I recently came across a 2008 RAND report on unit level leader development programs. I will summarize the main points here as the report is lengthy and very detailed. The report does not recommend any real changes to our unit level leader development programs - the report essentially states what the Army wanted to hear - we are doing things right. Not surprising, since RAND is the Army's "Survey and Research Monkey". I recommend that you take a look at the Report and make your own conclusions; I am merely providing mine here for discussion:
My Personal Conclusions (at the Brigade and below)
1. RAND says we are alright at the Unit Level. I believe we need some reform – at a minimum we need some formal guidelines at the unit level, which leads me to number two.
2. RAND says leave it up to Commander’s to decide with little or no formal guidelines. That’s great if the Army can guarantee that all Commanders are strong leaders; the Army cannot. Paradigm Time: 1. The Army can make anyone a leader and 2. The Army owes it’s soldiers the best leadership possible; thereby, the best leader development available. If you subscribe to these paradigms as I do, the way things are now, some commanders do a lot of leader development, and some do none – it essentially varies from “Hero to Zero” and that cannot continue – in order to meet the accepted paradigms I feel there must be some concrete set of standards applied to leader development programs within units. If nothing else, the Army MUST REQUIRE something occur at the unit level within a determined period of time. (at least a leader development event of some type (from a menu) once a quarter?) Standardize the program but retain flexibility.
3. Basically RAND says standardization and formal requirements it’s just too hard to do, and that is absolutely unacceptable – We owe it to our soldiers to figure out how to ensure they are prepared to lead our Army into the future. The RAND report states that our OPTEMPO makes it too hard to do (My observation) – What? Nothing more to say about that?!?!?!
4. RAND’s research model has some false assumptions; therefore, their research model is slightly flawed. They state that leader development resources are available on the internet from CAL and other online resources. And that these sources serve both the individual (Self) and the commander (Unit) with leader development. In order to make their case, they unfortunately make a false critical assumption: They assume that just because it is posted and available on the internet, that people are using it. Ask yourself when was the last time you went to CAL and looked for self or Unit level leadership development resources??? Me – only recently researching my Thesis – aside from that NEVER!
RAND says we are good to go…..I say we are not…..From those of you out in our units….. What are your thoughts????? Are our commanders doing their job? Is there true leader development occurring in our units? Is it time for some standards, guidelines, requirements, or the like??? Or is leader development merely a bi-product of experience?
The RAND Survey can be accessed at the following link: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG648/
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Developing Leaders for the 21st Century
Much discussion about Leader Development is flying around.... How can we ensure we develop leaders for the future? The Pentathlete? Intellectually Agile? and the list goes on. Within this context there is another issue that will plague our Army in the coming years - Toxic Leaders. Within our Leader Development Program there is a high potential to perpetuate toxicity throughout our Army. I will submit that the probability is moderate; however, it still holds the potential to cripple our force.
Dr. Reed used the term toxic leader, COL Williams has written on the topic while at the War College and we students at CGSC throw this topic around quite a bit. I feel that our leader development program does not provide for the identification of toxicity, nor does it provide a way to report and administratively deal with this problem.
There are two paradigms that are at play here.
1. The Army can make anyone a leader.
2. Toxicity exists within the Army and it is destructive.
If these paradigms are true then the Army absolutely has the responsibility to develop leaders who can identify toxicity and provide an administrative way to deal with toxicity. Well, not so easy to do in a hierarchical organization who is extremely oriented on quick results.
I'll provide one possible scenario that defines the difficulties of this issue:
CPT TANGO works for MAJOR XRAY and MAJOR XRAY is a toxic leader. LTC FOXTROT is their boss (for the sake of this example he is not a toxic leader). CPT TANGO cannot approach MAJOR XRAY, by virtue of his toxicity, this approach would be useless. Option two, report it to LTC FOXTROT. This option is also frought with peril, because LTC FOXTROT will approach MAJOR XRAY and confront him - at which point things get even worse at the office. Third and last option as I see it is go to the Inspector General. This option, although potentially yielding some results, leads to CPT TANGO being labeled a "whistleblower" and things continue to spiral out of control. Thereby, no real way to report or administratively deal with this problem. One last note, this scenario assumes that CPT TANGO has the skills to identify toxicity, although these skills (which are relationship and emotionally based intellectual skills circa -Daniel Goleman) are not fully addressed by our leader development program.
What would you do? Are there other issues at play here? Is CPT TANGO just a whiner?
WHat do you think?
Dr. Reed used the term toxic leader, COL Williams has written on the topic while at the War College and we students at CGSC throw this topic around quite a bit. I feel that our leader development program does not provide for the identification of toxicity, nor does it provide a way to report and administratively deal with this problem.
There are two paradigms that are at play here.
1. The Army can make anyone a leader.
2. Toxicity exists within the Army and it is destructive.
If these paradigms are true then the Army absolutely has the responsibility to develop leaders who can identify toxicity and provide an administrative way to deal with toxicity. Well, not so easy to do in a hierarchical organization who is extremely oriented on quick results.
I'll provide one possible scenario that defines the difficulties of this issue:
CPT TANGO works for MAJOR XRAY and MAJOR XRAY is a toxic leader. LTC FOXTROT is their boss (for the sake of this example he is not a toxic leader). CPT TANGO cannot approach MAJOR XRAY, by virtue of his toxicity, this approach would be useless. Option two, report it to LTC FOXTROT. This option is also frought with peril, because LTC FOXTROT will approach MAJOR XRAY and confront him - at which point things get even worse at the office. Third and last option as I see it is go to the Inspector General. This option, although potentially yielding some results, leads to CPT TANGO being labeled a "whistleblower" and things continue to spiral out of control. Thereby, no real way to report or administratively deal with this problem. One last note, this scenario assumes that CPT TANGO has the skills to identify toxicity, although these skills (which are relationship and emotionally based intellectual skills circa -Daniel Goleman) are not fully addressed by our leader development program.
What would you do? Are there other issues at play here? Is CPT TANGO just a whiner?
WHat do you think?
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Still Under Construction
This site is still under construction.... More to Follow Thanks for your interest!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Remember Those Who Sacrifice... (re-post)
Take time this Memorial weekend and for that matter, as often as you can to remember and reflect on those many Americans who sacrifice for our freedom...
As an Aide-de-Camp I traveled with my boss, to honor those soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice. As the CSAs personal representative, My boss was responsible for ensuring that a fitting, final tribute was made to our fallen comrades. I will never forget the families that I had the opportunity to meet and serve during my travels. I remain in periodic contact with all of them; I will not mention their names here, but I would like to share one story in particular that will remain with me forever.
These events occurred during a trip to Northern California. The family had recently lost their son. A young Staff Sergeant who left behind a wife and infant daughter. We met with the family prior to the memorial service and sat with them for hours just talking about their loved one and who he was and what he stood for etc... Then we discussed the memorial service and other aspects of planned events that were to happen in the coming days. While this family was grieving and dealing with the loss of a loved one, they somehow found out that another serviceman, from a neighboring town, had been killed in action. They then turned to my boss and asked what they could do for this family and how could they contact them. My boss was a little surprised and asked that I work with them to find out the requested contact information, but the most interesting comments came next. The father then stated his reason for wanting to help this family, "I know what this family is going through, I have a ten day head start and these 10 days of experience are invaluable in helping them get through this."
Only after reflecting on this event, did I realize that in all of the media coverage (and there was a swarm of media) of this very honorable and fitting final tribute to our fallen comrade - we missed a very important story! What the media failed to take away is the power and strength of Army families. The powerful story that Americans didn’t get that day was: This family, an Army family, having just lost their son, father, husband - was reaching out in their time of grieving and looking to help another Army family, who they didn’t even know, get through the difficulties of losing a loved one – and all because they had a 10 day head start. That is the power of Army families! And truly a part of the story that America needed to hear.
Please take the time this weekend to remember and reflect on those who have gone before us, those soldiers and families who are currently sacrificing, and those powerfully strong Gold Star families who have “laid so costly a sacrifice at the altar of freedom.” My sincerest admiration and thanks goes out to all of you!
As an Aide-de-Camp I traveled with my boss, to honor those soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice. As the CSAs personal representative, My boss was responsible for ensuring that a fitting, final tribute was made to our fallen comrades. I will never forget the families that I had the opportunity to meet and serve during my travels. I remain in periodic contact with all of them; I will not mention their names here, but I would like to share one story in particular that will remain with me forever.
These events occurred during a trip to Northern California. The family had recently lost their son. A young Staff Sergeant who left behind a wife and infant daughter. We met with the family prior to the memorial service and sat with them for hours just talking about their loved one and who he was and what he stood for etc... Then we discussed the memorial service and other aspects of planned events that were to happen in the coming days. While this family was grieving and dealing with the loss of a loved one, they somehow found out that another serviceman, from a neighboring town, had been killed in action. They then turned to my boss and asked what they could do for this family and how could they contact them. My boss was a little surprised and asked that I work with them to find out the requested contact information, but the most interesting comments came next. The father then stated his reason for wanting to help this family, "I know what this family is going through, I have a ten day head start and these 10 days of experience are invaluable in helping them get through this."
Only after reflecting on this event, did I realize that in all of the media coverage (and there was a swarm of media) of this very honorable and fitting final tribute to our fallen comrade - we missed a very important story! What the media failed to take away is the power and strength of Army families. The powerful story that Americans didn’t get that day was: This family, an Army family, having just lost their son, father, husband - was reaching out in their time of grieving and looking to help another Army family, who they didn’t even know, get through the difficulties of losing a loved one – and all because they had a 10 day head start. That is the power of Army families! And truly a part of the story that America needed to hear.
Please take the time this weekend to remember and reflect on those who have gone before us, those soldiers and families who are currently sacrificing, and those powerfully strong Gold Star families who have “laid so costly a sacrifice at the altar of freedom.” My sincerest admiration and thanks goes out to all of you!
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