Military Review English Edition July-August 2015 | Page 43
DEVELOPING LEADERS
continue rebalancing the three components of leader
development: training, education, and experience.
The valuable experience the Army gained in Iraq
and Afghanistan must be complemented by the education and training necessary to develop the leaders
the Army needs for its complex future—including
the ability to lead Army and joint enterprises. The
Army has done this well in the past and will develop
leaders in order to do so again in the future.
According to the ALDS 2013, the Army continually
examines past paradigms and assesses their
relevancy to prepare leaders for the operational and strategic challenges of the future. …
Leaders at all levels embrace both their direct
responsibilities for developing leaders as well
as understand and support the “big picture” of
how the Army deliberately, continuously, and
progressively develops leaders.21
Leader development is essential to the Army’s
success today and in the future. The Army’s strategic
leaders of tomorrow are serving in entry-level ranks
and positions today. The Army’s senior leaders have
charted the course by publishing the ALDS 2013. To
maintain an Army of competent and committed leaders of character with the skills and attributes necessary to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century,
leaders must train, educate, and provide experiences
to progressively develop subordinate leaders so the
Army can
prevail in Unified Land Operations using
Mission Command in a 21st century security environment. … Leader development is a
mutually shared responsibility between the
institutional Army (education or training institution), the operational force (organization
or unit), and the individual.22
Col. Frank Wenzel, U.S. Army, retired, is the chief of the Army Leader Development Division in the Center for Army
Leadership, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He was the lead author of the Army Leader Development Strategy 2013.
He holds an MMAS and an MS in adult education from Kansas State University.
Notes
1. U.S. Army, Army Leader Development Strategy (ALDS) 2013
(Washington, DC: Department of the Army, 2013) 3, http://usacac.
army.mil/cac2/CAL/repository/ALDS5June%202013Record.pdf,
accessed 5 May2015.
2. Figure reconstructed from the Army leader development model,
illustrated in ALDS 2013, 8.
3. U.S. Army, ALDS 2013, 4.
4. U.S. Department of Defense, Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership:
Priorities for 21st Century Defense, by Leon Panetta (Washington, D.C:
U.S. Department of Defense, January 2012), http://www.defense.gov/
news/Defense_Strategic_Guidance.pdf, accessed 5 May 2015; U.S. Joint
Chiefs of Staff, Capstone Concept for Joint Operations: Joint Force 2020
(Washington, DC: Joint Chiefs of Staff, 10 September 2012), http://
www.dtic.mil/doctrine/concepts/ccjo_jointforce2020.pdf, accessed 5
May 2015; National Intelligence Council, Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds (Washington, DC: National Intelligence Council: December
2012), http://www.dni.gov/files/documents/GlobalTrends_2030.pdf,
accessed 5 May 2015.
5. Army Doctrine Publication (ADP) 6-22, Army Leadership (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office [GPO], August 2012), 5.
6. Army Regulation (AR) 350-1, Army Training and Leader Development (Washington, DC: U.S. GPO, 19 August 2014), 26.
7. ALDS 2013, 23.
8. AR 350-1, 6.
MILITARY REVIEW July-August 2015
9. Army Leader Development Division, “Initiative Summaries,”
Army Profession and Leader Development Forum 15-2, 24 Feb 2015,
https://www.us.army.mil/suite/page/517997, accessed 25 March 2015.
This site is accessible only with an Army Knowledge Online account.
10. U.S. Army, ALDS 2013, 3.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid., 11.
13. Ibid., 4.
14. Center for Army Leadership, Commander’s Handbook for Unit
Leader Development (Fort Leavenworth, KS: U.S. Army Combined Arms
Center, Center for Army Leadership, 2011) 2, http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/
CAL/repository/CommandersHandbook.pdf, accessed 5 May 2015.
15. U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, Center for Army Leadership, Leader Development Resources website, http://usacac.army.mil/
CAC2/CAL/resource-library.asp, accessed 25 February 2015.
16. U.S. Army, ALDS 2013, 8.
17. The Virtual Improvement Center is available at the MultiSource Assessment and Feedback website, https://msaf.army.mil,
accessed 5 May 2015.
18. U.S. Army, ALDS 2013, 11.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid., 12.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid., 6.
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