Question B

Provide a 250-350 word response to the students posting below. Justify and support your answer using your experience and source support from the assigned readings. Cayley's Initial Response - Question B The most important leadership competencies in an interagency environment are communication, influencing others, and diversity management. Communication is the most important leadership competency in this environment, as it seems to underlie Davis' other 5 Cs of leadership in interagency environments. Communication between agencies is needed for them to comprehend each other's mission and capabilities, work together, and agree on the solutions. David also notes that positional authority is usually not enough in the joint environment, since there are multiple equivalent ranking individuals from each service. Therefore, the ability to persuade and influence others is important to win them to your side (Davis, 2010). Lastly, it is important in an interagency or coalition environment to be sensitive and understanding of diversity and individual differences, whether they are cultural, demographic, or organizational background (Coast Guard, 2017). The greatest challenge with leading in this environment is the split between commander and supervisory duties. Though I am the commander of this team, these interagency individuals most likely report to their service or agency chains of command for administrative items like appraisals. This requires cooperation with the other commanders and component leads and lots of communication (Forster, 2000, 44-45). Fortunately, I have personally worked in several matrixed roles in the past, where the daily work and tasking comes from one person separate from my official chain of command, so I would be able to enter this role knowing those unique challenges. I also have empathy for the employees having been in that role myself and knowing the challenges it can pose. To mitigate this, I would be sure to provide feedback to these individuals' leadership for their appraisals to stave off the negative scoring that I experienced, since my supervisor did not see my day-to-day work. For reference here is the initial question: You have just been assigned as the Chief of War Plans in the J-5 of the CJCS at the Pentagon. The team working for you is made up of 5 Army, 4 Navy, 3 Marine, 5 Air Force, and 2 Coast Guard Officers. You also have 3 civilian interagency liaison officers, one each from the State Department, Homeland Security and the CIA. Your challenges are several but one of the first things you have to consider is building a team of officers that come from culturally different organizations. What leadership competencies are required for you to succeed as a leader in this environment in order to build a collaborative high-performing team? What do you see as your biggest leadership challenges?