Leaders?! We don't need no stinkin' leaders!

[Paul Sharp]

Leaders should lead.  I'm sick of taking direction from managers that have no clue what it means to lead.

Lead from the point, using experience as a guide.  Not from the office, from a book.  Until somebody gets hurt, than state that you'll have to look it up, look what up?  

Lead!  Or sit down and shut up and let the vets with 20 years on the job make the call.

[Chriss Grube]

You'll never be an officer with that attitude. There job is to tell you what reg you violated while they were hiding behind their desk.

[2alpha]

The sad truth is that those with the real leadership abilities usually aren't willing to jump thru the hoops required to get the position.

[EricW]

The real problem with getting leaders, is the people that appoint/hire subordinates for leadership roles do so with the intent of placing someone underneath them who will not be able to threaten their job security.  

Not a model for obtaining competent leadership...

[John Dunn]

Poor leadership grinds at the soul.  It is the main reason I left the military.  I couldn't stand the vindictive, good-ole-boy bull-crap that strove to do the least possible, and all the machinations that went into "getting over".

One example of poor leadership:  Army Nat'l Guard Infantry HHQ Company, I was a 91B (combat medical specialist) when we get new ambulances (the Humvees).  Six months or so later we get three palletized ambulance equipment sets (ambu bags, extrication devices,etc) to outfit our rigs.  Our fearless platoon sargeant left the pallets unopened, with the packing straps on, for years.  We never used this gear.  To my knowledge the stuff is still brand new.  This to make inventory easier.  We rolled on field exercises with an aid bag, 5 gallon water can and a stretcher.  I followed the chain of command to Company Commander level complaining that we weren't being trained on the gear and that the troops were being put at risk for no good reason.  For my efforts I was rewarded with every shjt detail that arose.  

This was a real eye-opener for me.  I couldn't believe that such colossal ignorance existed in the Army.  I watched the culprits get promoted and "earn" awards for what I considered sub-par performance.

Maybe this badness was just confined to my screwed up unit, but when it came time to re-up you couldn't pay me enough to take orders from stupid people.

(Edited by John Dunn at 6:15 am on Jan. 19, 2003)

[SiG Lady]

Amen to ALL of you. I've seen it.

I just resigned (1½ yrs) from the board (bored!!) of a large women's group (god forbid I should ever get approached by another women's group!) that was really going nowhere fast and--after ten years--didn't WANT to go anywhere. I'm out of there. They never found out about my guns, either.

I'll be doing some volunteer work with the Sheriff's Dept instead. (Now, THAT should be interesting...!) I'm sure they won't mind my guns. At least I'll be in mixed company, for pete's sake.

[gm iprod]

A lady freind who WAS on the committee of a woman's group, was appalled at the amount of time spent moaning about how that some club or another was not allowing female membership. She suggested that they should invite the President of one of the one gender offenders to come to a meeting and ask him what was the story. The committee said that there was no way in hell that they were going to let a man come to a meeting and see what they were doing, and to boot, what he would have to say would not sway them from the path. She pretty much figured out that democracy was well and truly dead in that room.

God did I smile when I heard the story.