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Leader Development in Army Units
Views from the Field
Developing leaders is critical for the Army; given the amount of time officers spend in units, that experience should be important to their development. Yet few studies indicate whether Army units even have leader development programs, and, if they do, what the programs consist of and how well they are executed. To gain insight into these issues, Arroyo Center researchers met with over 450 officers (lieutenants through colonels) to discuss leader development within Army units. The discussions revealed that no set of activities exists that could be characterized as a standard unit-level leader development program. Instead, leader development tends to be informal, personality-driven, and dependent on the abilities, experience, and inclinations of the unit commander. The researchers do not recommend that the Army impose more formal programs or requirements on commanders, but instead that the Army’s school system demonstrate the proper way to do counseling; introduce Army leaders to an array of leader development tools that could be adapted to a unit’s needs in different situations; and, most importantly, foster the expectation that leader development will take place, according to Army standards, in operational units. The authors note that the Center for Army Leadership can support these efforts by fostering the sharing of leader development tools and ideas, possibly online, and exercising continuing quality control over the ideas being shared, based at least in part on user feedback.
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Pages: 176
ISBN/EAN: 9780833042002
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Contents
Chapter One:
Introduction
Chapter Two:
Study Participants and Methods
Chapter Three:
Overview of Unit-Level Leader Development
Chapter Four:
Commander’s Influence on Unit-Level Leader Development Activities
Chapter Five:
Counseling, Coaching, and Mentoring
Chapter Six:
Specific Elements of Leader Development Programs
Chapter Seven:
Conclusions and Recommendations
Appendix A:
Junior Officer Questionnaire
Appendix B:
Leadership Qualities That Junior Officers Most Admire and Wish to Emulate
Appendix C:
Lessons Learned by Junior Officers from Good and Bad Examples of Army Leadership
Appendix D:
Sample Battalion Commander Development Form
Appendix E:
Brief Review of Other Studies of Leader Development
The research described in this report was sponsored by the United States Army and conducted by the RAND Arroyo Center.
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