Words: 3374
The 7 Army Values; Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage, are the guiding force in the actions and conduct of every member of the U. S. Army today. Our failure to understand and utilize the moral and ethical guidelines expressed by the Army Values lead to troubled Soldiers and bad leaders. Loyalty Bear true faith and allegiance to the US Constitution, the Army, your unit, and other Soldiers. Be loyal to the nation and its heritage. Loyalty is a two-way street: you should not expect loyalty without being prepared to give it as well.
The loyalty of your people is a gift they give you when, and only when, you deserve it—when you train them well, treat them fairly, and live by the concepts you talk about. Remember, Soldiers fight for each other—loyalty is that commitment. A loyal Soldier must observe higher headquarters’ priorities and work within the system without manipulating it for personal gain. Loyalty extends tor all members of all components of the Army. Both the reserve component (Army National Guard and Army Reserve) and Army civilians all play an increasingly active role in the Army’s mission. Duty
Fulfill your obligations. The essence of duty is acting in the absence of orders or direction from others, based on an inner sense of what is morally and professionally right. Duty begins with everything required of you by law, regulation, and orders; but it includes much more than that. As a professional, do your work not just to the minimum standard. It is important to work to the very best of your ability. It is also important to commit to excellence in all aspects of your professional responsibility so that when the job is done they can look back and say, “I couldn’t have given any more. Take the initiative, figuring out what needs to be done before being told what to do. What’s more, take full responsibility for your actions and those of your subordinates. Never shade the truth to make the unit look good—or even to make others feel good. Instead, follow your higher duty to the Army and the nation. Leaders who demonstrate devotion to duty fulfill all obligations professional, legal, and moral. Carry out mission requirements and meet professional standards while setting a positive example. True leaders always Comply with policies and directives nd continually pursue excellence. Respect Treat people as they should be treated. Army leaders honor everyone’s individual worth by treating all people with dignity and respect. The leader who feels and gives the respect due to others cannot fail to inspire in them towards himself. While he who feels, and hence manifests, disrespect toward others, especially his subordinates, cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself. Respect for the individual forms the basis for the rule of law, the very essence of what makes America.
In the Army, respect means recognizing and appreciating the inherent dignity and worth of all people. This value reminds you that your people are your greatest resource. Leaders who demonstrate respect Treat people as they should be treated and Create a climate of fairness and equal opportunity. They are discreet and tactful when correcting or questioning Soldiers and never take advantage of positions of authority. They Show concern for and make an effort to check on the safety and well-being of others. Selfless service Put the welfare of the nation, the Army, and your subordinates before your own.
Selfless service leads to organizational teamwork and encompasses discipline, self-control, and faith in the system. Selfless Service means doing what is right for the nation, the Army, your organization, and your people and putting these responsibilities above your own interests. The needs of the Army and the nation come first. Selfless service means that you do not make decisions or take actions that help your image or your career, for a team to work, the individual has to give up self-interest for the good of the whole.
The requirement for selflessness does not decrease with one’s rank; it increases. Leaders who demonstrate selfless service put the welfare of the nation, the Army, and subordinates before their own. They Sustain team morale while giving credit for success to others and accepting responsibility for failure themselves. Honor Live up to all the Army values. What is life without honor? Degradation is worse than death. – Lieutenant General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson Honor provides the “moral compass” for character and personal conduct in the Army.
Though many people struggle to define the term, most recognize instinctively those with a keen sense of right and wrong, those who live such that their words and deeds are above reproach. Honor is demonstrating an understanding of what is right and taking pride in that reputation means this: Live up to all the Army values. Implicitly, that is what you promised when you took your oath of office or enlistment. You made this promise publicly, and the standards—Army values are also public. To be an honorable person, you must be true to your oath and live Army values in all you do.
Leaders who demonstrate honor Live up to Army values and never lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those actions by others. Integrity Do what’s right—legally and morally. The American people rightly look to their military leaders not only to be skilled in the technical aspects of the profession of arms, but also to be men of integrity. People of integrity consistently act according to principles and not just what might work at the moment. People of integrity do the right thing not because it is convenient or because they have no choice. They choose the right thing because their character permits no less.
Conducting yourself with integrity has three parts, separating what’s right from what’s wrong, Always acting according to what you know to be right, even at personal cost, Saying openly that you’re acting on your understanding of right versus wrong. Leaders who demonstrate integrity always Do what is right legally and morally and Possess high personal moral standards. They Are honest in word and deed and Show consistently good moral judgment and behavior. They Put being right ahead of being popular. Personal courage Face fear, danger, or adversity both physical and moral.
Personal courage is not the absence of fear, rather it is the ability to put fear aside and do what is necessary. Personal courage takes two forms, physical and moral. Good leaders demonstrate both. Physical courage means overcoming fears of bodily harm and doing your duty. It’s the bravery that allows a Soldier to take risks in combat in spite of the fear of wounds or death. In contrast, moral courage is the willingness to stand firm on your values, principles, and convictions even when threatened. It enables leaders to stand up for what they believe is right, regardless of the consequences.
Leaders, who take responsibility for their decisions and actions, even when things go wrong, display moral courage. Courageous leaders are willing to look critically inside themselves, consider new ideas, and change what needs changing. Leaders who demonstrate personal courage Show physical and moral bravery, Take responsibility for decisions and actions, and Accept responsibility for mistakes and shortcomings. In addition to the seven Army values attitude control, military courtesy, and the ability to use tact in your dealings with others are useful skills to have.
They are not only useful they are necessary to be successful in both the military and civilian workforce. Attitude control is your ability to control your actions and not let how you feel about a person or situation affect your dealings with them. Attitude control is an essential part of the work place. Lack of attitude control will unavoidably lead to failure. Several of the Army values fall under attitude control and the use of them will insure that you are exercising proper attitude control.
The values include loyalty, duty, respect, and integrity. The value of loyalty is necessary in attitude control because as stated in the definition above people including Soldiers will give it to you only when you train them well, treat them fairly, and live by the concepts you talk about. If you act in opposition to this Army value and differently then you wish others to act by not controlling your actions or behavior you will never earn their respect or be fully able to show yours. A sense of duty is also an important part of attitude control.
As a Soldier, your obligations include controlling your actions and behavior by not doing or saying anything that will bring negative opinions or actions towards the Army and your attitude directly affects the standard of your work performance. An inability to control your attitude will always negatively affect your work performance. Respect is probably the value that most determines a persons attitude control. If you fail to show proper control then it will be very hard to show dignity and respect to others or treat them how they should be treated.
As stated in the definition above the person who manifests disrespect toward others especially his subordinates cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself. Integrity is also necessary for attitude control. Being in the military, the right thing to do is not let your feelings affect how you act towards a person or situation. You may be forced into working with someone you dislike or assigned a task, which puts you in an unfavorable situation. You must be able to complete the mission without letting your personal feelings affect how you react in those situations.
Military courtesy is an integral part of life in the Army. You must know when and who to salute in both the Army and other branches of the services as well as foreign forces. Another aspect of military courtesy is showing the proper respect and courtesy to seniors. This includes both seniors enlisted and senior’s officers. Your appearance is also a large part of military courtesy and you are expected to be in the proper uniform as well as to maintain good personal hygiene and grooming standards such as shaving and maintaining a proper hair cut and style.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines tact as mean skill and grace in dealing with others, it implies delicate and considerate perception of what is appropriate and stresses dexterity and grace in dealing with new and trying situations. Both civilians and Soldiers must understand the importance of using the appropriate amount of tact when conversing with others. Tact is equally important when speaking to seniors, subordinates, and peers alike. At times, it may seem convenient or necessary to forgo this social convention and there are times when the use of tact is not an option.
However, a vast majority of the time the use of tact though it may add a few minuets to your conversation will assist you in showing both respect and military courtesy. The use of tact is an asset no Soldier can afford not to use and will assist the Soldier in ensuring the success of any mission they might be assigned. Most people have several different categories of values which play a large part in determining there behavior and how they interact with others. A few of these categories are personal, social, political, and religious.
Your personal values represent your moral character and are how you determine right from wrong. Social values can also be broken down into subcategories. These categories are folkways, morals, institutional and taboos. “Folkways” are values people accept out of habit such as not smoking when someone is eating. “Morals” is the general morality which governs all of your values. “Institutional” are the values which are guided by law or regulation. “Taboos” are the dos and don’ts of society.
Political values include your beliefs on anything which affects your country or state as well as your viewpoint on public service, voting and civic responsibility. Religious values are characterized by your respect for life, human dignity and freedom of worship. Socialization is the last category. This is the aspect of your values which determines how you treat others and handle adverse conditions when dealing with them. The army values are meant to assets you in upholding the standards in each of the categories described above.
They are a guideline for every facet of your values and while serving in the US Army they are nonnegotiable and apply to everyone and in every situation. Attitude control is also very important in upholding the army values. This skill is mandatory in maintaining military courtesy and discipline. Attitude is how you feel or think towards something, someone or a situation. Attitude is difficult to measure and is indicated by behavior, reactions to individual situations and shown in your social values.
Inability to control your attitude could lead to the creation of inflexibility and stereotypes based on inconsistencies, incorrect assumptions or other false information. Your attitude is continually changing as you interact with others and while it can affect how you conduct yourself around others, it can also change according to how you act around them. Once formed your attitude is not easily changed and doing so can require new conditions, new experience or new information. By controlling your attitude you provide yourself with all of the tools necessary for changing it.
The new conditions are created by the reduction in the friction and stress caused by the unwanted attitude, the new experiences are found by improving your social interaction and the new information can come when you observe how others react without the unwanted attitude. So the ultimate goal in controlling your attitude is to change it, so that rather than force yourself to act in a manner other then you normally would your natural behavior will conform with the standards you wish to adopt. Someone’s attitude is shown through their behavior. Behavior is how a person conducts themselves and how they respond to their environment.
Behavior and attitude as previously noted can and do interact. A bad attitude in a person will without proper attitude control result in bad behavior and good behavior will normally reduce the strength of their bad attitude. The same interaction of attitude and behavior seen in an individual can be seen in groups. When one member of a group has a bad attitude and is lacking proper attitude control, the whole group will be affected by that person. The person’s attitude first affects their behavior creating hostility and lowering the group’s opinion of them.
The inappropriate behavior then negatively affects the attitude of the whole group. This change in attitude of the group will be expressed through their behavior. Finally the negative attitude of the original person is made even worse by the negative actions of the others in the group. This interaction of attitude and behavior can be positive just as easily as negative. If the person with the negative attitude executes proper attitude control then he will show his unconstructive attitude less. When the group is not exposed to the negative behavior from the bad attitude they will have a better attitude.
With a better attitude they will not show the unwanted behavior that a poor attitude would have caused. Returning to the original person, the improved behavior of his peers will have a positive impact on his attitude. So by controlling their attitude or at least the behavior resulting from it a person is actually taking the first step in changing it towards what they wish it to be. As a general rule, honesty is the best policy. However, the truth is not always pretty. While tact can be defined as “mean skill and grace in dealing with others” that definition is somewhat vague and out of the context of this assignment.
A better way to describe the use of tact for this situation is “honesty that could be viewed as criticism but which is carefully worded in consideration of the other person’s feelings”. Tact, though truthful, is not insulting or rude; the art of tact involves phrasing things to avoid hurt feelings and to provide constructive criticism. When you find it necessary to correct someone or to point out a mistake they made you can decrease the chance of offending someone by emphasizing the positive, and offering solutions for the negative.
When asked a question which could result in an offensive answer you should provide tactfully honest answers that do not offend anyone. One clear example is if a woman asked if her dress made her look fat. Regardless of her size it would be a mistake to state that it made her look as big as a house. Rather than anger and humiliate her it would be more tactful to suggest another item. Another example of tact would be if you noticed someone had a dirty weapon, instead of making a comment on how dirty it was you could offer to let them borrow your cleaning kit if they needed it.
Tact is an important part of military courtesy and is both supported by and helps support the Army values. Military courtesy and discipline are the required in every branch of the service. The Army is no exception to this and we have our share of customs and traditions as well as the basic military courtesy all branches have in common. Our basic values of Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage of which compliance is mandatory to one degree or another require both military courtesy and discipline.
Loyalty requires you to have the courtesy and discipline to watch out for your fellow soldiers. In order to do your duty and fulfill your obligations you have to maintain the army standard of both discipline and curtsey. Respect is for the most part the same as military curtsey, to show respect to anyone in the military you must show them the proper curtsey. Selfless Service requires you have the curtsey and discipline to consider the greater good before your own situation. You can’t have Honor if you fail to show the proper curtsey to others.
Integrity and Personal Courage both require that you have the discipline to do what is right at all times. One of the most fundamental and at times least used of the army values is Respect. The army defines respect as treating people how they should be treated. While this is a valid view on how respect should be implemented, it seems to at times be misunderstood and misused. Some people believe that others should in fact be treated in a way which is disrespectful. Another way this has been phrased outside of the Army is to treat others like you want to be treated.
Added with military curtsey this would make for an interpretation which for most people would be closer to the ideals and beliefs which the Army values where created to express. This is not to be taken as meaning that a PVT should treat a SGM the same as another PVT, this is why you must employ the use of military curtsey along with respect. The proper respect for rank must be shown but on a personal level everyone knows how they wish to be treated and regardless of rank they should attempt whenever possible to act that way towards others.
The 7 Army Values; Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage have been a large part of every topic discussed in this composition. Whether it is Military courtesy, discipline, or tact the impact of the army values is easily seen. We now have a better understanding of exactly what a value is and how we manage our values. Finally we explored the nature of an attitude and ways to change and control negative attitudes which is an essential part of being a Soldier in the US Army.