Within Memorial Chapel on the Fort Myer portion of Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, conversations over how to lead today's armed forces can be heard throughout the halls.
JBM-HH chaplains invited Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Bryan B. Battaglia to speak March 3 about his experiences in leadership.
"We are all leaders regardless of rank or status," said JBM-HH Lt. Col. Larry Dabeck, chaplain, who introduced the sergeant major. "Because leadership is the opportunity to influence for good those to the left and right of us."
With more than 35 years in the Marine Corps, Battaglia, the senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had a lot to share with the dozens of attendees.
According to Battaglia, each leader requires a different formula for leadership success. Multiple sources of leadership development- more than just "Battaglia's philosophy" on leadership- will help in finding the right formula to shape, refine and tweak individual leadership styles.
"You can solicit quite a bit from those who have been through challenges before you," he said.
As the armed forces senior noncommissioned officer, Battaglia said it is "professionally humbling" to represent and lead a diverse enlisted force that equates to nearly two million men and women serving active duty reserve, National Guard and their families.
"As I look around the room, I see why our country enjoys its liberty," he said. "We all come from different walks of life; we stretch our roots from coast to coast. We come from different schools, denominations and in some cases, we are even raised outside of the border of our 54 states and territories."
He stressed that a good leader allows for professional growth when subordinates make mistakes. Passing down solutions to future leaders to empower rather than punish is key in force preservation, regardless of branch of service.
"In the military we have a habit of relating ourselves to a professional sports team," he said. "But we can also relate our armed forces to a marriage."
For example, the military has a chain of command, much like a marriage, he said. Like the military a marriage is only going to survive with good communication.
Holistic fitness model
Battaglia says often military leaders associate physical fitness with successful leadership.
The goal of physical fitness is not necessarily incorrect, but it is incomplete. For an effective leader, it takes a holistic model-one that focuses on psychological and emotional fitness, according to Battaglia.
"Members of the armed services grow up across the services focused not on just prevention of war, but serving a nation in combat," he said. "Success in the battlefield requires fitness, but the definition of fitness has been linear over the years."
In the Army's current resiliency initiative, Soldiers are taught the importance of not only physical fitness, but emotional and psychological fitness.
"Leadership development across our society works very hard on problem solving and not enough time on problem preventing," he said. "If you consider yourself an asset to your organization, then your complaints should never outweigh your corrective actions."
Military leaders must never waive the ethical and moral high-ground, and professionally uphold things like the oath of enlistment, code of conduct and law of land warfare, he said.
A leader also allows subordinates to grow professionally from unintentional mistakes, he said. But they also display the fortitude to step into situations that will prevent injury and enforce good conduct.
Battaglia is responsible for advising the Department of Defense's top leaders "on all matters involving joint and combined total force integration, utilization, health of the force and joint development for enlisted personnel."
This event was the second quarterly moral leadership luncheon hosted by the JBM-HH Chaplains Office.
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