5 ALPHA TRAITS FROM THE BUNDESWEHR
Reading time: 6 minutes
In the Bundeswehr I had the rare chance to meet outstanding leaders with a real alpha mindset. And more importantly: to learn from them.
Since this knowledge is rarely taught openly and gets misunderstood so often, I want to walk you through a few of these alpha traits.
Use this knowledge responsibly.
1. Stay Calm
Calm means strength.
What a lot of people miss is that calm and composure are not the same as weakness. The loudest man in the room is rarely the one with the most confidence. An “alpha” has no need to show off. He does not have to pull all the attention to himself, because he knows the advantage of visible restraint.
Let your actions speak for you instead of your words. They carry further than any word you could shout.
2. Work Extremely Hard
Alpha leaders work extremely hard. And not only for themselves, but well beyond their own horizon.
They support the command above them and the whole unit, and in doing so they take on tasks far above their pay grade.
Organizing further training, putting together useful guides and so on happens outside core duty hours or even from home more often than not.
They give more than most. And because of what they deliver, they also earn more respect than most.
How far you are willing to go for that is something you have to decide for yourself.
3. Treat People With Respect
You might think an alpha leader simply marches into any office, never bothers with a salute or a formal report, and takes whatever he wants whenever he wants it. The opposite is true.
Behavior like that is unmilitary and disrespectful, and it burns bridges you may well need later. Even if you don’t personally like certain comrades, you never know when you might have to rely on them. So: Why make enemies when you can make friends?
4. Take Responsibility
It happened again and again in the Bundeswehr: perfectly planned operations shot to pieces at short notice. Missing equipment, promises that were never kept, misunderstandings, or simply other people’s poor work ethic.
That is not these leaders’ fault. It is still their problem. And that makes them responsible for finding a solution.
That is why you will never see an alpha simply give in to this kind of “defeat.” He might complain for a moment, but right after that he is already working on making the best of the new situation. He simply does not waste time on other people’s failures as long as he has no direct influence on them.
5. Own Your Mistakes
I once took a wrongly filled-out document back to a platoon leader I was friends with and asked him what had happened there. He looked at the mistake and said “That was the junior enlisted guy—” then stopped mid-sentence and said “It was my mistake. I should have checked it.”
It was only a small mistake. An experienced leader could simply have said that the document had been filled out by one of his junior enlisted men and that he had nothing to do with it. That would even have been the truth.
He didn’t. He thought about what he could have done better to prevent mistakes like that in the future. Because he is the leader. He is responsible. And he will make sure something like that does not happen again, however minor the mistake may be.
Good luck out there!
Shughart
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