Developing Intuitive Officers to Revolutionize Transformation in the 21st Century Military
Abstract
The Department of Defense (DoD) officer socialization process fails to develop sufficient numbers of strategic leaders with the intuition and Emotional Intelligence (EI) necessary to head a changing 21st Century force jeopardizing future transformation. This paper proposes building a process to grow intuitive leaders those with the ability to synthesize elements of past experience and apply them in novel situations in an environment where social controls foster shared values. It is in such a culture where EI leaders those who can manage their feelings and balance motives with ethical behavior have the chance to institutionalize transformation. The DoD together with institutions around the would lies at a crossroads; how do we transform into a 21st century military capable of revolutionary performance? While there is no single transformation model current service plans focus on three areas: technology doctrine and personal development. The personnel piece is the focus of this proposal; building more flexible officers to unleash an organization capable of adapting to an unknown future. The officer development system including day-to-day socialization performance feedback and promotion processes largely ignores strategic leadership skills like intuition and El. As a result effectiveness and efficiency remain the primary success determinants for promotion. In order to achieve revolutionary transformation in personnel intuition and El skills should be directly incorporated into current socialization training and evaluation programs. The eventual goal is to change the military's culture by creating a new on-the-job leader development system which cultivates develops and promotes officers intuitive and El skills.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 19, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA424342
Entities
People
- Mark M. Mcleod
Organizations
- United States Army War College