Leadership Lessons from West Point E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Serie: Drucker Foundation Future Series
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 815

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

With Leadership Lessons from West Point as a guide, leaders in the business, nonprofit, and government sectors can learn leadership techniques and practices from contributors who are teaching or have taught at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and have served in positions of leadership that span the globe. These military experts cover a broad range of topics that are relevant to any leadership development program in any sector. The articles in this important resource offer insight into what leadership means to these experts--in both war and peacetime--and describe their views on quiet leadership, mission, values, taking care of people, organizational learning, and leading change.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise

Other Publications from the Leader to Leader Institute

Title Page

Copyright Page

leader to leader

A NOTE FROM THE LEADER TO LEADER INSTITUTE

Foreword

Acknowledgements

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Introduction

PART ONE - LEADERSHIP AND VALUES DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE - BECOMING A LEADER DEVELOPER

Leader Development: The True Measure of a Leader’s Success

Leader Development Is a Deliberate Process

Three Phases of Leader Development

Final Thoughts

CHAPTER TWO - LEARNING FROM FAILURE

Teach Yourself to Lead by Reflecting on Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Remembering Our Own Personal Leadership Failures

“Our Life Is Our Message”

Note

CHAPTER THREE - YOU MUST LEAD YOURSELF FIRST

Take Responsibility for Your Own Actions

Great Leaders Also Need to Be Great Followers

One Person Can Make a Difference and Lead Successfully

Three Great Leadership Lessons

CHAPTER FOUR - INFLUENCING YOUR ORGANIZATION’S MORAL PHILOSOPHY

Being Preyed on Taught Me a Hard Lesson

The Army’s Case for Shaping Moral Philosophy

Recruiting and Selecting People Who Match Organizational Values

Socializing Recruits to Embrace Organizational Values

Establishing Clear Rules of Acceptable Conduct in the Organization

Clarifying Boundaries by Punishing Those Who Step Outside Them

Pushing Beyond Compliance: Toward Internalization

The Next Level: Embodying Your Organization’s Values

Teaching Ethics

Policing Their Own Ranks

The Problem of Tolerating Unacceptable Behavior

Conclusion

Notes

CHAPTER FIVE - DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL VALUES IN OTHERS

The Enduring Nature of Army Values

Why Values Are So Important

How Leaders Get Others to Internalize Organizational Values

Step One: Self-Identification and Selection

Step Two: Early Socialization Process

Step Three: Use of Role Models

Step Four: Sharing of Stories and Examples

Step Five: Feedback and Performance Evaluations

Conclusion

CHAPTER SIX - THE AUTHENTIC HIGH-IMPACT LEADER

Challenges to Authenticity

Components of Authentic Leadership

High-Impact Leadership: The Multiplying Effects of Authentic Leadership

Authentic Leadership in Operation

Authentic Leadership Development

Taking Authenticity to the Collective Level: A Culture of Authenticity

Authenticity Revisited

Notes

CHAPTER SEVEN - LEADER DEVELOPMENT AND SELF-AWARENESS IN THE U.S. ARMY BENCH PROJECT

Goals of the Bench

The Role of Self-Awareness in Development

Developing Leader Adaptability and Self-Awareness

Assessment One: Senior Leaders

Assessment Two: Junior Leaders

Assessment Three: Senior Noncommissioned Officers

Conclusion

Notes

PART TWO - LEADERSHIP STYLES AND SITUATIONS

CHAPTER EIGHT - TEAMING HIGH-POTENTIAL TALENT

The Problem with High-Potential Talent

How We Became World Champions

Strategy One: Share Responsibility Among All Team Members

Strategy Two: Set and Maintain High Standards for the Team

Strategy Three: Develop Respect Among Team Members for Each Other

Strategy Four: Ensure Humility and Recognize Individual Differences

Strategy Five: Communicate Constantly

Conclusion

Notes

CHAPTER NINE - LEADING AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT

What Is In Extremis Leadership?

How We Learned About In Extremis Leadership

Characteristics of In Extremis Leadership

In Extremis Leadership Is Authentic Leadership

Is In Extremis Leadership Values Based?

Putting the Theory to Work: Developing In Extremis Leaders

Does Conventional Leader Development Fall Short?

How to Develop In Extremis Leaders

In Extremis Lessons for Business and Life

Conclusion: The Best Leaders Want to Be Leaders with Passion

Notes

CHAPTER TEN - CREATING URGENCY AND INSPIRING YOUR TEAM

My First Lesson in Motivation: People Need Focus and Direction

Influencing Others: Start by Building Strong Relationships

Building Your Motivated Team

Common Pitfalls in Motivating People

Some Final Advice

CHAPTER ELEVEN - QUIET LEADERSHIP

Communicating Intent

Adopting Multiple Perspectives

A Sustainable Fortitude

Conclusion

Note

CHAPTER TWELVE - LEADING WITHOUT WORDS

How Communication Affects Leadership

The Leader Communication Process

What Leaders Need to Know About Nonverbal Communication

Body Language Basics

Dimensions of Nonverbal Communication

Enhancing Your Nonverbal Communication

Conclusion: Gestalt Communication Facilitates More Effective Leadership

CHAPTER THIRTEEN - DEVELOPING CHARISMA WITH CAUTION

Leadership Lessons Can Come Early in Life

The Impact of Charisma on Organizations and Individuals

How to Avoid the Pitfalls of Charisma

CHAPTER FOURTEEN - TRUST: THE KEY TO COMBAT LEADERSHIP

Trusted Combat Leaders

Ten Attributes of a Leader Who Can Be Trusted in Combat

The Link Between Trust and Combat Leadership

Notes

PART THREE - LEADING ORGANIZATIONS

CHAPTER FIFTEEN - SOCIALIZED LEADERSHIP

Cadet Basic Training and Socializing New Leaders

Cadet Cultural Themes

Implications for Leaders

What Are Organizations to Do?

Note

CHAPTER SIXTEEN - LEADING AT THE BUSINESS END OF POLICY

What Happens When Your People Ignore Your Policies

Identifying the Gap Between Espoused Policies and In-Use Policies

A Beginner’s Mistake: Attempting to Force Compliance with the Organization’s Policies

One Person Enforcing a Policy Is Not a Policy—It Is Micromanagement

An Alternative Approach: Placing the Development of Your People Ahead of Results

Development Produces Empowerment That Produces Lasting Results

The Lesson Learned: A Leader Cannot Force Success

A Lesson in Leadership: Positional Power Does Not Facilitate Enduring Leadership

Note

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - HARNESSING THE POWER OF CULTURE AND DIVERSITY FOR ...

What Culture Is, and Why It Matters to Organizations

Cultural Diversity?

Why the (Un)Lucky Seven Receive Special Focus in Terms of Diversity

The Danger of Stereotyping and Overgeneralizing

Diversity as a Force Multiplier in Organizations

Examples of Diversity Success in the U.S. Army

The Leading Diversity Initiative: An Emerging Next Step in the Project

An Example of a Cultural Diversity Challenge Confronting the U.S. Army

Benefits to Society of Leveraging Cultural Diversity Effectively

Conclusion

Notes

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT BY PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST

Developing Multiple Supportive Commitments

A Climate of Caring

Soldier Training, Education, and Development

Opportunities for Excellence and “Being All You Can Be”

Lessons for Leaders

Conclusion

Notes

CHAPTER NINETEEN - MANAGING EXPECTATIONS WHEN LEADING CHANGE

As a Change Agent, You Must First Identify Your Stakeholders

Managing Expectations Defined

Lessons Learned in How to Manage Expectations

Know Your Context to Focus Your Efforts

A Nonmilitary Case Study: Managing Expectations at a Troubled High School

Conclusion

Notes

INDEX

More Praise forLeadership Lessons from West Point

Many of our graduates will tell you that over their four-year careers at West Point, the lesson they have learned to value most can be expressed in two words: “Leadership matters.” Some of the best leaders in the world have contributed to Leadership Lessons from West Point. They articulately and earnestly explain the key points of leadership strategy, values, development, styles, and situations. Readers of all backgrounds will learn from the experts’ personal anecdotes, accessible prose, and sage advice.

—Lieutenant General Franklin L. Hagenbeck, 57th Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and 1971 West Point graduate

This is a wonderful primer for the student of leadership whether young or old, regardless of profession. Doug Crandall has expertly crafted some of the latest commentary on leadership, from both a practical and theoretical perspective, into an easy and extremely relevant work. Leadership Lessons from West Point is a must for your professional collection and a great tool to help you develop your followers into future leaders.

—John W. Rosa, Lieutenant General, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), president of The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, and 1973 Citadel graduate

The U.S. Military Academy has proven without a doubt that leadership skills can be developed and strengthened. The same leadership skills required to prepare troops, to plan logistics, to formulate military strategies, to execute tactics on the battlefield, and to motivate soldiers in combat can be applied to business.

—Henry Cisneros, chairman, CityView

Can a book on leadership from a military academy help leaders who don’t march to breakfast? If your organization has a mission and people, then stop what you’re doing and read this book. After that take your team for a tour of any military installation and learn about its mission. Then . . . hold on . . . watch what happens!

—Brigadier General Randal D. Fullhart, U.S. Air Force, Commandant, Air Command and Staff College

The U.S. Military Academy is a national treasure. It lives, breathes, and inculcates leadership skills into those bright young men and women who enter the gates and go through the forty-seven-month immersion process. The front of these skills is the Department of Behavioral Science and Leadership, so ably led by Colonel Tom Kolditz. This book captures the essence of what we collectively teach the future leaders of our Army and our Nation.

—Seth F. Hudgins Jr., Colonel, U.S. Army (Ret.) and president, Association of Graduates

The essays in Leadership Lessons from West Point offer insights from authors with many years of experience in the field. Topics such as learning from failure, gaining confidence as a leader, developing leadership qualities in others, and the various aspects of leadership discussed can be applied to all walks of life. Whether you are involved in the military, business, or civil service, if you want to be an effective leader, the lessons in this book will be relevant to you.

—Richard W. Schneider, Rear Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard (Ret.) and president, Norwich University

The first thing you will notice about this book is that the authors are mostly Captains and Majors— people on the front lines of leadership issues. It is a hands-on work for leaders in every walk of life. Great stuff!

—Dennis M. McCarthy, Lieutenant General, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) and executive director, Reserve Officers Association

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Copyright © 2007 by Leader to Leader Institute. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Leadership lessons from West Point/Doug Crandall, editor. p. cm.

Includes index.

eISBN : 978-0-470-76869-3

1. Leadership. I. Crandall, Doug, date.

HD57.7.L4342 2006

658.4’092—dc22 2006025136

HB Printing

leader to leader

INSTITUTE

Established in 1990 as the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, the Leader to Leader Institute furthers its mission—to strengthen the leadership of the social sector—by providing social sector leaders with the wisdom, inspiration, and resources essential for leading for innovation and for building vibrant social sector organizations. It is the social sector, in collaboration with its partners in the private and public sectors, that is key in changing lives and building a society of healthy children, strong families, decent housing, good schools, and work that dignifies a diverse, inclusive, cohesive community that cares about all of its members.

The Leader to Leader Institute provides innovative and relevant training materials and resources that enable leaders of the future to address emerging opportunities and challenges. With the goal of leading social sector organizations toward excellence in performance, the Institute has brought together more than four hundred thought leaders to publish over twenty books available in twenty-eight languages and the award-winning quarterly journal, Leader to Leader.

The Leader to Leader Institute engages social sector leaders in partnerships across the sectors that provide new and significant opportunities for learning and growth. It coordinates unique, high-level summits for leaders from all three sectors and collaborates with local sponsors on workshops and conferences for social sector leaders on strategic planning, leadership, and cross-sector partnerships.

Building on a legacy of innovation, the Leader to Leader Institute explores new approaches to strengthen the leadership of the social sector. With sources of talent and inspiration that range from the local community development corporation to the U.S. Army to the corporate boardroom, the Institute helps social sector organizations identify new leaders and new ways of operating that embrace change and abandon the practices of yesterday that no longer achieve results today.

Leader to Leader Institute(formerly the Drucker Foundation) 320 Park Avenue, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10022 USA Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.leadertoleader.org

A NOTE FROM THELEADER TO LEADER INSTITUTE

It is a great honor to write the opening words to this book; the chapters were written by a group of highly qualified educators who are teaching or have taught at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Army officers and civilians who live “Duty, Honor, Country.” This is one of the most important leadership books the Leader to Leader Institute (formerly the Peter F. Drucker Foundation) has published in our sixteen years. Providing leadership resources for leaders in all three sectors, twenty-one of our books are now traveling the world in twenty-eight languages, and Leadership Lessons from West Point will now join this group in providing leadership wisdom and practices as relevant to a corporate executive as they are to a leader of a social sector organization, university students and faculty, and government leaders at every level. This is a book for our tenuous times, a book “just in time.”

At the Leader to Leader Institute, we believe this book will become an indispensable guide for leaders of the future, leading the organizations of the future. This book brings together remarkably gifted Army officers, educators, and leadership developers to look at every aspect of leadership. The chapters are based not just on academic theory but on the on-the-ground experience of these leaders, their own impressive educational backgrounds, and their research as faculty members. Although the authors make references to war, life-and-death decisions, and heroic action, their focus is on leadership, mission, values, teamwork, organizational learning and culture, leading change, and other topics that cut across all organizations, across public, private, and social sectors. This is a book for leaders searching for authenticity and relevance, and for philosophies to make their own. Each chapter is a gift to leaders who are challenged to redefine the future—some would say “called” to help redefine the future.

Leader to Leader’s twentieth book, Be, Know, Do, adapted from the U.S. Army Leadership Manual, was our first collaboration with the U.S. Army. Now we bring you another amazing leadership resource from expert military leaders. These authors and faculty are part of a moving, inspiring adventure in learning that prepares our young men and women, cadets at West Point, for a future that no one can adequately describe, yet a future in which these young officers must lead well, playing their part in sustaining democracy.

These leadership lessons will resonate across the sectors and around the world. Leadership Lessons from West Point is a book to keep close at hand as an indispensable leadership handbook, even as we share it widely with fellow travelers on their own leadership journeys.

August 2006

Frances Hesselbein New York

FOREWORD

Jim Collins

In 2005, I had the privilege of visiting West Point for a gathering of leaders from business, social sectors, and the military. One of my hosts, a captain in the U.S. Army, had obtained an M.B.A. after graduating from West Point. “What most surprised you about business school after your West Point experience?” I asked.

“The misperceptions my M.B.A. classmates had about Army training and its relevance for leadership outside the military,” he responded. He then described a debate that had erupted in one of his classes, and how one of his classmates had challenged, “In the Army, you don’t really need to lead because soldiers are so well trained to follow orders.”

If leadership exists only if people follow when they have the freedom not to follow, I thought perhaps his classmate had a point. After all, civilian life does not have the same clear chain of command as the U.S. Army. When I pushed on this point, the captain responded that, yes, the Army has a clear chain of command, but Army leaders face one giant reality that business leaders rarely face: “In business, if you make bad decisions, people lose money and perhaps jobs,” he said. “In the military, if you make bad decisions, nations can fall and people can die.”

The phrase stuck in my mind: people can die. In the Army, it matters to your very existence if your leaders are competent. It matters if your leaders are trustworthy. It matters if your leaders care more about themselves than they do about their people or the mission. Your life may well depend on it. Combine this truth with the larger mission of protecting national interest and advancing the cause of freedom, and you get a context for leadership rarely faced in the normal course of business.

This wonderful book gives us a glimpse into the lessons of leadership that can best be grasped in the face of high stakes and large consequences. Upon receiving the manuscript, I began my standard reading process of flipping through the chapter title pages to get a sense of the overall work before delving into a page-by-page read. But along the way, I found myself drawn in, stopping to read entire chapters before completing my initial scan, increasingly excited by the project. These writers blend their very real experiences with thoughtful frameworks, bringing them to life with vivid stories.

Disciplined people who engage in disciplined thought and take disciplined action: this framework captures much of what separates greatness from mediocrity. The Army has long embraced this concept with its own framework of leadership: Be, Know, Do. This framework runs through these chapters, like a thread of DNA. The beauty of this book lies in the dualities of leadership—knowing when to follow and when to not follow, the responsibility to question and the responsibility to execute, dedication to mission first and dedication to your comrades above all. These dualities highlight the point that disciplined action does not mean rote action. Disciplined action means that you begin with a framework of core values (be), you meld those values with knowledge and insight (know), and finally you make situation-specific decisions to act (do). Leadership, the chapters in this book teach, begins not with what you do but who you are.

Encoded into the West Point approach are two eternal truths. First, the medium- and long-term future cannot be predicted, and second, the best “strategy” in a volatile environment lies in having the right people who embody your organization’s core values and can adapt to unanticipated challenges. West Point exists not to train soldiers for a specific war but to develop leaders who can adapt to whatever war might be thrust on our nation—no matter what continent, no matter what conditions, no matter what form of warfare, no matter what enemy.

West Point answers the question “Can leadership be learned?” with the idea that whether you like it or not, you are a leader. The real question is whether you will be an effective leader. In reading this book, I realized that West Point also addresses a question that I’ve been wrestling with: Can Level 5 Leadership be developed? In our research into why some companies become great while others do not, my colleagues and I observed that leadership capabilities follow a five-level hierarchy, with Level 5 at the top. At Level 1, you are a highly capable individual. At Level 2, you become a contributing team member. At Level 3, you become a competent manager. At Level 4, you become an effective leader. Stepping up to Level 5 requires a special blend of personal humility and professional will—the capacity to channel your personal ambitions and capabilities into a larger cause or mission. Level 5 leaders differ from Level 4 in that they are ambitious first and foremost for the cause, the organization, the mission, the nation, the work—not themselves—and they have the will to do whatever it takes (within the bounds of the organization’s core values) to make good on that ambition. These chapters show that West Point is in the business of developing not just leaders, but Level 5 leaders; the ideals of service, dedication to cause, loyalty to comrades, sacrifice, courage, and honor shine through these pages.

Toward the end of my visit to West Point, I had the privilege of conducting a small seminar for soon-to-graduate cadets, invited by a few members of the faculty who penned some of these chapters. One senior cadet, who would almost certainly graduate to dangerous duty in the Middle East, said to me that he felt more fortunate than his friends who had gone to places like Harvard and Stanford. “No matter how the rest of my life unfolds,” he explained, “I know that I have served a larger cause than myself.” Earlier that day, a senior general officer commented that this current generation of West Point graduates stands as one of the most inspired—and inspiring—since the graduating class of 1945.

I came away from those sessions struck by the contrast between these young men and women and my graduating class from college in 1980. For two decades, we lived in a world of artificial stability, made possible by America’s triumph in the Cold War, combined with an era of perverted prosperity culminating in the stock market bubble of the late 1990s. My generation had no larger cause, no overriding ethos of service, no great object that extracted our sacrifice. And we are poorer for it. The West Point leaders who introduced me to these inspired cadets, and who write so passionately in this book about the principles of courage, sacrifice, and commitment, helped me to see that this younger generation of idealistic men and women deserves not to be just students of their elders but—equally—our teachers.

September 2006 Boulder, Colorado

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership (BS&L) at the U.S. Military Academy are tremendously grateful to all those who have helped us share our ideas with readers beyond the gates of West Point. Larry Olson of John Wiley and Sons is the true hero. This book stems from his creative energy and his tremendous efforts. Leadership Lessons from West Point (and our special edition of the Leader to Leader Journal) never would have happened without his belief in our mission, our talents, and our ideas. Similarly, we thank Frances Hesselbein and Brigadier General (Retired) Robert Gaylord for the Leader to Leader Institute’s continued support of BS&L and West Point. Their contributions have certainly helped strengthen our department. We hope that the nineteen chapters in this book help to strengthen the leadership of the social sector.

We thank Ruth Mills, Allison Brunner, Elizabeth Forsaith, and Beverly Harrison Miller for their tremendous contributions to this book. Their constant guidance throughout the editing and publishing process transformed our raw ideas into what we hope are valuable lessons for others.

Most important, we thank the soldiers, colleagues, and cadets who have inspired us, helped us, and kept us on track during our own leadership journeys and teaching endeavors. Without you, we would have nothing to share.

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Major Jeff Bergmann is an assistant professor of psychology in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA). He currently serves as the course director for Educational Psychology and Foundations of Counseling and teaches General Psychology for Leaders. Bergmann has served in a variety of leadership positions, including aide-de-camp to a commanding general and commander of a military police company. He deployed in 2001 to the border of Afghanistan in support of the Global War on Terrorism. His current research focuses on the psychological impact of combat on service members and their families. He has a B.S. from the USMA and an M.A. from New York University.

Captain Dena Braeger is an instructor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA), where she teaches Leading Organizations Through Change and Military Leadership. She has led in a variety of assignments as both a medical services officer and logistician. In 2003, she deployed to Iraq in support of the Global War on Terrorism. She has a B.S. from the USMA and an M.A. in organizational psychology from Columbia University’s Teachers College.

Major Doug Crandall is the executive officer to the Dean of the Academic Board at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA). He was previously an assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership where he served as course director for Leading Organizations Through Change and Advanced Military Leadership and received the Excellence in Teaching Award. Prior to his assignment at West Point, Crandall served in an array of leadership capacities as an armor officer. He has a B.S. from the USMA and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Major Chip Daniels served as an assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy from 2003 to 2005, where he taught military leadership and served as an assistant course director. Previously he served as a platoon leader, executive officer, staff officer, and company commander at various posts across the Army. He has a B.S. in management from Virginia Tech and an M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, where he received the Spaulding Award for Leadership. Daniels is currently deployed to Iraq with the First Cavalry Division.

Dr. Morten G. Ender is the sociology program director and associate professor of sociology in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy. He is an award-winning teacher at both the University of Maryland and at West Point. His research has appeared in scholarly journals, and he has written two books: Military Brats and Other Global Nomads: Growing Up in Organization Families (2002) and Inequalities: Readings in Diversity and Social Life (2004). His current research compares military and civilian university undergraduates and their attitudes toward contemporary social issues, such as women in combat and the role of the United States in the Global War on Terrorism. He has an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Maryland.

Major Remi Hajjar served as an assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) from 2002 to 2005, where he taught military leadership, introductory sociology, and sociological theory; he also served as the deputy director of the sociology program. His leadership experience includes a broad array of assignments in the Army’s military intelligence community. His current academic interests include the topics of culture and diversity in the armed forces, particularly how the military can bolster its ability to process cultural diversity effectively to enhance performance. He has a B.S. in leadership studies from the USMA and an M.A. in sociology from Northwestern University.

Lieutenant Colonel Sean T. Hannah is the director of leadership and management studies for the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy. He has twenty years of experience leading infantry units in both peace and combat and at strategic levels at the Pentagon. He has an M.B.A. and M.P.A. from Syracuse University, an M.A. in military science from the Marine Corps University, and a Ph.D. in leadership from the University of Nebraska.

Second Lieutenant Greg Hastings graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in May 2006, where he majored in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership’s Psychology Program and conducted award-winning academic research on performance enhancement for combat soldiers. Upon graduation, he received a commission as an officer in the infantry and will serve as a platoon leader with the 82nd Airborne Division. His interests while at West Point included mountaineering, foreign languages, combatives, and skydiving, where he earned a National Championship for the West Point Parachute Team.

Lieutenant Colonel Todd Henshaw is a U.S. Military Academy professor and director of the core course in military leadership. Previously, Henshaw directed the Eisenhower Leader Development Program, a graduate program in leadership and leader development affiliated with Teachers College, Columbia University. He has served in a variety of leadership and staff positions in the Army, from platoon through division. He earned his M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and Ph.D. in business at the University of Kansas.

Jack Jefferies is an adjunct instructor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy, where he speaks to the cadets about group dynamics and high-performing teams. He currently works with Oneteam, an organizational and leadership development firm that helps diverse client partners define and achieve their goals by focusing on the interplay of individual, team, and organizational systems. Jefferies has won multiple world championships and national titles as captain of the U.S. Skydiving Team. He holds an M.S. in organizational development from American University and National Training Laboratories.

Lieutenant Colonel Eric G. Kail is a doctoral candidate in industrial/ organizational psychology at North Carolina State University en route to teach in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy. He has served in numerous command and staff positions in U.S. Army conventional and special operations units and as a company tactical officer at the U.S. Military Academy. He holds a B.A. from Radford University and an M.S. in psychology and leader development from Long Island University and in national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College.

Colonel Thomas A. Kolditz is professor and head of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy. He holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University, three master’s degrees, and Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Missouri. He teams with his faculty to think, study, research, write, and teach leadership. His background includes command of a multinational military organization on the demilitarized zone in Korea, leadership consultant roles in the Pentagon, and coaching as an air-to-air videographer for the Academy’s national champion parachute team.

Robert Morris served as a company tactical officer and instructor at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) from 2002 to 2006. He taught the core leadership course and served as the executive officer for the Eisenhower Leader Development Program in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership. Morris has served in various leadership and staff positions from the platoon to the division level. He has a B.S. in leadership from the USMA and an M.S. in counseling and leader development from Long Island University. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in social psychology at Columbia University.

Lieutenant Colonel James Ness is an associate professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy, where he serves as the director of the Leader Development Research Center. He is course director for Sensation, Perception and Psychophysics; teaches biopsychology; and directs senior theses in the psychology honors program. Ness has commanded a medical research unit, directed key research assets, and served as a principal investigator researching the bioeffects of nonionizing directed energy. He has a B.S. from Florida Institute of Technology and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Virginia Tech.

Major Dennis P. O’Neil is an assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA), where he teaches Military Leadership and Psychology for Leaders. In spring 2006, he deployed overseas to assist in the development of leadership curriculum at the National Military Academy of Afghanistan. Prior to joining the faculty at West Point, O’Neil held a number of leadership positions in armor and cavalry units at Fort Carson, Colorado, and Fort Hood, Texas. He has a B.S. in management from the USMA and an M.A. in psychology from Duke University.

Major Everett S. P. Spain served as an assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA), where he was the course director for Leading Organizations Through Change. He has served in the 82nd Airborne Division, was part of the Kosovo Stabilization Force, and deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom. He earned a B.S. from the USMA and an M.B.A. from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, where he received the Spaulding Award for Leadership. He is currently the aide-de-camp to Lieutenant General David Petraeus, commander of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center.

Colonel Patrick J. Sweeney is an academy professor and the deputy head of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA). He holds a doctorate in social psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He currently directs the Eisenhower Leader Development Program. His background includes command and leadership positions at multiple levels in the Army, service as the executive officer and researcher for the USMA’s Center for Leadership and Organization Research, and service as a leadership mentor for the Army Football Team.

Major Brian Tribus served as an assistant professor of management in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) from 2002 to 2006. Prior to his teaching assignment, he served in a variety of leadership positions as an armored cavalry officer. He holds a B.S. in economics from the USMA and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He currently serves at the Army’s Strategic Outreach Directorate at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Major James Tuite is an assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA). He currently is the course director for Advanced Military Leadership and the coordinator for the department’s Outreach program. He has led at multiple levels in the Army’s elite airborne and ranger units. He has a B.S. from the USMA and an M.B.A. from the College of William and Mary.

Major Eric J. Weis is a former psychology and leadership instructor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy and now serves at Fort Stewart, Georgia. His previous military background is in light, airborne ranger, and mountain infantry units—all of which helped him bring real-world and frontline combat leadership applications into the classes he taught and the continuing small unit leader adaptability research he conducts. He has a B.S. in psychology from James Madison University and an M.S. in social psychology from Pennsylvania State University.

Major Todd Woodruff served as an assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy from 2003 to 2005, where he taught military leadership and a sociology course, Armed Forces and Society. He has led almost a dozen Army units in locations around the globe as both an officer and noncommissioned officer. He holds an M.B.A. and an M.A. in sociology, and his research on leadership, identity, and families has appeared in scholarly journals and books.

INTRODUCTION

Doug Crandall

Strong leadership may be the most important factor in an organization’s success, because what happens at the top (of the company, group, team, or squad) has an impact on everything else. If the leader’s attitude is poor, the team’s attitude will follow. Be it a Fortune 500 company, a small business, a nonprofit, an infantry platoon, a school, a community, a family, or any other group that has a common purpose, leadership matters. As James Tuite, the author of Chapter Sixteen, wrote, leadership is “not just about crafting sound policies and incentive programs; rather, it’s much more about inspiring the people who implement the policies to care enough about the organization and each other so that they will act as good stewards . . . even when no one is watching.”

Leadership Lessons from West Point came about because of the enormous interest in a special supplement to the Leader to Leader Journal, a quarterly publication from the Leader to Leader Institute and Wiley Subscription Services. That supplement presented articles from active-duty Army leaders who were teaching in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York. The articles offered insight into what leadership meant to them—in both war and peacetime—and described their views on quiet leadership, mission, values, taking care of people, organizational learning, and leading change, among other topics. This book develops those ideas much further than the special supplement could, with nineteen chapters from a range of contributors at all levels of the Army, from cadet to colonel. It captures the essence of what we do: synthesize experience, scholarship, and teaching in an effort to educate, train, and inspire our Army’s future officers. This synthesis of leading, studying leadership, and teaching leadership is a unique aspect of our academic and developmental experience. In our classrooms, as in this book, we bring forth concepts and theory, relate stories from our own leadership endeavors, and help cadets make sense of their own experiences as they look toward the future. Throughout this book, we open a window into this world of leadership development that is the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at West Point and share some of our candid reflections, compelling stories, best practices, and frontline ideas.

We begin the book with our passion and our reason for being. In the opening chapter, “Becoming a Leader Developer,” in Part One, on the topic of leadership and values development, Eric Kail turns what is sometimes seen as an organizational responsibility into a personal mandate. Developing leadership skills is not the ultimate goal of great leadership, argues Kail. Great leaders seek to develop other leaders because those leaders will affect hundreds, if not thousands, of other people. Kail identifies three phases of leader development: learning from the best leaders, leading, and reflecting on why you lead.

In Chapter Two, “Learning from Failure,” I share lessons from my own leadership experiences and my time in the classroom at West Point. Reflection on failure is often championed as a recipe for leader growth. But reflection on true failure can be distasteful, humbling, and difficult. I wade through three distinct levels of leadership failure: failures in what we do, failures of who we are, and failures of who we want to be, using the three examples that have taught me the excruciating pain but immense value of honest reflection: two from my days as a young lieutenant and one as a parent. The lessons I have learned can apply to any leader in any organization: that failure requires us—that is, those who desire to do better—to solicit candid input from others, take a hard look at our actions, and diagnose our own needs for improvement.

Chapter Three provides a real-time picture of leadership development from someone just embarking on his leadership journey. Recent West Point graduate Greg Hastings, in “You Must Lead Yourself First,” reflects on a few lessons he has learned during his time as a cadet: to take responsibility for his own actions, that great leaders need to be great followers, and that even just one person can make a difference and lead successfully. He not only reminds us of some leadership basics but also demonstrates the reality of what we do at West Point: turn high school students and young enlisted soldiers into men and women ready for immense leadership challenges on the front lines.

Chapter Four demonstrates how important it is for an organization to ensure as it develops and supports leaders that those individuals internalize the established core values. In “Influencing Your Organization’s Moral Philosophy,” Brian Tribus describes a wide variety of situations in which people need to embody their organization’s values in order to make the right decisions: from corporate America, with examples from Beech-Nut and Johnson & Johnson, to wartime, in Somalia in 1993 and in Iraq today. And he offers many recommendations for how to live up to your organization’s “honor code,” as the students at West Point are taught the meaning of theirs—that “a cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.”

Chip Daniels follows up on Tribus’s theme with a reminder that values are the bedrock for our decisions and organizations must inculcate those values from the outset. Chapter Five, “Developing Organizational Values in Others,” describes the Army’s systematic approach for developing values, which is useful for leaders in all walks of life. This approach uses five steps or methods: attracting people who already share the organization’s values; socializing new members; establishing role models; telling stories, myths, and legends about positive or negative actions that reinforce those values; and using feedback mechanisms and performance evaluations to embed the organization’s values.

Internalization of values is a crucial aspect of organizational success because values cannot be faked. As Sean Hannah articulates, the very best leaders are those who exhibit authenticity. In Chapter Six, “The Authentic High-Impact Leader,” he makes a case for leadership development that produces a strong commitment to a core self-concept. In times of great social pressure, role conflict, or other dilemmas that pull us away from who we are, leaders who know themselves and act in accordance with their values, beliefs, and self-understanding will ultimately prove most effective.

Chapter Seven concludes Part One on leadership and values development with advice for all organizations. In “Leader Development and Self-Awareness in the U.S. Army Bench Project,” Dennis O’Neil, Patrick Sweeney, James Ness, and Thomas Kolditz collaborate on a description of how the Army develops great leaders: just as successful baseball teams can look down the bench and call prepared players into the game, the Army is developing a future generation of leaders who are prepared to assume command at the highest levels. O’Neil and colleagues describe a 360-degree rating system for three levels of leaders: executives, midlevel managers, and direct leaders (in Army terms, senior leaders, junior leaders, and noncommissioned officers). At each level, “the bench” has identified the top behaviors that set apart exceptional leaders—for example, senior leaders should keep cool under pressure and be able to handle bad news well, junior leaders need to have guts and be trustworthy and dependable, and frontline supervisors need to be good role models and build and motivate their teams—in all organizations.

The chapters in Part Two take up the topic of leadership styles and situations. The authors in this part look at specific aspects of leadership that translate into lessons for all. Chapter Eight opens this part with “Teaming High-Potential Talent.” Jack Jefferies writes about the difficulty of managing groups of people who all want to be leaders, drawing on his own experiences as a member of a championship skydiving team, as well as situations in corporate America (at Aetna and Lotus Development Corporation during the creation of Lotus 1-2-3), and in sports teams—from West Point’s Sprint Football Team to the National Football League and the Philadelphia Eagles. Jefferies offers five strategies to leaders who want to lead teams of elite performers who are also often brash and reluctant team players.

In Chapter Nine, “Leading as if Your Life Depended on It,” Thomas Kolditz shares his ideas on leading in dangerous and high-risk situations. He calls these in extremis situations, where leaders must give purpose, motivation, and direction to people when there is imminent physical danger and where followers believe that leader behavior will influence their physical well-being or survival. He draws on experiences with military troops and SWAT teams, as well as skydiving teams and mountain-climbing guides. He identifies seven characteristics of such leaders and offers lessons on how to develop such leaders and how to lead in dangerous and high-risk situations. Moreover, these lessons help develop great leaders in all situations, in any organization; in extremis leadership is authentic leadership.

In Chapter Ten, “Creating Urgency and Inspiring Your Team,” Robert Morris shares lessons for leaders who struggle (or have ever struggled) to move their people beyond mediocrity. He describes how important leader motivation is: leaders need to provide focus and direction to the people they are leading. They also need to build strong relationships, one on one, because it is not possible to build a relationship with a group. Simultaneously, to achieve their goals, leaders need to set priorities and never lose sight of the overall mission or goal.

“Quiet Leadership,” by Eric Weis, wades into the nuances of leadership style. In Chapter Eleven, he paints a picture of leaders who communicate intent, inspire, listen, care, and drive optimal performance, all without fanfare or cheer-leader personas. Weis brings a new perspective to the challenge of leadership, for successful leadership is not high-energy volume but, as he writes, a “hidden reserve of formidable strength.”

Chapter Twelve shows the importance not only of what leaders say but how they say it. In “Leading Without Words,” Jeff Bergmann describes how communication affects leadership and provides a primer on how people can more effectively read and use body language; physical space; facial expressions, body movements, and touch; voice level, pitch, speed, and volume; and the perception of time (for example, a leader who keeps someone waiting is sending a message). Some people use these signals deliberately to reinforce or even contradict what they are saying verbally; others have no idea of the message they are sending with these nonverbal signals. Good leaders need to be aware of these nonverbal communications so that they do not undermine themselves unwittingly.

Chapter Thirteen looks at one of the pitfalls of strong leadership: charisma. In “Developing Charisma with Caution,” Dena Braeger describes how charismatic leaders can draw in their followers and wield profound influence, and although that may be appealing, charisma—even in well-meaning leaders—may limit an organization’s ability to develop and grow. She explores some of the dangers of charisma that she has witnessed firsthand and offers some suggestions on how to avoid these dangers.

In Chapter Fourteen, “Trust: The Key to Combat Leadership,” Patrick Sweeney addresses trust, which he says is the key to combat leadership. In May 2003, Sweeney fought with the 101st Airborne Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and he interviewed seventy-two members of that division to explore the relationship between trust and influence in combat. They identified ten attributes of a leader who can be trusted in combat: competence, loyalty, honesty/good integrity, leadership by example, self-control (especially in terms of stress management), confidence, courage (physical and moral), sharing of information, a personal connection with subordinates, and a strong sense of duty. Sweeney’s insights regarding trust in combat are applicable to all organizational settings and leaders everywhere.

The final part of this book delves into leading organizations. Todd Henshaw begins this part with a look at the socialization of new leaders. In Chapter Fifteen, “Socialized Leadership,” he draws on research he assembled while studying the cadet basic training regimen at West Point. The goals of those organizational members who are actually executing a socialization program do not always mirror senior leadership’s intent. Because of this, senior leaders must take an active role in shaping newcomer programs and communicating a clear, consistent message. Socialization of new leaders has long-term cultural implications: it is where organizational success begins—or ends.

In Chapter Sixteen, “Leading at the Business End of Policy,” James Tuite follows Henshaw’s theme, pointing out that many leaders do not understand how to motivate so that people in their organization will behave in a way that embodies organizational values and purpose. He emphasizes that it is not the leaders themselves who communicate an organization’s values; instead, it is all the other workers who are executing their duties as agents of that organization. And he describes how leaders cannot enforce every policy and must not micromanage; instead, they need to inspire others.

Remi Hajjar and Morten Ender have done extensive research on diversity, the subject of Chapter Seventeen: “Harnessing the Power of Culture and Diversity for Organizational Performance.” They begin by offering statistics on the core values of Americans in general and the Army in particular. They then describe “the (un)lucky seven” factors that differentiate people—race and ethnicity, religion, social class, sex and gender, age, physical ability or disability, and sexual orientation—with some supporting statistics on the demographics of religion, race, and ethnicity in the United States, as well as statistics on all seven factors in the U.S. Army. Knowing and accepting these statistics sets the stage for the authors’ recommendations for how to lead a diverse group.

Todd Woodruff wrote Chapter Eighteen, “Developing Organizational Commitment by Putting People First,” to show how the U.S. Army continues to retain highly committed, skilled professionals without the benefit of large salaries—even in the face of the sacrifices Army personnel need to make in terms of not only wartime demands (including the risk of loss of life or extreme injury, as well as the time away from family) but even the routine demands of Army life (such as unpredictable and frequent moves and the decreased access to and support from families and friends). To foster commitment to the organization under those circumstances, leaders need to develop multiple supportive commitments that reinforce members’ identification with the ideals of their organization. Leaders must also foster a climate of caring about their people and their families and make available personal development, training, ongoing education, and opportunities for advancement.

We conclude the book with a look at organizational improvement. In Chapter Nineteen, “Managing Expectations When Leading Change,” Everett Spain describes how important it is to identify who will be affected by change. Successful leaders will clarify their own character and intentions, describe the benefits of the long-term change process, define what constitutes short-term success, and spell out their stakeholders’ specific responsibilities that are required to achieve the short- and long-term outcomes. Spain offers a detailed case study of how various leaders recently working in Iraq have successfully led change by following those precepts, and he wraps up with eleven lessons he learned about managing expectations, from the importance of promising less than you think you can achieve and then delivering more to meeting and communicating regularly and often—and how best to handle those meetings.

Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this book are those of the respective authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the U.S. Military Academy, the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government. Furthermore, the inclusion of authors and contributors from outside the Department of the Army does not imply endorsement of those individuals or their organizations by the U.S. Military Academy, the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.

PART ONE

LEADERSHIP AND VALUES DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE

BECOMING A LEADER DEVELOPER

Eric G. Kail

It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.

—JOHN WOODEN, HALL OF FAME BASKETBALL COACH

I was one month away from promotion to major in 1998 when my father, a career Army officer of thirty-two years, passed away. In our final conversation, I asked him how I would know if I was a successful leader. His answer provided me a definition of success that changed the way I see myself as leader, whether leading as a soldier, husband, father, or community member. He told me not to look at my rank or, for that matter, any of the medals or badges on my uniform: these are just things created to make ourselves feel important, and they are really the results of the efforts of others. He told me not to read my efficiency reports or performance reviews: these were merely overinflated pieces of paper designed to get me promoted. He also told me not to ask my boss: the boss might tell me only what I wanted to hear or whatever it took to get me out of his office so he could get back to work.

My father told me that for a leader, the true measure of success is found in the eyes of your direct reports, the embrace of your spouse, and the hearts of your children. I believe him. The embrace of your spouse and the hearts of your children are subjects for another venue. But when was the last time you looked into the eyes of those who work for you in order to measure yourself as a leader?

When you look into the eyes of your soldiers, or employees, or direct reports, you cannot escape your real worth as a leader. Every time I have turned the leadership of my soldiers over to another officer, I gathered them around me for one last face-to-face good-bye, one last chance to thank them for their service to me, each other, and our nation. What my boss had written in my performance reviews about my leadership performance faded from my mind as I looked each soldier in the eye for the last time. Their eyes told me they would be better leaders not because of who I was but because of the time and effort I had invested in the deliberate development of them as men and women. No medal can trump that feeling.

One of the most important things you can do as a leader is to develop other leaders. Those leaders will affect hundreds, if not thousands, of other people.

Leader Development: The True Measure of a Leader’s Success

Are you successful as a leader? Before you answer, consider this scenario. I am looking for a master carpenter to produce a handcrafted wooden desk for you as a token of appreciation for all you have done for the organization. This is not just any desk, but a great desk that reflects the strength and integrity of both giver and recipient. I have selected a master carpenter based on the quality of the products of his labor. By selecting this carpenter to build your desk, I passed up other carpenters with more impressive woodworking power tools and state-of-the-art showrooms. I also ignored some carpenters who have created thousands of production-line desks in their manufacturing plants. These others are very efficient, but to them, your desk was just another dollar figure in their profit margins. The bottom line is that I judged each carpenter by evaluating the wood on which they labored, not the carpenters themselves or their tools.

That brings me back to my original question. Are you a successful leader developer? Along with managing resources and setting direction for your group or unit, you have a responsibility to develop your subordinate leaders. As leaders, we often place heavy emphasis on the bottom line and our personal accomplishments. But think ahead to your retirement dinner or ceremony: Would you prefer a slide show and handouts detailing all the deals you made, complete with statistics and charts demonstrating your prowess at leading within the organization, or do you want to share one last evening with those whose lives your leadership changed? These are the people who will carry on in your place primarily because of your investment in their lives. One of the most important things you can do as a leader is to develop other leaders. Those leaders will affect hundreds, if not thousands, of other people.

Leader Development Is a Deliberate Process

Being a leader is harder today than ever before because information processing and decision-making requirements are temporally compressing every year (in other words, you need to assess situations and make decisions faster than ever before), and risks that were once easy to recover from may in fact be fatal in today’s environment. One critical decision you must make is whether to let your subordinate leaders develop themselves in a do-it-yourself style or deliberately exert your energy and resources to develop them. And keep in mind that making no decision on this matter is the same as deciding to let your subordinate leaders develop themselves. Leader development must be done deliberately for three reasons.

One critical decision you must make is whether to let your subordinate leaders develop themselves in a do-it-yourself style or deliberately exert your energy and resources to develop them.

First, it is bad reasoning to believe that you were a total self-starter and others wanting to be leaders should be self-starters too. There are psychologically valid theories to support this, but suffice it to say that our memory tricks us into believing that we owe our successes to our own efforts, but our failures are the result of other people or factors beyond our control. If you really believe that you developed yourself into a great leader and somehow dodged the efforts of fate and others to drag you down, you are not only wrong but most likely lonely too.

Second, a good leader would never leave to chance factors that he or she could directly affect; that would be negligence. We exert tremendous energy in setting the conditions for the success of our organizations, whether on the battlefield or in the commercial market. Investing energy and resources to develop subordinate leaders—people who will execute your organization’s business at hand and eventually fill your shoes—is a great form of condition setting.