Leadership
In the military, Commanders and others are trained leaders. They’re trained to guide their team through diverse, complicated, and often potentially life threatening situations. They’re trained to bring their team towards the threat, face them head on, and fight no matter what the outcome could potentially be.
While some groups with no set Commander in chief may possess more of the flight attitude, these well led teams are fighters – in every possible way. They never leave a man behind, and give it their all until there is nothing left to give, or they’ve won – whatever comes first. Its survival of the fittest, and this is what they’ve come to work for.
So does this style of approach work in the rest of the world? Outside the desert and jungles and mountain ranges? Outside the war zones?
Why not?
Set aside your view of an angry General spitting and shouting down orders at his team – making them crawl through the mud and waking them up at all hours of the night for gruelling tasks that seem most unbecoming.
This isn’t the reality of a leader (while it may be in some cases the reality of some of the training processes).
In all jobs – regardless of if you’re stocking shelves at a grocery store, in security, or in the military, there is always a leader. A person that is trained to guide, protect, and encourage. Someone to look up to when you’re unsure. They may not always know all the answers, but they’ll always look and find them when they’re not sure.
They’re hardened, knowledgeable individuals that wake up every morning with a job. They go to work and make sure the job is done no matter what.
The person that wakes up to go to the local supermarket to stock the shelves. They wake up and although maybe their job isn’t much to some people – its their job, and they will do it to the best of their ability. They go to work, do what they were hired to do, and leave at the end of the day with more shelves stocked then were then we they started. It may not be glamorous, but its a job, and someone has to do it.
Is it glamorous to trench through areas left for dead – meant for dead?
Of course not. But someone has to do it.
In security, leadership is just as important. Having a role model, a team lead, someone to look up to. Someone to go to when you need something, when you need help, when you need answers.
A support – a pillar of the team. They will guide you through your shift and give you the strength you need to make it to the end.
Sure, it sounds like its a bit of a dramatization, and maybe it is to an extent. But in this industry, there are shifts that feel like they won’t end. Details that can feel excruciating. Challenges that seem never-ending. They may not always be life threatening, and hopefully never are. But they are challenges nonetheless and having someone that you can depend on will make them easier.
Military or not – the role of leadership is a fundamental basic human need, or function and is required in all forms of work. Stocking shelves, protecting others, protecting countries. Without leadership, where would we be?
Lost, wandering, answerless. Sheep separated from the flock, without a shepherd to guide.
Leaders serve as eyes and ears. When you’re lost, a face you can look to for your next move. An integral part of a team.
Guest Blogger Rayna Davies
Rayna Davies is a graduate and practitioner of Business Management. She has developed an expertise in blogging, covering subjects like travel, world events and security. Having grown up with a father who has developed an expertise in Physical Security and Executive Protection in the RCMP and two major corporations, she has personally observed and 
experienced many security details. These experiences have included personally meeting HM Queen Elizabeth, Prime Minister Jean Chretien and many celebrities. She presently assists Sentinel Security in Executive Protection workshops and guest blogging and also assists Gloprosec Preventative Services in Intelligence gathering and Business Administration. Her passions include World travel, having visited every continent.
