Movie Review: “We Were Soldiers” Supervisory Techniques
After enjoying the movie “We Were Soldiers” produced by Schmidt. A. I enjoyed the leadership of Colonel Hal Moore, played by Mel Gibson; he was an inspiring supervisor during the times of war.
Supervisory Techniques Employed in the Movie.
Moore applied numerous supervisory techniques that aided in the successful defeat of the militia from Vietnam. Among the used methods is, Moore courageously guided his troops to war and back. Nevertheless, he led his crowd and followers by doing precisely what he taught them to do. This leadership skill, however, was evident even before they moved to war. Mr. Hal being the superior leader assured his troop that he would never leave any soldier behind dead or alive, for whatever reason even if he was facing death, also by emphasizing that he will be the frontline soldier during war encouraged most of his followers improving their self-esteem and courage to fight for the country and the love of their leader. In essence, these leadership skills show during the war against the Vietnamese in the film when Moore courageously lead the military men and women to the battlefield. The military men seeing Moore in the front line, being adrenaline junkies, gained courage and confronted the fast-approaching enemies without fear. He also made sure the fighting men were leaders of the battlefield when the war was over, leaving no man behind real to his words. This is a full proof that he lives to his promises, which most leaders do not have.
Secondly, the other most significant trait was without a doubt; he was a motivator. Throughout the film, he demonstrated the power of motivational speeches to his followers, by action and word of mouth. My favorite quote was a particular scene he was addressing his troop and high-end officers when he said, “To follow your instincts and to inspire your men, by your example, you have to be with them, where the metal meets the met.” (Harold G. Moore et al., 2002). He also made a target that was exceptionally followed by the military personnel, both from the lowest rank to supervisors to colonels, to gladiators.
Nevertheless, this was not just a single scene by a conspicuous them all through the movie. Besides, during training, Colonel Hal Moore pointed out some laxity in his men during training and after exercise. Therefore, he decided to take all of them to a class, mainly to train them on the importance of responsibility and duty, especially to the low ranking officers, however, not exempting the high-ranking officials. This class taught me personally to learn to respect everybody irrespective of their rank and status in the community, poor or rich. This kind of leadership shows how strategic leadership roles should be. In a nutshell, to conclude on the supervisory capability of Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore, being a good leader, he devised a combat strategy that has never been tested anywhere in the world or tried on a battlefield before. He strategically taught his men to learn all the weaknesses of a helicopter and its positive abilities on a battlefield. He aimed to ensure his men are an excellent, or otherwise show how confident he was in executing his leadership roles.
Effective Supervisory Techniques
Leading from the front in my perspective was the best quality any leader could show his soldiers. Nonetheless, resulting from the front does not mean that a leader becomes more excited about the situation losing his ability to focus on what is essential. If you are an officer, you have to lead, and high expectation is expected from you as an individual. All this attention puts a lot of pressure on the leader so that he can perform the duties of protecting his people and the expectation. Besides, leading from the front does mean that you are the first individual to implement the commands you are issuing, the skills you taught during training. Therefore as a leader, your followers expect you to demonstrate the skills taught during training sessions. This was a leader shows his passion for the job, and psychologically, even if the work is precarious, the soldiers will be tricked into following commands. Therefore, this technique was the best since a leader it is your responsibility to put everything aside and strategize what goes where and why if questions arise, be sure to answer to the best knowledge to your soldier. Interestingly, there were some thought-provoking leadership techniques such as; trusting your gut, facing harsh conditions and adversity, the critical lesson is so lean that there is an essential link between self-discipline and self-confidence—a story for another day.
The Ineffective Supervisory Techniques
In my view, I feel that Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore taught his soldiers poorly in the best way and place to reprimanding and recognizing mistakes done by their superiors and minor. Accurate, any error should be corrected effectively, but nobody feels safe being corrected in public, whether a minor or a superior officer. For instance, there is a famous saying Moore liked; a leader should, at no cost, say his outfit is screwed up. If they do so, consider it screwed, and because you think it screwed, it is, why? Because the boss said so,” after close analysis, this is not a very good slogan to tell your soldiers since it installs fear and reduces the self-esteem and motivation of the soldiers (Harold G. Moore et al., 2002). However, he had contradictory leadership qualities, for instance, when he said, praise in public; punish in private.
As a soldier who is entrusted to lead, you should never, at any instance, subject your fellow soldier to public humiliation and embarrassment, especially when a superior is correcting a subordinate. It hurts the emotional feeling of your mate, and therefore a leader you lose trust from your peers and respect. In a nutshell, he was trying to say that if at all as a leader, you will need to correct your subordinate, do it in private; however, this was contrary to the earlier leadership roles and standing.
In the scene at the battlefield when the war was underway, he was slow to make decisions since he and the second in command had to get back to the drawing board. Therefore, it was me I would have implemented my teaching by following my gut and making drastic decision making so that I save as many people as possible in the same way save a lot of lives. Mostly, when your mind tells you to do one thing, and your guts tell you the contrary, follow your guts. This is because personal guts never get the answer wrong as opposed to relying on the document, which might never be applicable in the field. However, if you have the time, make good use of the time, objectify your ideas and put your guts at bay.
However, when there is no time to follow your guts, that is my opinion. I mostly relate with the technique of taking responsibility since, just like Moore, I believe that every person has a self-esteem that must be respected. Also, when I am in a leadership position, I feel that if anything goes wrong regardless of who did it, the mistake is always mine or half mine since I am the sole engineer of the fault, just like Hal Moore and his soldiers. Stressful environments often have a lot of psychological impacts on people and their supervisory techniques. This usually happens when the leader feels that the problem at and exceeds his/her ability to make sound judgment, and this impacts their ability to cope with stressors. As a result, the stressors undermine their reasoning capability and performance.
References
Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway, & Randall Wallace. (2002, March 1). We were soldiers (2002). IMDb. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0277434/
Kinders Kwytraak. (2018, March 25). Ten lessons on leadership from HAL Moore. LeadingThoughtfully. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from https://leadingthoughtfully.com/10-lessons-leadership-hal-moore/