Military Leader Development

Introduction

“Leaders have always been generalists. Tomorrow’s leaders will, very likely, have begun life as specialists, but to mature as leaders they must sooner or later climb out of the trenches of specialization and rise above the boundaries that separate the various segments of society.” (Gardner, 1990, pg. 159).

In a recent verbal bout with my History of the Military Art professor, I contended that the true might of a nation may be inversely proportional to the size of its military during peacetime. My thinking, though perhaps idealistic, was that the maintenance of a large military during relative international tranquility is an overt admission of weakness and increases the likelihood of unnecessarily employing that force—it is contextually irrelevant. Instead, I proposed that a strong and stable economy is the best metric of national prowess, for such an economy can resource many opportunities as they arise. On the contrary, a robust standing military has a much narrower utility. To be sure, this author is not one that intentionally seeks to take an interdisciplinary approach to academia, but the connection seems relevant given the nature of this assignment. Whereas a nation may accomplish a strategic goal through military force, a leader may accomplish a task relying upon coercive power; whereas a nation may transform and develop the world through its economic strength and versatility, a versatile leader may transform others through the employment of one or many leader development principles—both theoretically based and experientially acquired. This piece serves to describe acquired PL499 course concepts and their relevance to my project team and the West Point Leader Development System (WPLDS). Only through a...

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...I make here and now form who I will be when it matters even more. Just as leadership lessons can be learned in a History of the Military Art class in an interdisciplinary manner, I need to focus on pulling as many lessons from my time at West Point so I can apply them when the stakes are potentially much higher.

References

Avolio, B.J. (2005). Leadership Development in Balance: Made, Born. New Jersey: Lawrence

Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Crandall, D., Editor (Various authors) (2007). Leadership lessons from West Point. San

Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Wiley.

Gardner, J.W. (1990). On Leadership. New York: The Free Press.

London, M. (2002). Leadership Development: Paths to Self-Insight and Professional Growth.

New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Ting, S., & Hart, W.E. (2004). Formal Coaching. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.