[February 20, 2017] One of the best things about the U.S. military is the enormous amount of resources used to produce the best leaders possible. I was fortunate to participate in a number of programs designed to improve the leadership capacities and skills of their senior officers. What I took away from it was that leadership really is about producing other leaders of high competence.
“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader, political activist, author, and attorney
Time, energy, and money are what we never have enough to do what we must. Yet, to ensure the future, new leaders will by necessity require a disproportionate investment of those resources to enhance their skills and experience. This may seem a simple enough task to merely send aspiring leaders to outsourced “leadership training.” Frankly, that is not what helps most and fails to produce results.
What producing quality leaders is about means doing those things that are not always tangible. For example, how do we help leaders see a world that does not yet exist (vision) and others cannot see or not believe in? So it means taking things to the next level of excellence; not so easy to do because it goes beyond “normal” ways of thinking about things.
Leadership also means producing leaders that can communicate in ways that shift other people’s perceptions and inspire their actions. Such good works on behalf of a leader should evoke a commitment in other people and make that a shared commitment that builds confidence and resilience in others.
Developing other leaders also is about generating leaders with the moral (and physical) courage to possess their sense of heart to face those risks inherent in their leadership roles. Having heart means caring and investment of one’s self in others and leadership is about having the guts to do things that are neither popular nor expected.
And leadership is about producing leaders with emotional intelligence, confidence, and the ability to overcome ego. The major reason senior leaders fail today has to do with hubris, ego, and a lack of good judgment.
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