Leader development session led by the author at the Engineer Career Course.

The intellectual edge and a mission command approach are intrinsically related intangibles. When coupled with command and control systems they enable the achievement of decision superiority in combat. Decision superiority leads to tempo which is crucial to success in war.  Our intellectual edge – our ability to think and decide – is a critical component of combat. Our intellect must be continually exercised, maintained and developed just like our bodies and our equipment.

That leader development programs are important is, for the most part, uncontested. Today most western militaries recognise the value of and actively encourage in-unit leader development. US Army Training and Doctrine Commander, General Paul E. Funk II, summarized the importance of leader development, ‘The #1 job for a commander is developing leaders of character… they are your legacy… they will be the future of our great organization.’ 

There are many facets to leader development. According to US Army Doctrine Pamphlet (ADP) 7-0 and TRADOC Pamphlet 524-8-2, learning is continuous and occurs across the three training domains; institutional, operational and self-development. All domains are important but, it is hard to develop others if you don’t develop yourself. If you read blogs like this and an occasional book related to our profession you are probably self-developing. But what of those many officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) who are not deliberately self-developing?

The development of others is exceptionally important. How do leaders inculcate the drive and motivation to self-develop in their subordinates? Self-development is something that is difficult to force. Instead people need to be convinced and mentored toward doing it successfully. ADP 7-0 makes leader development a command responsibility by stating, ‘Leaders have the responsibility for developing subordinate leaders…They train subordinates to be successful tactically and technically and to be prepared to assume positions of greater responsibility.’ The deliberate development of leaders involves day-to-day coaching, mentoring, counselling and leading by example. None of this happens on its own. To be done well it requires requires effort, dedicated time and planning. 

This article will discuss deliberate leader development programs as just one aspect of leader development. It will highlight how a deliberate program can develop the depth, breadth and context of individuals toward collective goals or unit missions while preparing leaders for the future. Prioritization, structure and personal investment are offered as three key ingredients  to deliberate leader development programs designed to foster and enhance the intellectual edge required to win on the battlefield. 

Most military officers and NCOs have had varied experiences with leader development programs. Some might have been exceptionally valuable, even if as a junior officers we might not have realised it. Others, poorly organized and executed, or lacking focus result in a negative impact on the targeted leaders. At times they can even have a negative impact on the organization, fuelling dissent and contributing to a poor climate. The worst of the poor leader development programs are those which are driven by commanders who are attempting to enforce them but are not invested in them. They want to have a leader development program because they think their boss expects them to have one, but they don’t believe in it enough to become personally involved and invested. They task it out to subordinates, they don’t allocate and protect time for them on the training calendar, and they don’t invest resources to them. 

Prioritize 

The first key to success is to make the leader professional development program a priority. It must hold a special and protected place on any unit’s calendar and battle rhythm. Fiercely protect these events. Make it clear that involvement and attendance is not optional. The trick to this is programming. Nobody likes last minute, unpredictable, compulsory events. Plan it, program it and stick to it. Even if it is programmed initial push-back and grumblings about how ‘busy’ everyone is will likely be heard. But the moment people see attending as ‘optional’ is the moment the program will start unravelling. Once the first few iterations have been delivered people will begin to accept the program as a normal part of the routine. The grumblings will stop, and people will start investing intellectually. But there is an investment by those running the program that must be done.  If the program is not planned, resourced and rehearsed prior to execution, consider cancelling the event to avoid wasting everyone’s time. These events should not be done to “check the block” Make twice as sure it is ready for the next programmed session but don’t make people sit through something that is not worth their time – they’ll resent it and it’ll lose its value.

Structure 

The second secret for success is to have a structure and clear purpose. What are you trying to achieve in the leader development program? Is it making people better at their current positions? Is it deepening their understanding of your organization’s role? Perhaps it is educating them toward their next role or to broaden their contextual understanding on the place you’re deploying to. The point is that if people understand why they are turning up and believe in the purpose, they are far more likely to be engaged. If the reason or purpose gets after more than one thing, create multiple lines of effort and articulate them so that people understand the why. One approach is to have broad themes as the lines of effort and to rotate sessions which target a topic relating to each theme. For example, a theme might be ‘Tactics’. Topic sessions relating to a tactics theme might include; discussion on offence in dense urban environments, engagement area development in the jungle, tactical decision games, or presentations on other arms capabilities such as Fires or Engineers. Depending on the audience and the Commanders intent, other themes might include; historical case studies, leadership and leadership theories or emerging trends and technologies. 

Personal Investment

The final key to success is for commanders and leaders to be personally invested and involved. Commanders and key leaders will likely need to host (or at least be intimately involved in) the first few to ensure the standard is set. If people are going to be encouraged (or tasked) to plan, lead and develop leader development sessions they will need to first see that it is important enough for the leader to dedicate time to developing them too. The program should stick to its identified structure through adherence to a theme or it should be amended on purpose so that people continue to understand why. Commanders and or key leaders need to own and drive the program for it to remain relevant and on target. Think outside the box of traditional PowerPoint style lessons and embrace other options like YouTube, podcasts and blogs to drive discussion and activities. Take the time to discuss and encourage ideas which come from subordinates and help them develop their contributions toward the broader program intent. Invite guests from other units, academia and industry to contribute to the team’s intellectual development. Bring in trusted subordinates as advisors, or adventurous peers, to help develop a program. While the leader should lead and drive the effort, we never lead on our own. 

Many junior officers and NCOs are ready to begin their intellectual self-development and just need help getting started. Leader development programs present an opportunity to help commanders guide them and get started on their self-development. There is a plethora of recourses available across the growing network in the profession of arms which can assist individuals self-develop or leaders develop deliberate programs for their organizations. 

We find it difficult to think outside the box unless we force the opportunity to broaden and deepen our understanding of our profession and the world around us. Get comfortable being challenged, being respectfully contested and not being the expert in the room. We win during war and conflict by applying our doctrinal framework to resource and time constrained complex problems in often unanticipated operating environments. We prepare ourselves to be better at doing this by developing ourselves and others – and by contesting our ideas.

MAJ Nick Trotter (@NickTrotter1) is an Australian Army Officer currently on exchange to the United States where he serving as the Division Chief of the Engineer Captains Career Course at the US Army Engineer School. He has served two tours in Afghanistan, as the Aide-de-Camp to the Australian Chief of Army, commanded a Combat Engineer Squadron, and is a graduate of the Australian Command and Staff College where he gained a Master of Military and Defence Studies and completed the Art of War program. He is a contributing editor of the Chesterfield Strategy blog.