Twenty-first Century Leadership: Perils and Solutions
Abstract
Twenty-first century military leaders will operate on a battlefield that is fast-paced, fluid, and highly lethal. Technological systems will provide commanders with unlimited information and military capabilities on that battlefield. The development of our future military leaders will require special knowledge, skills, and abilities to sufficiently prepare them to operate in that environment. This paper will contend that immediate changes are needed to our education processes to create leaders at all levels that are more jointly educated and oriented. Changes in joint education and joint exposure are recommended. Concurrently, changes are needed in the way that future military leaders will make and implement decisions. Proposals are offered to improve decision making skills and decentralized execution. The combination of current military skills development, enhanced joint training, and decentralized, intuitive decision making offers the proper balance for development of future leaders. This combination is necessary to sufficiently prepare the human element of leadership to be compatible with the technological capabilities that will be available on the twenty-first century battlefield.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 18, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA351655
Entities
People
- Samuel E. Ferguson
Organizations
- Naval War College