"Standards of Excellence"

[JMA]

About natural leaders; armies don't just use natural leaders. Actually, many of the natural leaders are unsuitable for leading men in warfare. Armies are no warbands.

Yes natural leaders come in all shapes and sizes, they lead street gangs, drug cartels and some Wall Street financial firms. So yes not all are suitable top command positions as the Peter Principle applies to them too. But if I were commanding a battalion the more natural leaders I had carrying rank (from L/Cpl upwards) the more confident I would be going into action... especially in a counter-insurgency setting.

As an aside it is often surprising who rises as a leader in a tough combat setting when those with rank falter and here I'm not just talking about acts of personal bravery but acts of leadership.

Armies may in fact - due to their bureaucratic nature - blunt early on what they need the most: People who are not easily satisfied, denounce failure and work for improvement. Such persons are very uneasy subordinates and expose failure of oversight of their superiors.
The bureaucratic response it to minimise the itching by blunting such types.

A good natural leader would be able to guide and channel such people to utilise their abilities to the full... I know I worked for a few

This drive for improvement and intolerance for failure is what officers need to have without being told to acquire it.

Their effectiveness in getting rid of failures is largely a given if they're equipped with the necessary authority by the bureaucracy. You don't need much charisma for that in an army.

Not quite. In an earlier post somewhere here I suggested that some seats on aircraft out of Afghanistan should be reserved to take officers/NCOs/soldiers home who failed to perform on ops. I was told that the US does not work that way... they reassign them. There lies the root of another problem...

Note: You use of charisma. Yes certain 'high profile' leaders have charisma (definition: A rare personal quality attributed to leaders who arouse fervent popular devotion and enthusiasm.)

This guy says it best:

To lead people, walk beside them … As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate … When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves! - Lao-Tsu