Citadel Small Unit Leaders Course
The Order of the Citadel
By Sir Andrew McKay, King of Eston
Leadership is the process by which an officer influences others to accomplish the mission. He carries out this process by applying his leadership attributes: Beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills.
When you first assume a leadership role of a military unit, all your initial efforts should be directed to determining:
o What is expected of your unit.
o What is expected of you.
o The strengths and weaknesses of your subordinates.
o Other key personnel whose willing support is necessary to the accomplishment of your unit's mission.
Leadership styles:
When you assume a leadership position, you must select an appropriate leadership style to use to carry out your leadership actions. There are three basic styles of leadership:
o Authoritative. A small unit leader uses this style when he or she tells his subordinates what he or she wants done, and how he or she wants it done, without getting their advice or ideas.
o Participative. When using this leadership style, a small unit leader involves one or more of his or her subordinates in determining what to do and how to do it; however, he maintains final decision-making authority.
o Delegative. When using this leadership style, a small unit leader will delegate decision-making authority to a subordinate or a group thereof.
You should constantly analyze the situation in determining what approach or style to use. Asking yourself "who has the information and the attributes necessary to help me analyze this situation, determine the causes of problems, and plan and implement solutions?" Answers to this question will help you determine what to do and what style to use in approaching the situation.
As a small unit leader, you are in the first line of military leadership. As a small unit leader, you will find yourself as part of a group that is responsible for guiding most of the nobles in active military duty. Because of this, you must be the epitome of the professionalism that you expect from troop leaders in your charge. Respect and confidence are not issued with unit command; rather, it is earned by working hard to secure the trust of those you lead.
o By demonstrated ability in skills of professional soldiering.
o By displaying an obvious, genuine concern for the well-being of your troop leaders.
In any command position, you must take care of your staff and subordinates while seeing to getting your own tasks accomplished. Through the standards that you set and maintain, your subordinates will see the importance of performing their tasks to high standards of excellence; working and fighting together as a successful combat team.
Commanders are like barkeeps: They serve many roles. One of these roles is that of human nature. Teamwork is paramount. As a leader, you must understand those that you have been chosen to lead. Next, you must understand how they all interact into the system that comprises your unit. The environment in which your unit operates will be determined by commanders at echelons (a subdivision of a military force; a level of responsibility or authority in a hierarchy; otherwise known as command echelon) above your own. It is your duty, however, to adapt your unit's individual circumstances to any tactical situations (tactics being the collective name for methods of winning a small-scale conflict).
As a small unit leader, you must be committed to the values of your respective military establishment. These usually include, but are not limited to loyalty to the ideals of your nation or organization, loyalty to your military unit and chain of command, personal responsibility, and selfless service.
These values are the basis for the competence of any professional soldier and military officer, guiding you as you lead. Beliefs are assumptions or convictions that you hold as true regarding some thing, concept, or person.
The Order of the Citadel was founded by an elite group of knights, once upon a time when Belegrond, Atamara was home of The Citadel. They valued honor and integrity above all and were guided by their principles of respect to others, selfless service, and personal courage. They understood that the greater cause of the rule of order and discipline were greater than lust for personal power, gain, or opportunism.
Your personal beliefs, values, and ethics are important. they influence how you think, learn, and implement plans and, ultimately, act. Goals based primarily on selfish values do not serve the best interests of the realm, the troop leaders in your charge, or your military or civil organizations. Military ethics are guidelines that help you lead in a professional manner. Small unit leaders discuss, emphasize, and teach professional beliefs, values, and ethics to their subordinates. As such, your leadership, by principle, should propel you to learn military values and ethics. This often occurs naturally as respected leaders demonstrate their beliefs and values: Teaching, counseling, and providing good training.
A leader's character is founded on these principles and can enable you to withstand great pressures. Character is the sum total of your personality traits: Good, bad, or ugly. When professional soldiers of character are spoken of, a leader with a combination of traits that causes him or her to do what he or she knows is right--regardless of any pressures on them.
Additionally, a small unit leader must understand the four factors of leadership:
o Follower: Know those that you have been charged with serving as their leader. Clearly understand their nature from a human perspective: Needs, emotions, and motivations, for example. As a commander you need the trust, respect and confidence of those that willingly follow you into combat. However, all leaders are followers who need to meet the needs of their leaders.
o Leader: Know yourself. Self-awareness if a key trait of the strongest and most charismatic leaders that you will meet. By being aware and knowledgeable of yourself, you know who you are, what you know (and do not know), and what you can do. Also, knowing your leadership allows you to take on the traits that you feel are strong with them and to not adopt the traits that are not good. Remember: If you have a leader they likely ascended to their post in spite of any bad habits--not because of them.
o Communication: Communication includes verbal (what is said) and nonverbal (the message your actions convey to others). Leaders must set the example by teaching, coaching, counselling, persuading, and punishing. Communication is the key to intelligence: Keey your subordinates informed and ensure that information and intelligence is properly passed up the chain of command.
o Situation: The combination of circumstances at a given time will differ, as will the leadership requirements needed to meet these situations. Be certain that, when adapting your tools as a leader to the circumstances in which you find yourself in, do not sway on your ethics and values. Situations change, but values remain the same.
The above factors are used, in combination, to apply towards the following key areas, for example:
o Motivating people, particularly your subordinates.
o Assessing your own strengths and weaknesses and those of your subordinates.
o The dynamics of how beliefs and values are instilled in your troop leaders and how they can be changed.
o How character is developed.
o Communicating in a way that builds bonds of mutual trust, confidence, respet, and understanding among soldiers and between leaders and troops.
o How people learn.
o Developing morale, cohesion, and discipline.
o Helping your soldiers cope effectively with stress.
o Teaching individual and team skills necessary for unit effectiveness.
o Developing informal group norms or formal protocols so that they become instilled as lasting beliefs and values in your team's members.
o Teaching and training others to become good leaders.
Armed with your ability as a small unit leader to be who and what you are, and the knowledge to competently, effectively, and efficiently address situations, you are now ready to act. As competent military professionals we should not allow our environments to sway or pressure us to an unsuccessful path. Rather, commanders need to possess the tools and intestinal fortitude to create favorable situations. This knowledge includes the:
o Ability to identify, analyze, and influence the important forces in a situation.
o Ability to plan.
o Technical and tactical knowledge necessary to do your job.
o Important lessons learned from military history and after action reviews of recent and past operations.
A leader must be able to provide direction by setting goals, problem-solving, decision-making, and planning. These are often referred to as the thinking skills of leadership.
Leadership that implements includes communicating, coordinating, supervising, and evaluating. These are necessary skills to achieve goals and solve problems.
Leadership that motivates includes applying the principles of motivation:
o Aligning unit and individual goals
o Rewarding behavior that leads to the achievement of unit standards and goals
o Controlling unit culture and behavior towards a more cohesive small unit that integrates well into larger units.
1. Courage. Physical courage is overcoming fears of bodily injury while doing your duty. Moral courage is overcoming fears of other than bodily harm while doing what ought to be done; the "right thing."
2. Candor. Being frank, characterized by directness in manner or speech; without subtlety or evasion, open, honest, and sincere with those in your charge, your seniors, and your peers. Candor is a direct expression of personal integrity.
3. Competence. Proficiency in required professional knowledge, judgement, and skills. Small unit leaders need to have competence to train and develop a disciplined and cohesive military unit with all the required individual and collective skills to win on the battlefield against superior numbers.
4. Commitment. The direction to carry out all missions and to serve the values of the country, your organization, and the unit which you lead by doing your best to train and develop your unit by helping your subordinates develop professionally and personally.
Command authority is exercised when a member of the military hierarchy is assigned to or assumes a position requiring the direction and control of other members within that hierarchy. While command authority is not limited to senior-most leadership. A commander is anyone directs and controls soldiers as an official part of his or her duties. Such a leader, or commander has the inherent authority to issue orders necessary to accomplish the unit mission, or for the welfare of the soldiers in his charge, unless contrary to law or regulation.
Command authority originates primarily from the ruler, passed down to the High Marshal or equivelent, and onto their respective major commanders.
General military authority extends to all troop leaders from the ruler and his or her senior military officer. It calls upon every noble to take initiative and action in a circumstance where the realm or the cause is in danger.
Armed forces have only one chain of command, though there are parallel supporting structures to this chain. Both can be used as channels through which to pass information and places the military into the entire realm hierarchy. These chains of command start with small unit leaders (in the military channel), the region lord (in the civil chain of command) and supporting region maintenance, diplomatic, trade, or other team leaders at the most minute levels. All chains of command end with the ruler or his or her designees. In a traditional sense, the ruler often grants full power--within the constraints of the ruler's vision--to run the military forces as he sees fit. Although the High Marshal (or their equivalent) has overall command authority of the military forces, ultimate responsibility rests with the ruler.
In addition to the chain of command, commanders have the ability to delegate certain support functions and tasks to subordinate personnel. The commander's staff officers can range from the simple aide de camp through a full staff consisting of personnel, security & intelligence, operations & training, logistics & maintenance, and civil affairs officers. These staff officers perform staff work to support the commander in the things that he or she needs to accomplish. Staff work is completed tasks that directly or indirectly aid the commander in the mission that he or she is attempting to accomplish.
The chain of command has multiple purposes. Among them:
o Passing information
o issuing orders
o Getting routine by important tasks done
o Putting policies, procedures, and/or protocols into effect
o Enforce standards of performance and/or training
o Advise commanders throughout the chain of command with items of pertinent value
o Ensure overall unit readiness
Proper staff work and functioning of the chain of command allows the commander, whether they be a small unit leader or the highest ranking military officer in the realm, free to plan, make decision, and program future training and operations.
Usually a commander will consult with appropriate members of his or her staff prior to putting orders through the chain of command. Often, multiple points of view can uncover faults or flaws in a plan or order. Consulting your resources prior to issuing these orders can uncover such faults and save the commander, his or her staff, and leaders in higher echelons. It can also mean the difference between success and defeat. In an environment where results are key indicator of success being had, this is paramount.
Communication throughout the chain of command is a two-way process. In order for proper decisions to be made, analysts at all levels of command require intelligence to drive operations. This requires the commander of the small unit to ensure that all necessary information relating to pertinent matters, as determined by the chain of command.
Since the small unit leader represents the backbone of all military forces of a nation, the performance of their duties and responsibilities should be second to none.
Responsibility means that you are accountable for what one personally does or fails to do. All leaders are responsible to see that not only their own tasks are completed, but the tasks of their subordinates and that the mission is a success, to the best of their abilities. Additionally, each small unit leader must be the epitome of military bearing professionalism, and honor. They must display and demonstrate the values set forth by one's realm and chain of command. Any time that a leader is duplicitous, they risk losing all respect from their superiors, subordinates, and peers that they have earned.
A small unit leader should place training his or her subordinates to be able to replace them in combat. In the event of incapacitation, promotion, or death, someone needs to have the proper skill set to step into the leader's role. Units should be highly trained and tailored by the small unit leader to be able to adapt to any foreseeable circumstance that might take place.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
To facilitate current and future goals, leaders at all levels need to create and sustain a leadership climate where fighting skills, innovations, competence, development of personal integrity and character, and driving towards success are rewarded. A military unit where individuals are able to reach their full potential ultimately benefits all others in the military hierarchy, if done with the right intent and under the proper auspices.
Combat is stressful; for the military leader and for all those that are a part of it. War places a huge strain on troops, populations of regions, and infrastructure. In light of all this stress, the strong combat commander is able to cope with their own internal stress and help those around them deal with their own stress. While there are several factors that can multiply a troop leader's effectiveness in combat, stress can decrease this effectiveness.
Under all circumstances, the leader stresses excellence, emphasizing the high standards that make the mission a success..
Small unit leaders are often granted command authority over units that typically are smaller than Duchy Armies but larger than a single unit led by a troop leader. These mission can include, but are only limited to the vision established by higher echelons of leadership in the realm:
o Police Force
o Monster Hunting
o Region Maintenance Augmentation
o Scout Patrols
o Special Raiding-Looting Expeditionary Forces
Police Force
Police forces are government organizations charged with the responsibility of maintaining law and order. This designation will allow you and your troops to perform these “law and order” actions in the region which you currently are in. As a police force, you can patrol the streets, help the local police in raids, and perform regular police work). As a police force, there is a minor loss of combat strength and a high loss of morale if these type of troops see combat, as they do not expect it.
There are multiple types of police work, all having different effects on the status of a region:
Normal Police Work
o Takes minimum 4 hours.
o The least effective in lowering independence movements outside of holding court.
o No drop in region morale.
o The most popular and feasible way to lower independence outside of holding court.
Police Raids
o Takes minimum 4 hours.
o Third most effective in lowering independence movements outside of holding court.
o Slight drop in region morale.
o Can be a prohibited act for some realms. Please consult with your chain of command prior to ordering this kind of police work.
Arrest Rebels
o Takes minimum 4 hours.
o Second most effective in lowering independence movements outside of holding court.
o Number 2 Damaging on Morale
o Usually a prohibited act for most realms, check before you do it or get punished. Please consult with your chain of command prior to ordering this kind of police work.
Hang Rebels
o Takes minimum 4 hours.
o Most effective in eliminating or lowering independence movements, outside of holding court.
o Most damaging on region morale (and surrounding regions' morales)
o Usually a prohibited act for most realms, check before you do it or get punished. This is prohibited in Eston unless ordered by a competent authority.
Monster Hunting
While the specific mechanics of unit settings are outside the scope of this course, the following settings have, in the past, been used as guidelines in fighting monsters or undead. Superior combatant commanders have the liberty of changing or amending the following, though, as mission needs change:
# Infantry: Middle/line or box formation
- Archers: Front/line or box formation
- Cavalry: Rearguard/line or wedge formation
Monsters have typically been observed to appear in a particular region at either sunrise or sundown (half-days), stomp on peasants (lowering population) and eating or destroying food (removing various amounts of food stored in the region). They can also vanish or move onto another region (also done at sunrise or sundown). Their presence can also have an effect on region loyalty and morale.
Region Maintenance Augmentation
Maintaining a realm's regions, while the responsibility of a realm's judge, is critical to any other effort that a realm undertakes. This is because every effort a realm undertakes requires gold. Peasants produce in regions, production levels equate to gold. This gold is then used to pay for any economic improvements and militia presence in the region. The remainder is divided up to the realm's share and to the region lord.
For this reason, region maintenance is very important; and a handful or two of bureaucrats cannot, often, all handle region maintenance on an abundance of regions. Oftentimes, military commanders need to commit military forces to augment region maintenance efforts in an operation type often known as military operations other than war or MOOW.
Aside from police work, the most common form of region maintenance augmentation is civil work:
o Takes minimum 4 hours.
o Rise in production.
o Slight chance to raise region morale.
In addition, if you are a hero, you can tell tales
Effects:
o Appears randomly, any tricks to increase likelihood are not known.
o Takes 3-5 hours
o Raises a region's morale from 1-8 %, depending on the existing region stats, low stats ( < 30% ?) will translate into morale rises 1-3 % per tale.
o Has a chance to lower independence rate.
o People sometimes become more patriotic (possibly with a slight increase of loyalty).
Scout Patrols
Intelligence drives commander's decisions at all levels. All assumptions possible in combat need to be replaced with concrete facts. Because of this purpose, proper scout reporting is necessary.
A standard trained scout report contains the following information:
o Size of enemy forces
o Combat strength
o Movement activities
o Force composition
As a troop leader, you ensure that you bring trained scouts with you everywhere you go. As a leader of troop leaders, you are charged with the combat readiness and ensuring the proper capabilities of the unit in your charge. This means that you need to extend the concern for having trained scouts to those in your charge, as well. At a cost of 1 gold per scout, per week, they are well worth the price that you and your troop leaders pay for them.
Since scout reports take one hour to accomplish, if you find yourself in a position of needing scout reports from a wide array of areas while conducting another mission other than scouting, divide scout responsibilities amongst your troop leaders, and ensure that you select the most active that can get the right scout reports to the right places by the right times.
Special Raiding-Looting Expeditionary Forces
Often reserved for the elite amongst troop leaders that have proven themselves active and to have strong judgement in on-the-ground combat situations, special warfare battle groups. These are often used for punitive expeditions or for targeted destruction of something in a specific region.
While the tactics of these missions fall outside the scope of this course, the small unit leader needs to ensure that their unit is functioning optimally in that orders are given as quickly as possible, the units in his charge are outfitted properly, and that all troop leaders in a battle group like this fall into line as needed.
As a military officer, you are one of a number of key individuals when it comes to the defense of the Crown and the monarchy's sovereignty. Our offense and defense rest in your hands; thus the military leader must be active in the activities and operations of the realm. They must take into account how the other aspects of the realm affect the realm militarily. For instance: Trade & banking; region morale and control; and diplomacy.
Furthermore, the good military leader must have strong communication skills. You are leading lords and ladies into combat; some are veterans, others may be inexperienced in battle. Either type of troop leader responds well to a charismatic leader: One who can motivate troops and communicate to them the reason and the need for the current operation. Troops respond better when they know why they are doing what they are doing.
It has been noted by many a great military veteran that, in all reality, many troop leaders simply wait for recognition and to feel valuable. This is why communication is key to good commanding on the battlefield: Everyone wants their concern validated or at least acknowledged. Acknowledging their concerns will also make them feel better about being in the realm, because they know that they have leadership who cares.
Many a veteran combat commander can recall an experience when a fellow or subordinate troop leader has felt bad about a member of leadership. Gosh, most of us have felt that feeling and that's why we want to become leaders: We know that we can do better than those that came before us and we want to make an honest difference for the better in the world.
Active communication (such as, not leaving any messages unanswered, if possible) with those around you can make them feel like the lord or lady that they are; not doing so can leave them feeling like just another "pawn on the board," as I heard a great hero say once. No one in Eston is just a "pawn on the board." Without all of the troop leaders in Eston, we'd be a handful of people sitting around telling war stories.
