Embracing "Red": Building Stronger Leaders Through Honest Assessment

By Master Sgt. Jason F. Bushong

Sergeants Major Course

July 2, 2026

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The time to prepare is not after you have been given the opportunity. It is long before that opportunity arises. Once the opportunity arrives, it is too late to prepare (Wooden & Jamison, 1997, p. 60).

During my 20 plus years in the Army, I've been in both the best and worst units. Some were always ready, while others clearly needed work. The difference wasn't that there were no problems in the high-functioning units, but that leaders were honest about them.

We all lie in some way. We tell our Soldiers everything is fine when it's not. We highlight successes and hide failures. We paint the slides green, even as we see cracks in the mission.

True readiness begins with honesty. Embracing a "red" assessment isn't weakness; it's the foundation for building leaders who solve problems early and create formations that can win.

This isn't just about the unit; it's about us, the NCOs. Every time we choose comfort over candor, we are protecting ourselves and trying to safeguard our reputation, our next evaluation, and our career. It feels safer to nod, smile, and say, "We're good." But deep down, we know it's a lie. When the moment of truth comes, whether it's a deployment, a crisis, or a mission, those green slides won't save us.

What will? The hard conversations, the problems we face head-on, the honesty we demand. Readiness isn't about looking good today; it's about being ready when lives depend on it. The truth we demand from our formations must start with the truth we demand from ourselves.

Owning up to our red is not a sign of weakness; it is the most basic kind of leadership (Cannon & Edmondson, 2005). Being prepared and trusting others before we really need them is a choice. If we fail to make that choice, we fall flat when the stakes are high and the mission is at risk.

Whatever our level of preparation, if we've lied to ourselves along the way, we'll fall too. Recognizing gaps is only the beginning - the true value of red emerges when leaders act on it to strengthen the formation.

The Real Value of Red

I've seen how much readiness depends on leaders being honest about their gaps. One of the clearest examples came when I was selected to serve as the Headquarters and Headquarters Troop (HHT) first sergeant. In training meetings, leaders routinely halted discussions to fix gaps in training plans, flag risks, and implement concrete mitigation steps. Nothing was glossed over to make the slides look better.

Those moments reinforced that confronting problems early isn't a sign of weakness, it's a commitment to protecting the formation and building real readiness.

The U.S. Army loves green: green metrics, green slides, green reports. Green looks good. Red looks dangerous. Pretending everything is green doesn't make us successful; it makes us blind. Red isn't failure. Red is data, direction, and opportunity. It's the early warning that helps teams act before a minor issue becomes a mission risk.

Leaders who own their red build credibility. They show their teams that honesty matters more than image. Hiding red is not loyalty; it is a quiet betrayal of trust.

Army doctrine supports this ethos: mission command relies on decentralized, informed judgment and open communication, enabled by a climate where people can speak up and seek help without fear of retribution (Department of the Army, 2019).

When units institutionalize candid discussions, sensing sessions, and blunt yet constructive feedback, they improve faster than those pretending everything is green (Popper & Lipshitz, 2000).

Units that confront red early adapt faster. Those that are "fake green" are always reacting and always chasing. Readiness is built by leaders in the open, not behind closed doors.

Facing Failure to Build Innovation

Technology can make Soldiers faster, smarter, and more connected, but it also creates new challenges. Imagine you're a squad member on a training mission, with each Soldier wearing a helmet loaded with augmented reality capabilities, biometric sensors, and a heavy battery pack, all on top of their combat gear.

For several reasons, the batteries fail mid-mission. Suddenly, the technology that promised an edge is gone. The squad must fall back on basic soldiering skills like maps, compasses, and teamwork to finish the mission.

When they return, they conduct an after-action review (AAR), turning a formality into an honest conversation where rank takes a back seat, and everyone speaks freely about what worked and what did not.

Leaders must encourage ideas instead of punishing failure. Those lessons don't stay in the room. They shape how squads train, how platoons plan, and even how the Army thinks about technology. Playing it safe stifles progress, and true innovation emerges when setbacks are treated as steppingstones rather than roadblocks.

Most people fear losing more than they crave winning. That fear leads to risk avoidance and routine. Comfort, in this way, kills initiative. Innovation happens when leaders stop treating failure as final and start treating it as feedback.

Adaptability means pivoting quickly when situations change. Discipline means doing the hard thing when no one is watching: running the brutal AAR, owning mistakes, and turning them into lessons learned (Department of the Army, 2024).

Elite units working in multidomain operations (MDO) demonstrate that rapid debriefs, transparent failure reporting, and disciplined learning produce superior readiness and resilience (Cannon & Edmondson, 2005; U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, 2018).

When leaders at every level accept that some red is inherent in complex operations, creativity and tactical flexibility flourish, enhancing overall combat power. The same standard belongs in every formation. When the mission drops and time runs out, your ability to adapt will only reflect how honestly you faced the red long before it arrived.

Leaders at Every Level: Making This Culture Real

Culture starts with daily actions by people in leadership roles. What they reward and tolerate set the tone. Turning intention into habit requires deliberate practice:

1. Ask the hard question: "What do we pretend not to know?" and protect those who answer honestly.

2. Align individual development with unit needs so growth translates into mission capability.

3. Own your screw-ups aloud and clarify what you learned. Demonstrating that red is a sign of growth, not weakness, builds trust and invites others to contribute honestly.

4. Build durable habits: weekly training meetings, rehearsals, intentional leader professional development programs (LPD), and scheduled, distraction-free time for candid feedback.

5. Normalize surfacing and fixing red as a routine, not a once-a-year event.

The Bottom Line

The best units are not defined by never seeing red; they're defined by spotting red early, discussing it openly, and converting it into combat power.

Leaders who hide the truth, erode trust and stunt growth; those who embrace honesty, purpose, and disciplined learning build stronger teams and missions.

When leaders at every level put purpose above habit, stay faithful to the truth, understand others' perspectives, adapt quickly, and do what's right even when it's hard, they forge Soldiers and units that don't just pass inspections.

We must be diabolical in our methods and dominate in complex environments. We are all liars until we choose the harder truth. Owning our red openly and attacking it together is what makes us unstoppable.

References

Cannon, M. D., & Edmondson, A. C. (2005). Failing to learn and learning to fail (intelligently): How great organizations put failure to work to improve and innovate. Long Range Planning, 38(3), 299-319.

Department of the Army. (2019). ADP 6-0: Mission command: Command and control of Army forces. https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN34403-ADP_6-0-000-WEB-3.pdf

Department of the Army. (2024). ATP 6-22.1: Providing feedback: Counseling-Coaching-Mentoring. https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN40232-ATP_6-22.1-000-WEB-1.pdf

Popper, M., & Lipshitz, R. (2000). Organizational learning: Mechanisms, culture, and feasibility. In M. D. Cohen & L. S. Sproull (Eds.), Essential readings in management learning (pp. 35-52). Sage Publications.

U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. (2018). The U.S. Army operating concept: Win in a complex world.

Wooden, J., & Jamison, S. (1997). Wooden: A lifetime of observations and reflections on and off the court. Contemporary Books.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the NCO Journal, the U.S. Army, or the U.S. Department of War.

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