The Leadership of Colin Powell: An American Leader

Introduction

General Colin Powell is the living expression of what the American Dream is meant to
be. Born in 1937 in the Bronx, NY, the son of two working-class Jamaican immigrants, Powell
beat the odds against him. He was the first member of his family to go to college and receive a
degree. Then went on to receive an MBA from George Washington, become National Security
Advisor, the first African American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the First African
American Secretary of State.1 He never let his race be a barrier to his success. He won over
superiors, subordinates, colleagues, and the establishment with his determination, quiet
professionalism, and extreme devotion and dedication to duty. Powell’s legacy lives on in the
structure of our post-cold war military; he had a hand in shaping and our foreign policy with
such things as the Powell doctrine and interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan. His leadership in
the Gulf War helped renew American confidence in their armed forces after decades of fatigue
and hesitancy brought about by Vietnam. Colin Powell is the American military and political
leader I most admire because, from humble beginnings, he beat the odds and rose to the height of
the American establishment. Illustrating everything great about our dear country.

In examining Colin Powell’s leadership, I will be using leadership theory to analyze the
first two of the most significant experiences in Powell’s development as a leader in Vietnam and
his stint as National Security Director. Next, I will analyze how these experiences impacted his
leadership ability in two further roles : Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of State.
Following this, I will assess Powell’s overall legacy as a leader in foreign policy and military
affairs. The final section will consist of my reflection of my strengths and weaknesses as a
leader. I will then draw from the lessons in leadership provided by Colin Powell’s life to create
an action plan to develop my leadership skills both now and in the future.

Case Study 1: Powell in Vietnam

Colin Powell served two tours in Vietnam, one in 1962 as a military advisor to the
Vietnamese and another in 1968 as Executive officer and G-3 in the Americal Division. We will
be discussing Powell’s first tour in Vietnam when American had only an ancillary role in the
conflict. During his first tour, Powell was attached to a Vietnamese Battalion under the command
of Captain Hieu. One of his first experiences was in Operation Grasshopper, an extended patrol
which took them into a hostile country. Early on, Powell got frustrated that it seemed like all his
unit did was take casualties, never getting to see and engage the enemy the way the army had
taught him. After one such incident, Powell admitted “ My Benning syndrome kicked in. Don’t

1
Colin Powell. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Colin-Powell
just stand there doing something. “ Follow Me!” I picked up a trail of blood and headed into the
jungle...No one had followed me.”2. Although Powell exemplified the Army leadership attributes
of direction and motivation, he didn’t take the time to develop another critical competency.3 But
he had yet to build trust with the Vietnamese soldiers he served or educated himself on the kind
of warfare they were fighting. Captain Hieu later informed him that the Vietcong were known to
misdirect forces by laying false blood trails, which often led to booby traps or ambushes.4 After
this humbling experience, Powell took a step back and assessed the larger picture. Realizing he
needed to develop a positive environment and relationship with the Vietnamese, he set to work.

In so doing, he exemplified emotional intelligence specifically, the attributes identified

by Goleman as critical to EI, self-awareness, social skill, and empathy.5 Continuing on the
mission Powell went out of his way to build relationships with the commanding Officer Captain
Hieu, using social skills to identify family and mutual interest in each other’s cultures as a way
for them to bond.6 Using self-awareness and empathy, he realized that the Vietnamese didn’t like
it when the American advisors acted like a know-it-all and treated them like children. So
instead, he stepped back and took on a more advising role. Powell also built relationships with
the troops, recognizing their interest in his country music collection as a way for them to bond
and build trust.7 As this happened, Powell considered how he could transform these troops into a
better combat force without appearing as if he was taking over. He decided on something small,
such as getting the Vietnamese to wear flak Jackets while on patrol. They were initially hesitant,
but after some convincing, they agreed that the point platoon would wear the jackets. During the
next ambush, the point man was shot, but because of Powell’s initiative and empathy towards
their position, and advocacy for the Flak jacket, he survived. This led to all of the Vietnamese in
the battalion wanting flak jackets, so many supply drops couldn’t keep up with the demand.8
Coming out of his first tour Powell recognized that true leadership was both uplifting and
improving the lives of the men under his command, with the single-minded purpose of
accomplishing the mission. To lead wasn’t just to exercise control; it was also about relations.
This would be invaluable when Powell moved on to bigger and higher offices.

Powell as National Security Advisor:

Powell came in as National Security Advisor in the Reagan administration from

1987-1989, just after the Iran-Contra scandal, having previously served as the Deputy National

2
Powell, C. L., & Persico, J. E. (2003). My American journey. New York: Ballantine Books pp 88.
3
Army Leadership Manual. (2012). Washington D.C, D.C: Department of the Army. 1-2
4
Powell, C. L., & Persico, J. E. (2003). My American journey. New York: Ballantine Books pp 88-89
5
Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. New York City, New York: Bantam Books. pp 4
6
Powell, C. L., & Persico, J. E. (2003). My American journey. New York: Ballantine Books pp 90
7
Powell, C. L., & Persico, J. E. (2003). My American journey. New York: Ballantine Books pp 90-91
8
Powell, C. L., & Persico, J. E. (2003). My American journey. New York: Ballantine Books pp 89
Security Advisor. He showed what Goleman would consider supreme self-awareness and
self-regulation when Powell candidly admitted to one of his predecessors, Zbigniew Brzeziński,
on first coming to Washington that he felt “ no qualification for( it) and wanted no part of the
operation”9. Nevertheless, Powell threw himself into his assignment. According to Brooks one of
the key ways to develop character is exemplified here which is to “ successfully struggle against
weakness...that person will become mature. It is earned by being dependable in times of testing,
straight in times of temptation.”10 Powell could have done the easy thing and fill his office with
sympathetic military minds who he knew he could work with by virtue of his rank. But instead,
he deliberately chose a civilian, an undersecretary for oceans, the environment, and international
organizations called John D. Negroponte. He wished to dispel the notion that the National
Security Council was entirely a part of the Defense establishment.11 Especially after Iran-Contra.
He also exhibited a strategic leadership vision in accordance with Army Leadership Doctrine
which states that strategic leaders must be “ skilled at reaching consensus and building coalitions'
'12. By reaching out to the State Department by bringing a State Department official on board as
his deputy, he helped build a relationship with the State Department which he used in helping
organize the INF treaty and later as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Powell during his time at the
NSC also developed a personal set of rules called Powell’s rules for picking people. The critical
criteria were “ intelligence and judgment, and most critically an ability to see around corners. I
also valued loyalty, integrity, a high energy level, a certain passion, a balanced ego, and a drive
to get things done”. As result, Powell exercised 11-55 and 11-56 which is building teams and
skills that overlap and counterweight the weaknesses of the leader and the individual members of
the staff. This helped Powell accomplish the signing of the INF treaty, negotiate a controversial
aid package for Nicaraguan contras, and arms package for Kuwait. His team also helped him
overcome shortcomings in the international diplomacy department, which helped him immensely
as he made lasting friendships both within the United States and abroad (specifically Russia),
which prepared him for his next great challenge. The Chairmanship and Desert Storm.

Powell the Chairmanship & Desert Storm:

Powell ascended to Chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs in 1989, surpassing 15 other General and
Admirals who had greater seniority and becoming the first African American Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff.13 The passage of Goldwater-Nichols had fundamentally redefined the
Chairman’s powers. Powell would be the first Chairman with these new powers, so he would be
setting precedents that his successors would follow. This was just as the Cold War was winding
down and the regional hotspots were heating up, old paradigms were shifting, and it was time to

9
Powell, C. L., & Persico, J. E. (2003). My American journey. New York: Ballantine Books pp 352
10
Brooks, D. (2016). The road to character. London: Penguin Books. pp 267

11
Powell, C. L., & Persico, J. E. (2003). My American journey. New York: Ballantine Books pp 355
12
Army Leadership Manual. (2012). Washington D.C, D.C: Department of the Army. 11-23
13
Powell, C. L., & Persico, J. E. (2003). My American journey. New York: Ballantine Books pp 408
take a fundamental look at the future. Powell oversaw the development of the document
Strategic Overview-1994 which predicted the decline of Soviet military power and the
reorientation of the military to a more flexible rapid response force. The plan included
substantial force cuts to all armed services branches but would specifically hit the Army and Air
Force the hardest.14 Realizing the need to build the new military as a team, he exercised what the
Army would call creating a positive environment for preparing for the future, which according to
the Army is defined as “shaping the culture of the Army and defining the azimuth of cultural
change”15. When doing this, Powell defined the future as a leaner, more versatile armed forces
capable of responding to a variety of threats—encouraging collaboration and input from all the
services in future planning while also ensuring equity in the distribution of the defense cuts. He
didn’t need to do that as Goldwater-Nichols empowered him to make unilateral decisions on
such matters. But realizing this would benefit no one and would destroy the team’s ability to
work together in the long run ( and set bad precedent), Powell exercises an essential aspect of his
emotional intelligence learned in Vietnam and the National Security Council, self-restraint.
Despite difficulty and infighting Powellallowed each of the chiefs to make their
recommendations and have their say in how the plan was laid before finalizing it and sending it
to the Secretary of Defense. This not only helped unify Powell’s team and military leadership but
set a precedent for cooperation and collaboration among the service chiefs and a new spirit of
adaptability and flexibility in the face of changing threats. This would especially help later when
Saddam invaded Kuwait.

Powell’s lessons from all his experience came to bear on the crisis of Saddam’s invasion
of Kuwait and the threat of Saudi Arabia. In one of the meetings, Powell overstepped his bound
as a purely military advisor and asked the million-dollar question that his superior had failed to
ask in Vietnam “to achieve what end”16. Born from his experience in Vietnam and his army
training, the question highlights Powell’s candor and integrity, which according to Army
Doctrine, is critical to developing trust. Powell was unwilling to see the sacrifice of the lives of
the soldiers under his command without clear objectives. This would become a vital part of the
Powell Doctrine: hit them hard, hit them fast, hit them with clear objectives. It also strengthened
his credibility among the military as a whole, proving that he did have the right stuff to lead the
nation’s armed forces into a major conflict. While Powell didn’t get his answer immediately, he
did get it when President Bush declared that the operation’s objective was to defend Saudi
Arabia and expel the Iraqi’s from Kuwait. As part of his role in Desert Storm, Powell had to
exercise extreme transformational leadership to unite the coalition’s disparate elements into a
capable and coherent fighting force. Mcgregor Burns defines transformational leadership as

14
Powell, C. L., & Persico, J. E. (2003). My American journey. New York: Ballantine Books pp 436-439
15
Army Leadership Manual. (2012). Washington D.C, D.C: Department of the Army. 11-38
16
Powell, C. L., & Persico, J. E. (2003). My American journey. New York: Ballantine Books pp 465
“when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one
another to high levels of motivation and morality.”17
Through communication, empathy, mutual trust, and understanding, Powell managed
relations with the Saudi’s in everything from Jewish and Christian religious services for
American troops, to the treatment of misconduct, to the handling of American female military
personnel. Issues that could have derailed the coalition before he even started. He worked with
and coordinated with the defense chiefs of Britain, France, Italy, and Turkey, to name a few, to
coordinate everything from troop contribution to base usage to re-supply coordination.18 He
united the coalition’s disparate militaries into one unified force, united by the singular goal of
expelling Saddam from Kuwait. Such a diverse coalition had not been seen since the Korean
War. It is doubtful that it could have been accomplished without the exceptional communication
and emotional intelligence skills (including social skill, self-restraint, and empathy) of Colin
Powell. His leadership made him a household name and with it the respect and admiration of the
American people.

Powell and the State Department

With a solid reputation and riding a wave of popular support, Powell entered the State
Department with greater expectation and fanfare than almost any previous Secretary of State in
history. He was considered the foremost expert of the time on foreign and military affairs.19 He
was the first African American Secretary of State; he was America’s general. He was intelligent,
honest, patient, thoughtful, and a capable organizational leader. Just the kind of person to head
the State Department into the next millennium. Why then did he retire so ignominiously in 2005,
under the gloom of his WMD speech in the UN and waning support for the Iraq war at home.
Mainly because of the qualities that made him an exceptional military leader also made him a
poor politician when it came to the Bush administration’s infighting. He was a transformational
leader stuck in an administration of power wielders and transactional leaders. Macgregor Burns
defines power wielders as those who mobilize their followers’ resources to “realize the purposes
of the power wielders, whether or not those are the goals of the respondents”20. Cheney and
Rumsfeld wanted to engage in unilateralism in American foreign policy, and that is what they
worked for and that is what they got, whether it was good or bad for the country as a whole.
Meanwhile, Powell often came under fire from hardline ideologues for his belief in diplomacy
and international cooperation in national defense areas. His patience and discretion were his

17
Burns, J. M. (21978). Leadership / James MacGregor Burns. New York City, New York: Harper Colophon Books.
pp 20
18
Powell, C. L., & Persico, J. E. (2003). My American journey. New York: Ballantine Books pp 474-475
19
O'Sullivan, C. D. (2009). Colin Powell: American power and intervention from Vietnam to Iraq. Lanham:
Rowman & Littlefield. pp 2
20
Burns, J. M. (21978). Leadership / James MacGregor Burns. New York City, New York: Harper Colophon Books.
pp 18
preferred tools for combating bureaucratic infighting.21 . But those tools became liabilities as his
opponents didn’t follow the same rules, using the media and mudslinging to bully others into
getting their way. In the end, outflanking Powell, who got swept along with the tides of post-911
hysteria and unilateralism, which saw both himself and his doctrine thrown out the window.
Powell did have some success however, he helped build a closer alliance with Pakistan to assist
in the U.S. fight in Afghanistan. Using his social skills, he helped persuade the Pakistani
President “ As one general to another”22 to allow overflight privileges and the sharing of
intelligence information to help track Al Qaeda operatives. Abroad Powell was seen as the
moderating influence in Bush foreign policy. But he became increasingly irrelevant, facing
increasing opposition to his coalition-building efforts by American leaders like Rumsfeld and
Cheney, who were enthralled with unilateralism. They began cutting Powell out of the major
decisions.23 This highlights a divide which Brooks touches upon in his book on character. Powell
represents the tempered, modest crooked timber school of thought. His support of
coalition-building recognized a need for our foreign policy to be driven by self-control,
cooperation, and service, to strengthen the American position globally. Not the pride and fear
which seemed to be driving American policy post-911 As Brooks said, “ The things that lead us
astray are short-term-lust, fear, vanity, and gluttony. The things we call character endure over the
long-term”. Brooks also said, “Pride is the central vice...Pride blinds us to our weaknesses and
misleads us into thinking we are better than we are”24. The latter, not the former, dictated
Post-911 foreign policy, and Powell’s humility, self-restraint, and sense of service prevented him
from taking a strong stance before it was too late. And once it was too late, he could do nothing.
He had become an outcast, but his pride and sense of duty told him to soldier on that he
continued to have a moderating influence on the administration; he, in fact, “ was merely
providing cover, or window dressing for administration actions”. Leading to Powell’s
now-infamous WMD Speech at the United Nations, in which he endorsed the administration’s
position of WMDs in Iraq and advocated for intervention. Despite his own reservation that the
information was unreliable. Breaking both with his own belief system and the lessons, and Army
doctrine on candor and integrity,. This lost Powell a lot of respect and trust in the eyes of his
colleagues and the general public. It must be admitted; however, Powell showed exceptional
character when he later realized his mistake and the hand he had played in sparking America’s
ongoing conflict in Iraq. In so doing, he has partially redeemed his character as a leader. As
Brooks recognizes, “ We do sin, but we also have the capacity to recognize sin, to feel ashamed
of sin, and to overcome sin”25 And that is precisely what Colin Powell did.

21
O'Sullivan, C. D. (2009). Colin Powell: American power and intervention from Vietnam to Iraq. Lanham:
Rowman & Littlefield. pp 6
22
O'Sullivan, C. D. (2009). Colin Powell: American power and intervention from Vietnam to Iraq. Lanham:
Rowman & Littlefield. pp 152
23
O'Sullivan, C. D. (2009). Colin Powell: American power and intervention from Vietnam to Iraq. Lanham:
Rowman & Littlefield. pp 154
24
Brooks, D. (2016). The road to character. London: Penguin Books.pp 262-263
25
Brooks, D. (2016). The road to character. London: Penguin Books.pp 262
 Legacy of Colin Powell

The legacy of Colin Powell is, in my opinion, a mixed bag; he certainly left an indelible
mark on our nation’s military and foreign policy as well as in the political arena. In the foreign
policy arenas, he played a key part in finalizing the INF treaty and participation in nuclear
disarmament talks. Creating agreements that severely curtailed the world’s nuclear arsenals and
created lasting international law that remains in force today. In the military context, much of our
current military organization, training, and procedure we can trace back to Powell’s time as a
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The emphasis on the unit, tactical and equipment flexibility, joint
operations, and cooperation have been hallmarks of U.S. combat in the War on terror The Powell
Doctrine provided a clear and precise framework for the use of U.S. Military force abroad, taking
into account the lessons of Vietnam, a war which had impacted him greatly and one he tried to
prevent from repeating. Powell represented “the continuity and legacy of over 20 years of
American foreign policy”.26

But Powell also is the one who throughout his own doctrine by bowing to pressure and
delivering the WMD speech at the UN despite his reservations. And is partly responsible for the
U.S. involvement in Iraq today because his speech and reputation were used to galvanize and
mobilize the American people while assuaging some fears of the international community of the
U.S. pursuing a unilateral foreign policy. When the truth came out, it undermined the people and
international communities’ faith, in Powell personally and American institutions.

Politically, Powell was an institutionalist, and despite being derogatorily called a political
general, he was an enigma when it came to his personal political beliefs on a variety of issues.
He was the consummate professional, loyalty and consistency to the institution, and the political
leaders he served always came first. His leadership was marked by moderation with little pomp
or flare. But as his tenure of public service came to an end, it became increasingly ideological
and personal. Driven by special interest groups and cults of personality, while the faith in the
institutions themselves sharply decline. Populism became the new order of the day.27 As such,
Powell’s political legacy is that he is the last significant leader not grounded in the ideological
and political firmament but instead in the idea of selfless service and duty to one’s country and
its institutions. In my opinion, he was the last high ranking individual I would call the
consummate civil servant

Overall I think Powell is to be studied and admired; he accomplished a lot, and is the
embodiment of the American Dream, and pulls himself up by your bootstrap philosophy. While
he didn’t revolutionize the American military, he evolved it to fit the needs of the time and

26
O'Sullivan, C. D. (2009). Colin Powell: American power and intervention from Vietnam to Iraq. Lanham:
Rowman & Littlefield. pp 3-5
27
O'Sullivan, C. D. (2009). Colin Powell: American power and intervention from Vietnam to Iraq. Lanham:
Rowman & Littlefield. Pp 6-6
helped to restore America’s faith in it. In foreign policy, he contributed to nuclear disarmament
and the ending of the Cold War. He made some questionable decisions, and his WMD speech
will forever mar his legacy. But this also provides a valuable lesson in what not to. To sum it up,
Colin Powell's legacy is that he ended the era of the apolitical political appointee, the person who
did his job and did it well, dedicated more to the institutions and the nation than his own or his
bosses’ political machinations. The era of bipartisan consensus on foreign policy and global
international cooperation. He is a symbol both of what America is, a land of opportunity and
promise, but also a symbol of what it has lost in its political dialogue, in its institutions, in its
leadership.

Personal Application: My plan of action to become a better “ENFJ” leader

Phase I: On Campus

Colin Powell and I share many characteristics in leadership, personality, and background.
We both come from a working-class background, our parents had a significant influence over our
development, and we both participated in ROTC and looked to the Army for a career path. We
differ in the time period we grew up in, racial, geographic, and social consideration; I’m from a
rural primarily majority area, while Powell came from an urban primarily minority area. But both
of our strongest leadership characteristics are our ability to connect and build relationships with
people. As seen in the case studies of Powell, he developed relationships and made connections
with everyone from a Vietnamese Captain, to a Russian General, to the President of Pakistan.
While I have not built connections with such august companies, I have done my fair share of
relationship building. In High School, I was able to build a coalition of like-minded individuals
into the aptly named PNN (Parker News Network), which was a way for us to help each other in
subjects we struggled at ( I assisted my friends in history, while another assisted the rest of us
and math, etc…) Now the members of this group came from all segments of the school social
strata, jocks, nerds, musicians, and a loner all joined together. Our bond grew stronger over time,
and in the end, the connections we built through this informal peer-tutoring network blossomed
into a beautiful friendship, and which was something all of us heavily relied upon to get through
the stresses of the pandemic.

Colin Powell and I do differ on our Myers-Briggs test; I am an ENFJ Protagonist28 while
Powell is an ESTJ Administrator29. As a result, I am more personally oriented towards being
expressive and diplomatic, while Powell is more oriented towards the force of character and
attention to detail. Like Colin Powell, I share a great sense of commitment and the need to be
reliable to others. If I commit, I stick with it and see it through to the end no matter what.

28
Protagonist personality. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2021, from https://www.16personalities.com/enfj-personality
29
Paladin associates. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2021, from
https://secure.paladinexec.com/personality_comparison/ESTJ/
Between my social skill and reliability, it has offered me great opportunities. It has helped me as
Student Government president and Student representative to the School Board to introduce
policies that would give students more freedom and flexibility in the school environment. It is
also the reason I was able to rally my flagging Rapid Recall team ( Team Jeopardy) in the face
of superior opposition to win the day, maintain our undefeated streak, and lead us to nationals.

That being said, my biggest weakness as an ENFJ is that I’m too selfless, I took on other
problems as my own, and am too willing to volunteer, often to my own detriment, as workloads
pile-up and prioritize my commitments to others in order over my commitments to myself.30
Which often leads me to spend little time for myself. This is a fault of my excellent social skills
and my commitments to reliability, as I am able to feel people's problems as if they are my own,
and often leads me to assume their problems as my own. My sense of reliability means that I feel
that I need to help others and accomplish what people have asked of me before working on
myself—making it incredibly hard for me to say no when someone comes to me with a problem
and asks for my help. With this, I have much to learn from Colin Powell. As an Administrator
personality type, Powell’s strengths are honesty, and organizational skills, such as delegating
work and responsibilities fairly and objectively.31 I plan to channel Colin Powell to prioritize my
on-campus commitments and delegate or eliminate those that do not benefit me or I do not enjoy.

Coming into my Freshmen Year, I decided to try my hand at every club, which piqued my
interest; thus, I had incredible demands on my time which I managed to accomplish but left me
with little time for anything else. As a member of Bonners, ROTC, and Mock Trial ( the three
most time-consuming clubs on campus), on top of participation in Campus Ministry and several
other organizations. While this has been an eye-opening and enriching experience, it has left me
with little time to do much else beyond my mandatory school work. Thus, I plan to channel
Colin Powell's strength of honesty and organizational skills to arrange my time commitments
better, allowing me to focus on those activities that I genuinely want and need to do while letting
distractions and secondary concerns fall to the wayside. Slowly and methodically planning, with
both an eye to the future and my current needs.

Part 1, I plan to take a candid reassessment of my current commitments and

responsibilities and identify those which do not hold top priority for me. I will do this by
utilizing the emotional intelligence skills of Self-knowledge to identify those activities that have
the most meaning to me and prioritize those commitments while eliminating those that don’t
hold priority so I can devote more time and energy to those to which I am most dedicated. In
doing so, I will increase my dedication and commitment and enhance my reliability without
sacrificing a work-life balance.

30
Protagonist personality. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2021, from https://www.16personalities.com/enfj-personality
31
16 Personalities: Executive personality. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2021, from
https://www.16personalities.com/estj-personality
 Part 2, Inspired by Powell's ability to use trust and relationships to engage in
transformational leadership with his team, I hope to grow as a leader by fostering this trust,
empathy, and teamwork in the teams I lead or play a part in so that we can enhance our
performance and our accomplishments. A critical part is engaging in honest communication with
each other, encouraging the delegation and distribution of tasks equitably. When working as a
team, one person mustn’t bear the majority of the load. To promote this, I will set clear
guidelines in our first meeting of the project/club/team’s expectations for the year while also
encouraging active communication, collaboration, and teamwork in sharing the workload. In this
way, I will ensure that I can effectively delegate work to all members without myself or anyone
else carrying a disproportionate amount of the workload, thus building unity and cooperation
instead of resentment and infighting.

Phase II: Career

As an ENFJ Protagonist,32 my biggest weaknesses are being overly selfless and overly
sensitive to others’ criticism and critiques. Instead of focusing on my own goals or aspirations, I
can get easily sidetracked by the demands, problems, and critiques of others. This hyper form of
Self-Awareness kills motivation and initiative, which are key attributes of being a leader,
especially an Army leader.

While Colin Powell did have his moments of introspection and doubt, he didn’t let that
doubt or opinions of others affect or distract him from his priorities and commitments to himself
and his country. Powell cultivated his emotional intelligence, sensitivity, and Adam II virtues,
but he also took the initiative, inspired and motivated his subordinates, laid out a clear-cut and
controversial vision of the future, which in the end became transformational, both to the military
establishment and to the country. Powell’s ability to balance both the Adam I and Adam II
virtues necessary to engage in transformational leadership and use his emotional intelligence as a
tool without hindering his critical thinking or objectivity, allowed him to be one of the most
significant military and political leaders in American history. He saw the end of the Cold War,
assisted in negotiations for nuclear disarmament, and fundamentally realigned our military
organization and priorities. It is only when he stepped away from this carefully laid balance and
allowed the actions of others and the commitments of others to unduly influence his own that he
faced catastrophe in the form of his runaway tenure as Secretary of State, which saw him largely
rendered impotent.

As I continue through my college career and into the professional world, I plan on
harnessing the spirit and example of Colin Powell to strike a balance between my needs and the
needs of others, between my commitments to the organization and my commitments to myself.

32
Protagonist personality. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2021, from https://www.16personalities.com/enfj-personality.
For many individuals, especially ENFJ’s, we find it difficult to dedicate ourselves entirely to one
cause or surrender ourselves entirely to that cause or person without a thought towards ourselves,
our needs, or the big picture. But it also leads to our greatest weakness, oversensitivity, too much
self-lessness, and overly idealistic beliefs, hinder our ability to balance our commitments,
prioritize what is important and take time for ourselves—weakening our ability to bring our
A-game and allowing us to be swept away by inflamed passions or entrenched bureaucratic
interests. I plan to be different. I intend to balance the forceful, disciplined, dedicated approach
of ESTJs like Colin Powell33 while also balancing it with the heightened self-awareness,
charisma, altruism, and tolerance of an ENFJ.34

First, I plan to slow down this summer and take some time to assess which direction I
want to go in my life, and with that, I assign my priorities and commitments accordingly. Second
I intend to place greater emphasis on my values and beliefs in my decision-making, people can
give input and advice, but I will have the final say. Third, I intend to seek out mentors and
teachers who can help me explore and understand who I am while also helping me stay grounded
in reality and provide a network of advisors to make those better decisions in tough decisions and
more timely. With this network and skills, I believe I can achieve as much, if not more than Colin
Powell.

Word Count: 5103

33
Paladin associates. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2021, from
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