Withers and Dowdy
What defines a successful leader? It is the outcome of an event? The way followers feel about their leader? The way society looks back on a leader? A leader is a hard thing to describe and a successful leader is even harder. There are good leaders because they have amazing outcomes, there are good leaders who have failed terribly but tried their hardest in a hard hard situation. Then you have leaders who care about individuals and those you care only about the actual situations at hand; which is exactly what happened to Col Joe Dowdy.
In the Wall Street Journal article “How a Marine Lost His Command in Race to Baghdad,” Col Joe Dowdy ultimately got discharged from the military due to different leadership styles. Col Joe Dowdy’s leader was Major Gen Joe Mattis who represented a lot of characteristics of a leader 3 or 4 leader, someone who feels the need to show their power and make others known they are in charge. Col Joe Dowdy’s focus was on leading peers based on a personal, individual level, focusing more on the individual and the emotion who them.
Whereas Major Gen Joe Mattis was strictly focused on the war at hand, he was focused on the end result of the task they were trying to conquer. Col Joe Dowdy got to the point where in the middle of battle he was being instructed to do one thing by Major Gen Joe Mattis where is moral and values were telling him to do another thing. In a time of war there are lives at line and there is no time for hesitation. So what are you do? Do you follow orders of someone you think is a bad leader or do what you believe inside is the right thing?
Ultimately Col Joe Dowdy was discharge from the service due to the conflict between him and his commander. I think this result came because Major Gen Joe Mattis was not a level 5 leader because if he was he was have possessed the quality that he wanted others to succeed. He would set others up for success not failure. Major Gen Joe Mattis may produce battle wins but when it comes to leadership he will never be a truly successful leader, whereas I believe Col Joe Dowdy showed signs of someone who had the potential to reach level 5.
In Wall Street Journal article, “‘For Lt. Withers, Act of Mercy Has Unexpected Sequel,” a different type of leadership is described, it is more of leadership imbedded into a friendship. It focuses on the relationship between Lt John Withers and PeeWee. Lt John Withers was under orders not to home refugees, yet he found out his troops were doing just that, he planned to force them to leave, that was until he saw them. At that moment is when he started to show signs of a level 5 leader. He realized sometimes management should be based on emotion not just the situation.
Because of his decision Lt John Withers learned more than he ever thought he would. He knew he was going against orders, for he himself faced discrimination as well and had leadership telling him if blacks did not obey then they would be dishonorable discharged, again an example of leaders showing the power they had. Peewee and another refugee Salomon showed Lt John Withers what empathy was, they taught him no matter what you’ve gone through you can still smile. Lt John Withers said that is something he has kept with him forever, that no matter how ran down people or things got there is still always light.
As time passed and the two separated ways they both went on to create better lives than those they had when they met. Although PeeWee had lost the light in his eyes and had drifted away from the person he had become. Many years later when Lt John Withers contacted him he returned the favor of bringing that light back. Both of these individuals I believe possess he characteristics of level 5 leaders and show us sometimes it takes a life changing event to bring out that type of leader in someone.
Jessica Plassmeyer 