a leader of a typical organization, thankfully you’re not experiencing continuous combat. But each of us also has a level of stress we can manage until it starts affecting our behaviors.
This stress load requires constant awareness and care to prevent our behaviors from affecting our team. Stress can manifest into counterproductive leadership traits in ways such as abusive or erratic behavior, short tempers, indecision, incompetence, or disengagement among others.
Trouble will come, and you need to be mentally and physically prepared and ready to withstand the storms. The armor reminds us to be resilient in the face of trouble and lead well in all circumstances.
The Armor of a Leader
Leaders must wear the armor with confidence and walk onto the field of battle being prepared for the enemy. They do this in three ways.
- Plan to Be Resilient. The Army’s current model of resiliency is called Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F). It’s the preparation through five domains of physical, mental, spiritual, nutritional, and sleep. Leaders must prepare themselves across each domain to thrive in their position.
- Know that Attacks Will Come. It’s too easy to look at other leaders and think they’re not facing troubles. But they are. In any position, there are challenges and obstacles to overcome. Instead of hoping issues don’t arise, the best leaders anticipate problems and prepare to confront them.
- Confront the Storm. Once they encounter issues, leaders face them head on. Knowing the armor protects them, leaders confront the storms by making decisions, communicating effectively, building coalitions, and delivering success. Mental armor allows you to stand in hard places.
While wearing the armor and facing trials and tribulation, you must be careful in these areas.
- Don’t: Transmit Problems onto Others. It’s easy to take frustrations from one area and transfer them to another. Often, leaders see issues others cannot. Taking problems from one meeting to the next confuses the organization. Walk into each engagement with a fresh mindset.
- Don’t: Wear Emotions on the Sleeve. Any organization mirrors the attitude of the leader. One who walks in defeated, beaten down, or angry will subconsciously influence their team to act the same. A leader must constantly reflect the attitude they want others to have.
- Don’t: Swing the Emotional Pendulum. Followers should know the response of their leader before they even engage with them. Unstable leaders struggle with receiving bad news, and their emotions are all over the place. Be consistent, especially in times of stress.
Resiliency Matters
This third principle of leadership is about being resilient to life’s attacks. Too often, leaders fail in the most stressful times. The best way to prevent this is by realizing it can happen to any of us, don the armor of a leader, and prepare for the worst before it happens.
By practicing resiliency and preparing for the hardships of leading, it’s much easier to weather the storms. Attacks will come. Make sure you’re prepared by wearing the right mindset going into battle.
Subscribe at this link or above to The Maximum Standard. This platform is a free, no-ad site designed to help others live up to their full potential as a leader. Thank you for committing to something greater than yourself. Your leadership matters.
We are also looking for authors. You will reap the benefits by having an idea, putting it down on paper, wrestling with it a little, and publishing it for others to see. I encourage you to take this bold journey with us. We have editors standing by to help you.
Boots: Put Boots on the Ground (1 of 5)
Regimentals: Place Service over Self (2 of 5)
This website is a personal blog and all writings, podcasts, opinions, and posts are the authors’ own and do not represent the views of the United States Army nor any other organization. Podcast music credit in this audio file is to: “Alex Productions – Legends” is under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0). / @alexproductionsnocopyright Music promoted by BreakingCopyright: • 🌆 Royalty Free Epic Cinematic Music -…
The Maximum Standard 