Leadership Stratification: From Warrior to Healer to Authentic Influence

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Philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes asserted that competition drives a man to succeed because man's innate desire to assert dominance over his fellow man is the precise engine that powers all his endeavors (Edwards, 1967, p. 463). If that is true and accepted, given the nature of leadership roles in both the military and the healthcare sector, the author, like many other formal leaders, recognizes, from personal experience, that a more social and less iron-fisted (Bass, 2008a, p. 278) approach proved advantageous in the civilian workforce. Because the military leadership style failed to produce follower alignment in the healthcare leadership role previously held, the experience of the military-to-civilian leadership transfer was negative.

The negative experience of leader role transfer is as scholars such as Bass (2008a) detail and explain that when a style of leadership for instance authoritarian, native of Marine Corps management is brought to a new role in the civilian sector and to the extent where the old style of leadership is distastrous and unfavorable in the new role, the greater the adverse effect will be. The leader will need to adapt and implement new ways of organizational influence to effect behavioral change and ultimately achieve the organization's goals. For the author, the latest methods had to be learned through divine wisdom, friendly counsel, ancient philosophy, guided mentorship, and comprehensive interdisciplinary literature reading and personal experience to ultimately be more of an ideal authentic team player as Bass (2008c, p. 36) illuminates the type of leader that is sold out on organizational codes of conduct and standards while aiming at and achieving with purpose what they believe are the right, honest and noble objectives to work towards.

Although it is debatable both experientially and discussed in the leadership literature of effective styles of influence over direct reports, experience comes with a premium tuition. Military-style leadership thrives in the realm of top-down authority and command and control, and methods and techniques adapted, ingrained, and proven effective in military service have become bankrupt in the civilian world of healthcare organizational leadership, becoming, for the author of this blog, painstakingly apparent ex post facto.

For example, as mentioned earlier, as Bass (2008a) indicates, and especially important for veterans, is the need for a less rigid and overbearing presence of style and more of a genial approach, understanding in the civilian workforce where people are employees and not comrades in arms and finally, when exercising direction and instruction to direct reports refrain from expecting unmitigated compliance.

One of the challenges with transitioning from the military to civilian life can be better understood from the wisdom of early-history thought thinkers, who suggest that fundamental human nature is to preserve oneself, or, if put another way, to live self-absorbed, even under the guise of altruistic intention (Edwards, 1996, p. 463). If a person is honest with themselves and considers the 16th-century thinker Thomas Hobbes, whose writings bring a fresh insight like a cool breeze on a warm summer day, one would agree with his statement that at one point in time "men lived upon gross experience" (Hobbes, 1952, p. 267); and as Thomas Aquinas contemplated centuries ago that man has a common struggle between "what I owe to myself and what I owe to others" (Edwards, 1967, p. 463). It is just the experience of learning what worked in the Marines that would not work in the hospital, and becoming cognizant of the self-centered agenda that most veterans undergo, which surpasses their previous training and education, that the author of this blog relearned to adapt, improvise, and overcome new situations.

Whereas military leadership is contrasted with healthcare organization leadership, the parallels are not few. Military training is indispensable for those who may be sent into armed conflict, and the backgrounds, principles, and ways of life it fosters are the lifeblood of today's military (Bass, 2008b). The Marines, however, increase the level of intensity, for it is well known and quite irritating to other branches of the military that the fighting spirit of a US Marine is such that they are insolently convinced that they are better than everyone else (Alexander et al., 1997). Small-unit leadership skills — like the fire team leader in a Marine squad, responsible for four team members — parallel the nurse's role as a primary care provider in the ICU, caring for two critically ill patients. 

The critical care nurse knows and practices to the full extent of their license; they incorporate at each interaction a system of patient assessments, make quick diagnoses of patients' current status, prescribe a plan to care for the patient, and implement and evaluate the effectiveness of physician-ordered medications, treatments, and therapies (Underhill et al., 1982). Healthcare literature experts also emphasize the need for a comprehensive understanding of system challenges and workflow barriers (Bernhardt & Samost, 2025) characteristic of forward-deployed military service and management of the critical hospital patient. In other words, job experience is one of many qualifiers for elevated leadership roles.

The Marine's strength lies in his ability to exercise control of the situation. Reflecting again on the insight from Hobbes —a discourse on the concept of power that men are inclined and drawn to, like iron filings to a magnet — will help shed light. The force is strong such that men use this power purposefully to acquire the means of money, status, and social influence, and to an extent makes his fellow man live in a fearful relationship to him or become totally dependent on him like a babe nursing at the breast (Hobbes, 1952, pp. 71-72). Understanding how this innate function manifests itself is not self-evident.

Most pointedly, as other scholars have documented, what became increasingly apparent through trial and error to the blog author and endorsed are skills in active listening without immediately trying to solve problems, awareness of cultural differences in leader-follower relationships, and adaptation of communication techniques that foster healthy conflict resolution (Bernhardt & Samost, 2025). However, it is not until one undergoes the struggle for influence as a leader in their social and relational connections that they learn that the actual effects of good and bad leadership styles are context-, situation-, and member-dependent.

References:

Alexander, J. H., Horan, D., & Stahl, N. (1997). A fellowship of valor: The battle history of the United States Marines. HarperCollins.

Bass, B. M. (2008a). Transfer and Succession. In The Bass Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research, & Managerial Applications (4th ed., pp. 875-895). Simon & Schuster.

Bass, B. M. (2008b). Training and Development. In The Bass Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research, & Managerial Applications (4th ed., pp. 1051-1122). Simon & Schuster.

Bass, B. M. (2008c). Types and Taxonomies. In The Bass Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research, & Managerial Applications (4th ed., pp. 27-45). Simon & Schuster.

Bernhardt, J. M., & Samost, M. (2025). Transferable nursing skills that support nurse leader development. Nursing Management, 56(7), 44–50. https://doi.org/10.1097/nmg.0000000000000278

Hobbes, T. (1952). Leviathan. In R. M. Hutchins (Ed.), Great books of the Western world (Vol. 23, pp. 41–283). Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Edwards, P. (1967). Egoism & Altruism. In The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Vol. 2, pp. 462–466). essay, Macmillan Company & the Free Press.

Underhill, S. L., Woods, S. L., Sivarajan, E. S., & Halpenny, C. J. (1982). Cardiac nursing. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.