Leaders

I think I have perfected the arguments for the ineffectiveness of command system in the army.

The best sort of discipline is self-discipline. That is, without being told, one practices self-restraint. Clearly, for anyone to do anything without being told, he must be believe what he is doing, and is willing to do what he is about to do. Therefore, the way to do this, would be to persuade people about your ideals, and vision.

You can of course, impose your will upon others through force. But what would that achieve. People will never be convinced of your ideas. To follow you, they must have reason to do so. For they are giving up some of their own ideas, their own freedom, to follow yours. If you impose your will on others, then they will only feel resentment. Trust and respect is to be earned, and you earn it by proving it. By sincerity of actions or persuasive arguments, or just pure dangling of incentives infront of others.

When your ideas are the entire peoples' ideas, anybody who tries to fight against you, will not just have to fight you, they will have to fight your ideas. If your peoples' belief in your ideas is firm to begin with, anybody who tries to fight your ideas would have a hard time, for there is a lot of people to persuade otherwise.

If in the first place, your followers never had full belief in your ideas, or were never fully persuaded by you, then you are all that is holding them together, either by force or by circumstances. Clearly, such a following is weak; all the enemy have to do is to target you. If you fall, the entire group falls. But if you had fully persuaded everyone about your ideas, the enemy would find that targeting you the leader is not enough. For another one would step forward to continue your ideas. And another, and another.

The art of leadership? Sincerity of actions, and your ability to persuade. Surely there natural leaders, born with the gift to easily persuade people, or just do great things. For the rest of us, we will have to train it ourselves. I am certain your average command school does not teach you this.