Title: Have We Removed Leadership from Leader Development? - The Military Leader
Headings: Have We Removed Leadership from Leader Development?
Have We Removed Leadership from Leader Development?
A Succession of Skills
Stuck in the Schoolhouse
“It’s on you, follower.”
What Do You Think About Leader Development?
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Content: “It’s on you, follower.” In a leader development program that excludes the study of leadership, responsibility for discerning the appropriate leadership lessons rests with the subordinates. Followers must have a desire to learn, be observant of their leaders, and know what leadership qualities to look for and internalize. All of this requires not only keen intuition but the time and mental energy to do so while fulfilling the duties of their current position. This is a lot to ask of our subordinates. To truly grow leaders instead of just skilled followers, leaders need to teach topics like example setting, self-development, learning from failure, building trust, having a success mindset, protecting the team, demanding the best performance, and so on. These aren’t technical competencies, they’re not warfighting competencies…they’re leadership competencies. If leaders fail to make these lessons explicit during training and leader development events, they should not expect subordinates to model the behavior and become good leaders themselves. Leader development means teaching the How and Why, while the team is doing the What. Leader development means elevating the conversation above the level of task execution.