Leader Development

 

Introduction

            Army leaders are one aspect about the institution that technology cannot replace nor substituted with advanced weaponry and platforms. Adaptable leaders are an irreplaceable asset in completing mission in constantly changing, unstable, and complex environments. Furthermore, they are integral to leading and developing subordinates. The army leader development program aims at producing and sustaining agile, adaptive, and innovative leaders, who can take bold actions and take initiative when faced with dynamic and complex circumstance to achieve missions based on doctrines, orders, and training. The program also imparts integrity and impetus to army leaders to act decisively in the absence of orders or when they do not fit the situation. Through leader development, the resulting army leaders are persons of integrity, competency, and commitment (Yukl et al., 2018). Leader development’s ultimate goal is to provide army leaders who can offer purpose, direction, vision, and motivation to those they lead as well as their subordinates while executing commands. To achieve this, the leader development must consider some important aspects when preparing future army leaders.

            Good Army leaders should be purposeful and goal oriented. Establishing the purpose clearly facilitates leaders to guide, assess, and accomplish development. The leader development principles describe the goals expected of the leaders to successfully carry out their mandate. One of the goals is leading by example. The leaders should also commit to develop their subordinates through carrying out their professional responsibility to counsel, teach, mentor, and coach them. Another goal is creating a positive environment conducive for learning. The army leaders should be able to exercise the art of mission command by the end of their development process. They should exhibit adaptive performance, be creative and critical in their thinking, and exert some effort to know their subordinates and their families. They should serve as role models, have strong intellect, professional competence, physical presence, as well as impeccable morals. The leaders should have expert knowledge of knowing the how and when of soldering tactics on top of being effective leaders. The acquired knowledge is important in shaping the operational environment, prevailing in large-scale ground combat scenarios, avoiding conflicts, and consolidating gains. Leader development should have a clear sight of the purpose to develop leaders who can guide, assess, and accomplish development. Good leaders lead other by building trust among team members and subordinates, are role models, extend their influence beyond the chain of command, and communicate clearly. They should be able to develop by preparing themselves, creating positive environments, develop others, and be stewards of the profession (Alvinius, 2017). Finally, the development process should enable them achieve targeted results and overcome any challenges they may encounter in practice.

            For leader development to occur, the leaders, organizations, and the entire Army must put in place some set of conditions. It is important to establish a culture that supports leader development throughout the organization. Leader development should be part of the daily operations. The prevailing mindset should be that leader development is necessary and achievable. Leaders should designate and protect the time needed for leader development while developing a culture that recognizes and rewards professional development. Leaders influence those in their teams through their behaviors such as how they react during organizational crises (Department of the Army Headquarters, 2019). How leaders prioritize and allocate resources also communicates to the team members of what is important. They way in which they coach, counsel, mentor, and teach also communicates what is valued. They also foster mindsets through how they treat others through recognition, rewards, and feedback offered. The entire organization benefits when leaders institute mindsets supportive of learning and development. They can foster a conducive learning environment by encouraging subordinates to take reasonable risks, develop, and grow through their personal initiative. Moreover, they can set the conditions by getting to know subordinates as persons with unique abilities, skills, goals, and backgrounds. They also set conditions in the organization by performing the duties in manner that sends a message to subordinates throughout the organization that leader development is necessary. Creating an environment that is conducive for learning can yield immense benefits in terms needing resource investment and personal time. Encouraging these conditions will incorporate a mindset of leader development into all organizational requirements and mission accomplishment.

            Feedback is important in guiding and gauging development. Leaders observing subordinates and providing developmental feedback is necessary. Through using the multiple channels available offering feedback provides a more robust and accurate picture of the individual and the developmental opportunities that best suits them. Hence, a leader’s ability to provide feedback immensely improves their development. They can learn more from their day-to-day experiences, which is the most beneficial learning environment. Through providing feedback that is both timely and accurate, the leader performance will be enhanced translating into better unit performance and more accomplished missions. Observation is a useful tool in improving a subordinate’s leader development process. The tool can useful in observing how subordinates are challenged by a development need, apply personal strengths, actions during critical times of unit performance, reach their limits of strength and endurance, make decisions, effects on subordinate leaders and other soldiers, and when they relax and make conversations (Singh, 2015). The only warning is to avoid drawing conclusions utilizing only one observation because it takes multiple before a behavioral pattern emerges. Training briefs can provide continual feedback, however, it has a limitation in that it does not provide assessment on the leadership behaviors. Commanders who are effective in their roles usually observe trainings, participate in the operations, and make time for interacting with subordinates and the units. The observations by the commander or by other personnel such as trainers, peers, first sergeants, operation officers, and many others are all capable of making accurate observations important to assessments and coaching.

Conclusion

            There are important aspects leader development must consider in order to be effective. Through leader development, organizations such as the army are able to develop leaders who are agile, adaptive, and innovative to respond to today complex situations. They also exhibit high commitment to their duties, are persons of integrity, and competent in whatever they do. However, leader development should be purposeful and goal oriented in order to produce good leaders. It should have a clearly established purpose that enables leaders to guide, assess, and accomplish development. The leaders and the entire organization must also institute set conditions to optimize on learning. Making it part of the daily routine will make leader development part of the daily routine, leaders encourage subordinates to develop as leaders by encouraging them to take measured risks to grow and develop. Formal informal feedback can also encourage leader development by guiding and gauging subordinates. Observation and assessment provides feedback that is crucial to confirm or increase self-awareness regarding the developmental process.

        

 

 

 

References

Alvinius, A. (2017). Contemporary leadership challenges. Rijeka: Croatia InTech. Print.

Department of The Army Headquarters. (2019). Army leadership and the profession (adp 6-22). Print.

Singh, M. (2015). Global Perspectives on Recognising Non-formal and Informal Learning: Why Recognition Matters. Cham: Springer International Publishing. Print.  

Yukl, G. A., Uppal, N., & Pearson India Education Services. (2018). Leadership in organizations. Noida: Pearson India Education Services Pvt. Ltd. Print.