Several years ago, I sat through a professional development session that was one of the most painful of my career. We gathered around a large table as a young lieutenant disassembled and reassembled an M-4 rifle, while providing stilted commentary in a sort of step-by-step, “how to” manner. When he was finished, we retired to the all ranks club for a round of beers and some obligatory, Friday afternoon team building. The following month, we repeated the same process, but with a different lieutenant and an M-9 Beretta. A month later, we were back to the M-4 and another lieutenant. Rinse and repeat. This was our leader development program.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

After several months, I approached the commander and offered to help expand the program to address a broader range of topics and possibly introduce subjects that would challenge our leaders in new ways. The response was an unequivocal “no.” He was comfortable with the program and it met his intent – ill-defined as it was. We continued with his program and only departed from the formula when our sessions were cancelled outright.

Designing a leader development program requires a creative mix of ingenuity, entrepreneurism, and clear vision. This isn’t a “pick two” problem set – without all three, a program will falter, become mundane, and eventually fall victim to its own lack of original and engaging content. When a leader development program fails, it doesn’t just fail the commander. It fails everyone in the leadership chain. These programs are a mainstay to the professional growth and development of our leaders. We have to give them the same attention and effort we would with any other aspect of our readiness.

Field Manual 6-22, Leader Development, offers as good a template as you’ll find: (1) strong commitment, (2) clear purpose, (3) supportive relationship, (4) mutually supportive domains, and (3) a system that allows for candid assessment and feedback. The first two elements generally derive from the senior leader in any organization, and the others tend to follow in logical progression as the program takes shape.

1. Strong Commitment. Leader development requires work. It consumes time. And it often doesn’t realize recognizable benefits in the near term. That makes it all the more critical that leaders at all levels commit themselves to developing subordinate leaders. This isn’t just a responsibility, it’s a mandate of the profession of arms.
2. Clear Purpose. Nothing postures a program for success like a clear purpose and intent, all the more so if those are shared. Having a tangible vision of the intended outcome sets the foundation for a good program; without a clear purpose and intent, you’ll build a program on a proverbial “house of cards.” 
3. Supportive Relationship. The third element is a reflection of the organizational learning culture. This is something that has to be set and reinforced from the top down – developing natural curiosity among other leaders and encouraging open engagement and sharing of ideas. This can be a challenge for any organization, and most of us have experience with leaders who are not comfortable within such a culture. 
4. Mutually Supportive Domains. This is typically where you find the structure in any program, but it can also be the most challenging to build. One-dimensional programs are not all that uncommon, especially among leaders whose only experience is a program like the one described in the opening paragraph. Building a program that meets the purpose and intent described above typically involves a balance of developing tacit and explicit knowledge. Experiential learning combined with self- and group-study tends to produce a much more favorable outcome than learning that is focused in a single domain. 
5. Candid Assessment and Feedback. If you really want to build leaders, then you absolutely have to be open to feedback. The more candid, the better. A closed system that doesn’t allow for assessment and feedback is a system that won’t garner commitment or maintain much of a learning culture. 

If you’re looking for a sterling example of leader development, look no further than the late UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden. His pyramid of success served as a model for building successful teams and remarkable leaders; his 12 lessons in leadership a paradigm for leading those teams. His third lesson – “Call yourself a teacher” – is especially relevant to any discussion of leader development. As a leader, helping your subordinates to achieve their full potential is a sacred duty, one that can’t be delegated, wished away, or neglected. A great leader is a lifelong teacher.

Steve Leonard joined the KU School of Business as the Director of the graduate program in Organizational Leadership following a 28-year career in the U.S. Army. A former senior military strategist and the creative force behind the defense microblog, Doctrine Man!!. He is a non-resident fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point; the co-founder of the national security blog, Divergent Options, and its sister podcast, The Smell of Victory; co-founder and board member of the Military Writers Guild; and a member of the editorial review board of the Arthur D. Simons Center’s Interagency Journal. He is the author of five books, numerous professional articles, countless blog posts, and is a prolifically bad military cartoonist.