Understanding, Predicting, and Supporting Leader Self-Development (original) (raw)
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The Leadership Quarterly, 2010
Systematic research was performed to better understand and support individual professional selfdevelopment. Over 400 junior-military leaders participated in a detailed longitudinal study to test a structural model of leader self-development. Results provide a unifying framework for understanding the effects of individual characteristics on propensity for self-development. The model depicts a person with a mastery, work, and career-growth orientation as more motivated to perform leader selfdevelopment and skilled at performing instructional and self-regulatory processes and therefore more likely to perform leader self-development. Further, the model illustrates that an organizational support tool moderates actual performance of leader self-development activities. The variables as well as the framework of the model should receive attention when attempting to understand or enhance leader self-directed learning.
ProQuest, 2016
The Army Leader Development Model (ALDM) utilizes operational assignments, institutional training, and self-development practices to build Army leaders. However, this model is not fully implemented in the education of junior Army officers possibly due to lack of understanding of the concept of self-development and associated techniques. As a result, junior officers are failing to develop and utilize the self-development skills required to be adaptive on the modern battlefield. A qualitative e-Delphi study was executed to define the concept of self-development as it applies to Army officer leader development and to develop provisional training protocols to facilitate rapid acquisition of self-development skills among junior Army officers. Thirteen senior officers were surveyed through the e-Delphi study method in an attempt to achieve the goals listed above. These officers were of the grade O-5 (Lieutenant Colonel) and had experience working with officer producing programs. This study demonstrated that participants could create a definition of self-development as it applied to Army officers. The expert panelists defined self-development as a self-driven (individual) process that is cyclical in nature with the requirement for continuous assessment and reassessment. With respect to self-development techniques, experts gained consensus on the 68 self-development practices. The top three of these were as follows: 1). "Physical fitness as a lifestyle, not as a service requirement.” 2). "Keep your word. Trust builds loyalty. Leaders must understand that no matter how good you are, if Soldiers do not trust you, they will not follow you." 3). "[S]upplement [Physical Fitness Training] with your own program." Another 39 suggestions were removed from the study because they were more appropriately aligned to operational or institutional domains of the ALDM. These misaligned recommendations may suggest more research is needed to determine if the theories within the ALDM are congruent with the practical approaches to leader development utilized by Army officers. Concerning the development of provisional training protocols for self-development panelists, were able to recommend methods of integrating the discovered self-development practices into the first two years of the Army ROTC curriculum.
Leader self-development: A contemporary context for leader development evaluation
The Leadership Quarterly, 2010
Organizations are moving toward self-development as a means to supplement formal leader development programs. However, the highly individualized nature of self-development presents unique challenges for evaluation. We suggest a mixed methods approach, including not only a summative evaluation (i.e., examining self-development outcomes), but also emphasizing a formative evaluation (i.e., examining why certain self-development activities are more or less effective). Accordingly, the purpose of this article is threefold. We first introduce a taxonomy of attributes indicative of the effectiveness level of a leader selfdevelopment activity. Second, we present a methodology for utilizing this taxonomy to evaluate whether a given self-development activity, or collection of activities, is higher or lower in effectiveness. We also describe some data from two field studies to illustrate the link between this taxonomy and the performance outcomes of task performance, team performance, and leader adaptive performance. Finally, we discuss the practical implications of undertaking an evaluation utilizing this taxonomy.
Psychosocial development and leader performance of military officer cadets
The Leadership Quarterly, 2007
Efforts to educate and develop future military officers aim to produce highly competent, ethical and effective leaders to serve the nation. But while there is general agreement about desired outcomes, the underlying developmental processes associated with these outcomes are not well understood. How do we grow such leaders? This paper reports on a longitudinal study of West Point college students over four years, addressing three questions: (1) do military officer-cadets grow or change in their basic level of psychosocial development . The Evolving Self: Problem and Process in Human Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.], (2) is the level of psychosocial development related to performance as leaders, and (3) do activities in high school predict later psychosocial development? Two groups of cadets were studied from their freshman or sophomore year to their senior year at the academy. Results show significant positive developmental growth over time for 47% of study participants, with most of this growth occurring from sophomore to senior year. Furthermore, psychosocial development predicts several peer, subordinate and supervisor ratings of cadet performance as leaders during the upperclass (junior and senior) years, a time when cadets take on substantial leadership roles. In addition, early performance ratings by high school teachers, as well as active participation in high school extracurricular activities both predict psychosocial development levels for freshman and sophomores. These findings lend support to Kegan's theoretical model, and suggest that greater attention be paid to these basic processes of human psychosocial development that can influence leader performance in important ways.
Journal of Military and Strategic Studies, 2019
The United States Army’s leader development program offers new opportunities to examine how leaders are developed within the traditional workforce. Leader development is at the forefront of Army training and is coordinated through an institutional, operational, and self-development domain. Each domain contributes toward a holistic leader development program which prepares soldiers to be lifelong leaders. Veterans transitioning out of the military are often credited as possessing the leadership skills employers seek, though exploration of the process used to develop leadership attributes in soldiers has been minimal. Upon comparing the Army’s leader development program with other private sector leadership development training, similar goals were identified though the Army’s approach is distinguishable. This paper is an analysis of the U.S. Army’s leader development process and makes comparisons with leadership development in the traditional workplace. Three propositions are presented...
Measuring Leader Development in The Army Profession: An Exploratory Study
This is a much abbreviated paper based on my Doctoral Dissertation (also published to this site). This shortened version was selected for presentation at the American Education Research Association (AERA) National Convention in May, 2017. It will also be published to the proceedings of that event. In August of 2017 a modified version was submitted to Leadership Quarterly for Peer review.
2018
This exploratory phenomenological research study describes the experiences of U.S. Army soldiers going through the mandated Structured Self Development (SSD) online courseware. Multiple findings are presented covering soldier participants' experiences with the process, content, and culture/environment of SSD. Additionally, findings dealing with soldiers' motivations and self-described impediments while going through SSD are presented. Four Army enlisted soldiers (two male, two female) were purposefully selected for this study, each one representing a different level of SSD (Levels 1-4). Participant soldiers for this study were selected from throughout the Kansas National Guard and each one possessed a different duty military occupational specialty within the Army. The findings of the research study indicate that there are multiple aspects of SSD that soldiers experienced in a negative way. Areas such as frustration with the system, cheating, poor instructional technique, low retention of information, cognitive overload, and poor leader/peer perceptions were identified through soldier participant interviews. Motivational issues dealing with negative feelings of relevancy and boredom with the instruction were also acknowledged. Additionally, difficulty in accessing the SSD system by soldiers, and over assumptions of soldiers' levels of self-directed learning were also identified. This research contributes to the ongoing research needed dealing with soldier improvement through online learning.
Organization Management Journal, 2019
Regardless of industry, organization leaders recognize the need for a strong leadership pipeline and a culture of sustained leader development, and the U.S. Army is no exception. Beginning in basic training, Army leaders offer soldiers leader development training through various methods, including defining leadership expectations, providing experience-based developmental exercises, and offering self-development opportunities. The early introduction is part of a continuous leader development regimen engrained in military service, and-as a result-military veterans are often credited by employers for their leadership skills. This paper, through exploring Army leader development, proposes a framework for introducing leadership development during new employee orientations based on U.S. Army strategies. Though the proposed framework offers three leader development strategies for inclusion in new employee orientation, barriers exist which may impede successful application, and are discussed. Additionally, the authors identify three propositions and propose future research opportunities for integrating Army leader development in new employee orientations.