Hi,
Most of you probably don't know much about Finland, and even less about the finnish military, but here is a quick introduction.Finland is a small northern european country, with a cold climate and a tiny population of around five and a half million people. In Finland all men have to do a mandatory military service, serving 6, 9 or 12 months. There is also the possibility to do an equivalent civil service, working in a kitchen at a public school for example, but most men, about 80 percent, choose military service. Women can also serve but are not required to.
I started my military service in January 2017, at a military base belonging to the finnish marine corps.There I applied for NCO training, and later continued on to reserve officer training, with my MOS being AT-infantry. After 6 months of training I was put in charge of my platoon. Having learned everything that you could learn at that stage I was excited to finally get to do it in practice. As I look back I smile at my naiveté.
My excitement quickly turned into irritation as I realized that training a leading around 40 conscripts, of which a large part felt it was very much against their will to be there, wasn't as easy as I had previously thought. My NCOs, who I had gotten to know at basic training as well as NCO training, didn't have much motivation for the most part and didn't like that I was in charge just because I had a better score at NCO training. What I learned at this point, and every day after, was that the challenge in leadership lies in people, not practical stuff. I would say that about 90 percent of the challenge came from unwilling and unprofessional NCOs.
In hindsight I wish that I would have talked more with my own commanding officers, taking lessons from them in leadership, since I had the privilege of having very motivated and professional COs. I also think that I should have listened more to the people under me, engaging in conversation and hearing their concerns, as I know I made a lot of mistakes and did responsibility from them. I think a lot about my time there, trying to figure out what I could have done better and what was out of my hands. This is the most important lesson I learned as a platoon leader.
