First Word
Courage under fire
AIRCDRE Steve Moore
By AIRCDRE Steve Moore
When Field Marshal the Viscount Slim addressed officer cadets at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1952, he spoke about leaders requiring five qualities; courage, will-power, initiative, knowledge and integrity. He placed courage as the number one quality and spoke of it in relation to facing danger.
He also spoke of it in terms of moral courage, saying that such courage was a much rarer thing than physical courage. He said: “Moral courage means you do what you think is right without bothering very much what happens to you when you are doing it. It is not often a question of great issues. It is a small thing of everyday life. A young officer passes an untidy soldier on the road who does not salute him, and the officer does nothing about it and pretends he does not see. He does that because if he calls after him, ‘Why didn’t you salute?’ he may get a bit of lip back at him and it may be a bit unpleasant and there may be a scene. It is much easier to take no notice and walk on. Every time you do that, you are losing your stock of moral courage.”
In today’s RNZAF we expect our commanders to be courageous—in all ways. Courage is core to our values. If commanders don’t show the necessary courage then their effectiveness as a commander is undermined.
Command is not easy and there are many competencies a commander is required to use in exercising that command. One of the most important is to care for their people. This does not mean a commander seeks to be everybody’s friend. What it does mean is a commander needs to be open and honest and do the right thing when required, no matter how unpalatable that might be.
Our personnel reporting systems, whether it is an OPR, CPA, course report or record of conversation, are great examples of where openness and honesty needs to come to the fore—for the sake of our people and their development. If we fail to be open and honest we show a disservice to our people and to ourselves as an organisation. We cannot be the great organisation we aspire to be unless we, as individuals, examine ourselves critically and seek to improve in this area. This is courage of command.
Courage is indispensable during times of pressure. Now is a time of pressure for the RNZAF, particularly with delays in our major projects—projects we are relying on to allow us to continue delivering military air operations into the future. The situation is one of great frustration, where resources—particularly people—are scarce.
Difficult decisions have to be made, decisions that will not sit well with some, even after the reasons are explained. But those making the decisions need to be professional and objective; to listen to advice but ultimately make decisions judged against Service interests. Bottom line is commanders have to be prepared to make these hard decisions—to do the right thing. This is courage of command.
Viscount Slim ended his quote by advising: “Every time that you check a man for something that is wrong you add to your stock of moral courage and you build it up. Do not think you can dodge the little issues—the little everyday things of duty—and then, when the great test comes, you will be alright. You won’t, because you will have undermined the foundation. That is the courage that makes him do what is right because he believes it to be right.”
Let’s make sure our foundation stones of values, culture, and continuous improvement are solid.
Let’s make sure we demonstrate moral courage in everything we do, no matter how big or small.
Let’s make sure we are courageous commanders.