Have you got the courage not to make decisions? How coping with uncertainty makes you a better combat leader.

Posted by Søren Sjøgren on Feb 5, 2013 in Blog, Leadership | 4 comments

Classic leadership attributes are generally described and manifested through work and achievement. The good leader thus makes good decisions. However, the ability to accept not knowing what the right decision is and to not make decisions is just as important for the good leader. The concept is called negative capability.

Lead from the front: the single leadership trait that characterizes a great combat leader

Posted by Søren Sjøgren on Jan 22, 2013 in Blog, Leadership | 4 comments

The best combat leaders all have one thing in common: they lead from the front. They share the same burdens as their soldiers. They never spare themselves. They never ask a subordinate to carry out a task they are not willing to do themselves and in combat they physically place themselves in the line of fire shoulder to shoulder with the troops under their command.

But why does leading from the front work so well?

Is a Danish court able to grasp actions taken on the front?

Posted by Søren Sjøgren on May 1, 2012 in Blog | 2 comments

A Danish army officer faces trial over the alleged killing of civilians in Afghanistan. The trial will be the first of its kind in Denmark.

The officer was stationed in Afghanistan’s Helmand province as a company commander in 2011. On October 23 he authorized an attack on four Afghans who were presumed to be placing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) near a Danish base. This decision is now being questioned, and the officer is accused of “gross dereliction of duties during armed conflict” violating Danish military penal code.

This trial raises several questions: will a Danish district court in peaceful Copenhagen be able to grasp the war-like environment in which the Danish soldiers in Afghanistan operate? And is it even right to question our soldiers’ actions in war?

The problem with women in combat units

Posted by Søren Sjøgren on Apr 21, 2012 in Blog, Leadership | 7 comments

In the Danish army men and women serve in combat units on equal terms. I had a female driver in my reconnaissance platoon in Iraq and two female riflemen in my infantry platoon in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.
Does leading women in combat create special challenges?

Overcoming fear in combat: How your pulse affects your ability to think rationally and make sound decisions.

Posted by Søren Sjøgren on Mar 20, 2012 in Blog, Leadership | 1 comment

Crack-crack-crack

The air is filled with dust and sharp cracks from bullets passing by mere inches away.

I dive for cover and begin returning fire. After 10 rounds I look around. My sections are in position. Without stopping to think I make a dash across an open field to get to the front section for a better overview.

I find the section commander in a ditch returning fire. He immediately starts to brief me on the situation. The words make no sense to me. I take two deep breaths to calm myself down. Suddenly I am able to grasp what he is saying:

“Four enemy fighters are in position in the hedgerow in front of us. If you can get 1 and 2 section to provide suppressing fire we can close in on them head on.”

It feels as if everything is moving in slow motion while the body is running on autopilot: How soldiers react to combat

Posted by Søren Sjøgren on Mar 15, 2012 in Blog, Leadership | 8 comments

”Soren, how does the body react in combat?”

I am often asked this during the Q & A when I speak about Afghanistan.

Reactions in combat are the body’s reactions to stress. Talking about them is often taboo. I had no idea how comprehensive such reactions were before I started studying them prior to my first deployment to Iraq in 2007

In their extreme forms a psychologist would label it ”acute stress reactions”. Such experiences are not limited to soldiers only. Any humans that are exposed to extreme stressors or traumatic events can suffer from acute stress reaction.

A review of Erwin Rommels Infantry Attacks

Posted by Søren Sjøgren on Feb 23, 2012 in Blog, Book reviews | 1 comment

A superb insight into infantry tactics at company and platoon level.

When you notice that the author of this book is Erwin Rommel,  you might think of the German desert fox who fought Montgomery and Patton in North Africa during World War II.