Being an ethical, servant leader in military communications

 As a current or future military communicator, you will or already have been exposed to leadership tactics. Maybe you haven’t even noticed it yet. Sometimes, you yourself are acting as a leader just based on the content you are posting on behalf of your unit or armed service in general.

This week, we will dive into what it looks like to be a servant leader and how it will only benefit you along the way in your military career. We will also explore military ethics while touching on leadership, as the two go hand in hand. You can’t have a good leader unless they act ethically! In the military, your creative freedom is slim, as we have discussed throughout the life of this blog. Thus, it is important to understand military ethics when serving in public affairs.

So, what exactly is a servant leader? Servant leadership is an art in and of itself. It goes completely against the traditional power leadership model and instead focuses on the subordinates. When you make posts as a military communicator, most of your internal audience will be enlisted personnel. They make up the majority of every branch of service.

Servant leadership means that subordinates are at the top of the ladder instead of the bottom. They are the focal point. It is a matter of listening. Communicating. Understanding their point of view. Implementing that point of view into the future of an organization.

While I was stationed in Honolulu, HI with the U.S. Coast Guard, our new commandant arrived on a visit after stepping into the role. One of her command messages moving forward after taking the job was that she wanted to hear from the lowest of the lowest ranks. With a military recruiting crisis taking place, the commandant understands that low-ranking enlisted personnel are a vital resource to the Coast Guard. The branch is losing low-ranking personnel drastically, and they are even in dire straights with recruitment numbers to begin with.

The commandant implemented servant leadership when she gave her speech to us at the Coast Guard base by showing us that she was listening to the little guy, even though she is the highest-ranking member in the service and has the most power. She wanted to hear from the low-ranking members in order to see why they are leaving the service and how she can help improve it to keep retention up.

Our commandant was serving the low-ranking enlisted above herself and her fellow high-ranking officer counterparts. That is what servant leadership is all about. You want to empower and uplift your subordinates. As a military communicator, you have the ability to do that while working in a public affairs office under high-ranking officers that implement a command message for your unit or district.

It is a matter of showing humility over brandishing authority. What sounds more attractive to you?

That is why when you make your social media content or write your press releases as a military communicator, you need to consider the leadership style in your messaging. Does your command want to sound rash or do they want to sound welcoming? While you can’t personally draft a command message as an enlisted member, you can create servant leadership-style content that wraps around that message. You can display that command message in a manner that does not make your unit sound uptight or unwelcoming. That is just another reason why content creation is so vital these days. It is another means to telling your story – they way you really want it to be told.

It is no secret that the government is viewing social media as a tool these days. Social media is bridging the gap between the military and the public. When a crisis occurs, the government and military organizations can effectively communicate directly with the public and news media.

But how do we do all this as effective leaders? For starters, we have to remain ethical.

If you are still on the fence about joining the military as a military communicator, prepare yourself for learning about military ethics.

Let’s run a quick crash course on military ethics – which pertain directly with you understanding proper leadership tactics in the military.

As a military communicator, your ethics breakdown will likely start with reviewing DoDI 5040.02. This policy states that “mission success and the protection of lives and property depend on official DOD imagery being complete, timely, and above all, accurate. Official DOD imagery shall not be altered to misinform or deceive.”

This ties back to what I have written a lot throughout this blog: that your room for editorializing is slim to none.

Additional ethics considerations include altering or influencing events. While covering an event, you are an observer and should not actively influence or alter the events you are recording. It is okay to ask people to remove badges or other classified information from a scene for security purposes. Remain aware of rules and regulations when shooting in a private home or business. When taking photos of minors, get the parents’ permission first, when possible.

As you can maybe see by now, if you do not have a solid understanding of military ethics in the realm of public affairs, how can you be an effective leader? The two must co-exist. In order to truly release content that exhibits the servant leadership model we discussed earlier, you must grasp military ethical standards.

Posting on social media as a military communicator can range from a casual post about highlighting a local unit to posting about a crisis that is unfolding as that moment. How will you handle it? In most crisis situations, you will be expected to produce content at a rapid pace. You will have a tight deadline, similar to how journalists work.

You will be expected to submit your content to your higher-ups (typically officers) and get the accurate content out as soon as possible for the public. So, ensure you are following these ethical standards when doing so. When a crisis occurs, you want to be quick in every regard. That means you can’t afford wasting time by submitting content to be reviewed that is not factually correct or ethical. That will only cause delays in informing the public.

As military communicators, you are there to produce accurate and timely information.