FORT BENNING, Ga., (Jan. 14, 2015) -- A former Fort Benning commanding general visited the Maneuver Center of Excellence Jan. 8 to share his views on leadership as part of the Combat Leader Speaker Program.
Retired Lt. Gen. Benjamin Freakley commanded Fort Benning from July 2003 to August 2005 and served in the Army until retiring in August 2012 after 36 years of service. As an infantry officer, Freakley commanded at all levels through division and combined joint task force.
Freakley now works as a professor of practice of leadership and is a policy advisor at Arizona State University.
During his trip to Fort Benning, he spoke to a group of Maneuver Captains Career Course and Armor Basic Officer Leader Course students on several topics, including the importance of trust.
"Really, the essence of leadership is trust," Freakley said. "Younger leaders need to trust their senior leaders, and that trust is built by respecting one another and being loyal to one another. As long as Soldiers trust their leaders, they'll do anything."
Loyalty, he said, is central to developing trust between leaders and their subordinates.
"It's important today to be focused on loyalty - it's a core Army value," he said. "In fact, it's the leading Army value and that's because loyalty is the glue that binds an organization together. Too often today, both on social media and even in ranks, we're disloyal to our NCOs, officers, senior leaders and junior leaders. We talk badly about people. That's part of human nature, but in good organizations, that loyalty pulls the organization together. I would like to see a renewed emphasis on loyalty and respect in our ranks."
Freakley said senior and junior leaders can help to foster trust and loyalty by committing themselves to being a well-educated leader.
"In my life, from going to West Point at 17 to now being 61 years old after serving in the Army for 36 years, what I realized was that Soldiers and people will follow leaders who know what they're doing," he said. "It's imperative that our young leaders read history appropriate to their level of work, that they read our doctrine and then go to the field and think about how to apply the doctrine to that terrain."
He also encouraged the students to encourage an atmosphere of responsibility within their organizations.
"I've seen two different kinds of leaders, which transcends into their organizations," Freakley said. "There's the excuse-based organization that complains it doesn't have the right amount of equipment or money to train or enough time. There are just a lot of excuses around that organization's inability to become a high-performing organization.
"Then, you have the responsibility-based leader and organization that says, 'This is who I am. This is who my team is. I'm going to make the best out of what I have. I'm going to maximize the potential of my organization.' Those who complain all the time, blame others and don't take accountability never grow.
"But, if you're responsibility-based and acknowledge that it's your responsibility to do the best you can to lead your organization to its full potential, those kinds of leaders and units always grow and improve because they're looking for feedback and looking to be better. Soldiers want to be in organizations like that. Anybody who's ever played sports or been on a team wants to be in a winning organization, and that happens in military formations."
In addition, Freakley said it is also important to keep an eye on the changing global terrain and to be ready for the unexpected.
"I think what's happened with the advent of technology, the globalization of the world and the reliance of countries on one another and the idea of a 'flattened' world ... is that change is coming more rapidly today," Freakley said.
"Our officers and NCOs have to embrace the fact that they're going to be operating in an environment of change and be ready to adapt to that change."
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