Quote Originally Posted by Fuchs View Post
It depends.
Sometimes very urgent action is required. In this case the superior needs to have enough trust of his subordinates that they execute asap without much 'thinking'.

Those who need bureaucracy-given authority to enforce such a rapid reaction are likely the same who are not competent enough to convince their subordinates in less urgent situations and demand 'unthinking obedience' on such occasions, too.
So this brings us full circle back to leadership.

Got a delightful book the other day (available through the US Marine Corps Association) called 'Battle Leadership' by Captain Adolf Von Schell. A German officer who served during WW1 and then attended US Staff College in 1930-31 the nine short chapters are based on lectures he gave to the US military over that period (so appears not to be a translation).

He says this on leadership:

To be an officer means to be a leader - to be a leader of troops in battle. It is certainly correct that leaders, like great artists, are born and not made; but even the born artist requires years of hard study and practice before he masters his art. So it is with the military leader; if he is to learn the art of war, he must practice with the tools of that art. (page 93)