LT McDonough Leadership assessment The book Platoon Leader provides a wide range of leadership situations and challenges. LT McDonough was, as a rule, very successful in dealing with intellectually challenging problems. His interpersonal tact left much to be desired and even his resilience was nearly broken down. Overall, he led his platoon very well and successfully. One of McDonough’s strongest leadership abilities was his intellect. He was able to analyze problems and implement effective solutions very quickly. The first example of this was his plan for retaining a sense of the outside, while commanding his base. He resolved to “patrol with one squad every 24 hour period” (McDonough page 40). Most importantly he chose to attend these
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Rather than describe each, he chose three men who embodied extremes of soldier behavior. Nail, the platoon politician. Barns, a man who felt out of place in the civilian world and Killigan, the imperturbable killing machine. All the other soldiers in the platoon possessed their own unique personality, but embodied some combination of the traits exhibited by these three soldiers.
McDonough’s quiet assessment of the men and NCOs of his platoon proved very useful during the remainder of his time in command of the unit. He was able to use this assessment when deciding how to adjust to the varying circumstances of the unit. Soldiers were wounded and sometimes killed, and replacements were brought in, but because Mcdonough knew the basic attributes and tendencies of his me, he was able to be much more flexible and successful in overcoming these …show more content…
This also provided a challenge of his communication skills. He had to coordinate the movements of each of his units with any nearby friendly units to prevent fratricide. One night a patrol radioed in a that they had seen troops in the area. The request for verification was very through but the situation still ended with friendlies coming under fire (Pages 120-122). The commander of the friendly unit was lost and had failed to notify anyone of their mission before leaving. Though the failure in communication was not with Mcdonough, he still had to go on knowing that he had ordered his men to fire on
Rather than describe each, he chose three men who embodied extremes of soldier behavior. Nail, the platoon politician. Barns, a man who felt out of place in the civilian world and Killigan, the imperturbable killing machine. All the other soldiers in the platoon possessed their own unique personality, but embodied some combination of the traits exhibited by these three soldiers.
McDonough’s quiet assessment of the men and NCOs of his platoon proved very useful during the remainder of his time in command of the unit. He was able to use this assessment when deciding how to adjust to the varying circumstances of the unit. Soldiers were wounded and sometimes killed, and replacements were brought in, but because Mcdonough knew the basic attributes and tendencies of his me, he was able to be much more flexible and successful in overcoming these …show more content…
This also provided a challenge of his communication skills. He had to coordinate the movements of each of his units with any nearby friendly units to prevent fratricide. One night a patrol radioed in a that they had seen troops in the area. The request for verification was very through but the situation still ended with friendlies coming under fire (Pages 120-122). The commander of the friendly unit was lost and had failed to notify anyone of their mission before leaving. Though the failure in communication was not with Mcdonough, he still had to go on knowing that he had ordered his men to fire on