Developing The Next Generation Of Military Leaders PDF Download

"Effective leadership is key to military success and officers have a responsibility to grow the next generation of leaders. Research has revealed that two critical aspects of leadership must be developed to maximize a leader’s proficiency, individual leader development and interpersonal leadership development. This study examined the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force development programs to determine if they address both leadership components and to identify missing elements. The comprehensiveness of each Services’ development program was assessed by grading its intentionality, accountability, and consistency. Intentionality was based on the Service’s leadership doctrine and guidance. Accountability was examined at both the individual and unit levels by reviewing officer performance report criteria and unit-level inspection requirements. Program consistency was evaluated by reviewing the last five years of published materials from each of the Services’ that was related to leader or leadership development such as survey results and articles in Service publications. This work revealed that all of the Services have gaps in their current development programs in one or more of the three areas evaluated. In general, the Services’ doctrine, except the Navy which has no leadership doctrine, addresses both leader and leadership development but the enforceable guidance only mandates and provides tools and methods to address individual leader development. Accountability is lacking for all the Services but in different areas. The Navy and Marine Corps have effective individual accountability mechanisms while the Army is the only Service that has a unit-level mechanism in place. All of the Services struggled with consistency which was not surprising since each program was deficient in some respect. A Department of Defense-level program requirement would help address these deficiencies. The directive should mandate that both leader and leadership development be included in the program, that Service doctrine and guidance provide the foundation and requirements of the program, and that thorough accountability mechanisms at both the individual and unit level are in place. This would allow the Services to execute their program in a manner that meets their unique needs while ensuring that the program incorporates key components. Ensuring the next generation of military officers are grown into skilled leaders is crucial to the military’s success so we must arm the leaders of today with the tools they need to undertake this momentous task."--Pages iv-v.