Making the Case for Taking Action

In accordance with U.S. law and Army regulations, Army leaders are responsible for taking measures to safeguard the morale, physical well-being, and general welfare of their fellow officers, enlisted Soldiers, and Civilians. All Army professionals who witness counterproductive leadership behaviors have a responsibility to address them, but how do you do so in an effective and constructive way that doesn’t lead to more problems? What assumptions do you have about what taking action will entail? Are they true? To help answer these questions, explore the potential pros and cons of taking action.

Inaction

• Cons: You may become a target even if you remain silent, the behaviors can worsen leading to negative effects (decreasing readiness, morale, etc.) for you and the unit, you may violate your personal values and the Army value of courage, and you may create resentment among your subordinates.
• Pros: You may avoid being a target, you remain loyal as a friend, you protect your Army career, and you avoid escalating an incident that is potentially minor.

Action

• Cons: The leader could double down on their behavior, the behaviors could be directed at you, and your career could face setbacks.
• Pros: The behaviors could decrease or stop, you stick to your values, and you learn how to handle these situations in the future.

Although addressing counterproductive leadership may be risky, there are many benefits to taking action and inaction often keeps you in the same situation.

Assess Contextual Factors

Moving forward and addressing counterproductive leadership can be difficult. There are some general factors to consider as you plan your approach.

Anticipate Potential Impacts

As with any action you take, there are potential first, second, and third order impacts to consider for both yourself and others. There are steps you can take to increase your chances of success when you do take action.

• Explore and Reflect: Throughout this topic, you’ll explore different techniques and reflect on how you might use them in different situations. Leverage the information gathered in your Situation-Actors-Behaviors-Impacts (SABI) analysis to plan for and mitigate potential unfavorable impacts you may encounter.
• Select and Commit: Based on your reflections, it can be helpful to hypothesize which techniques are most likely to be effective and then commit to testing them in small ways. It’s also important to consider what success looks like in a given situation. It may be as simple as getting the leader to stop yelling so they hear you out or standing up for a peer at least once in the next few meetings.
• Test and Learn: You can reduce risk and increase learning by testing new approaches and behaviors in small ways. This will allow you to learn what works and doesn’t work quickly and fine-tune your approach. As you plan your test, think about what to say, the factors to look for in the situation that might indicate it’s escalating or worsening, and how to respond if it does. Afterwards, reflect on how you did, what you learned, and how you can adjust for next time.

The key is to take prudent risks. By doing your “homework,” you’ll set yourself up to test new techniques over time that help address counterproductive leadership.