SOFT SKILLS TO BATTLE A TOUGH ENEMY


I believe that our leaders challenged everything about the situation we found ourselves in, but they did it in a way that pulled everyone together, not by force but by commitment.


Army, National Guard and Reserve— their families, civilians, and Soldiers for life—retirees and veterans. We win through our people, and people will drive success in our readiness, modernization and reform priorities. We must take care of our people.”


Leadership matters. It is the people who keep the Army’s strategic approach to modernization strong and priorities on track, but it takes leaders who lead to maintain a healthy and motivated work- force. We generated our strength at home and our self-worth at work. Leaders provided a sense of direction. Teir soft skills continue to prove to be indispens- able in challenging times. Tere is a clear correlation between leaders’ emotional intelligence and the performance of their organization. Tese skills operate in both verbal and non-verbal areas responsible for emotional sensitivity and expressiveness.


HAVE WE CROSSED THE RUBICON AS A NATION? COVID-related challenges required a lens that looks beyond what we understand, and focuses on factors that affected behav- iors. Paul Sparrow and Carry Cooper, in their 2014 article, “Organizational effec- tiveness, people, and performance: new challenges, new research agendas,” remind us that unlike in the 1950s, when orga- nizations focused on a system model as a determinant of organizational effective- ness, modern organizations attribute this responsibility to leaders. Tis is because


134 Army AL&T Magazine Winter 2021


leadership matters. We look to leaders for guidance and example. We hope they can create that internal or external customer perception that makes all of us appear strong and ready to deliver regardless of the enemy we face. We know there is more to performance than the interplay among productivity, flexibility and profit. And to that extent, I was glad to see our leaders making effective consequential decisions quickly and under intense pressure, often with incomplete information.


Te environment we have found ourselves in triggers both positive and negative emotions. Some of us might have even experienced cognitive dissonance while attempting to discern everything 2020 had to offer. We continue to search for our COVID-19 identity. As we filter through the news reports and other sources of information, we wonder how we fit in. It is likely that this question remains unan- swered for many. Te line between truth and lies is as cloudy as it was in March 2020. It seems that creative destruction is at its best with one small exception: COVID-19 went straight for destruction, putting creativity aside, but leaders fought to bring it back.


For more information, contact the author at bozena.berdej.civ@mail.mil.


NOTE: Tis article is based on the author’s approved doctoral research. Her disserta- tion, “Leader emotional intelligence as a response to creative destruction and its


effects on organizational effectiveness,” closely reflects her people-centered lead- ership values. Te author strongly believes that one cannot become an effective leader without having the desire to grow others. Terefore, the concept of emotional intel- ligence is, in her view, a critical element in effective leadership. Her extensive research delivers evidence that empathy and social skills are two indispensable facets of emotional intelligence required for building effective organizations.


DR. BOZENA “BONNIE” BERDEJ serves as the acting acquisition manager supporting


the headquarters acquisition


team at JPEO A&A, Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey. She began her government career there in 2009 as a procurement analyst in the Office of the Project Manager for Close Combat Systems, advancing to become the senior business management in the Office of


specialist the Project Manager for


Conventional Ammunition Systems, before assuming her current responsibilities. She holds a doctoral degree in management from University of Maryland University College. A member of the Army Acquisition Corps since 2012, she is DAWIA certified Level III in program management and Level I in business – financial management, and is certified Level III in security cooperation by the Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management. She also holds Black Belt Six Sigma certification. Her first article for Army AL&T on emotional intelligence appeared in the Spring 2020 issue.


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