Ideas for Change

I suggest the following positive changes aimed at producing a more comprehensive and effective Army leadership doctrine. Above all, leadership ought to be identified, taught and discussed as a function, or set of functions, different from management, administration or command. To provide the necessary conceptual framework the Army's doctrinal definition of leadership should be modified along the several lines. It should be accompanied by separate definitions of administration and supervision, all of which would constitute what might be then presented as the "three pillars of mission accomplishment" and effective command. Consider the following as starting points for change:
*Leadership is the process of building shared purpose and direction with followers so that they commit themselves to mission accomplishment.
*Administration (or organization) is the development and use of systems, means and procedures.
*Supervision (or management) is the exercise of authority to ensure tasks are properly understood and accomplished.
Next, the important collection of principles, factors, traits and competencies now used to explain and teach leadership should be refined and reorganized into new sets that alternately detail and explain effective managerial/supervisory, administrative/organizational and leadership actions and characteristics as implied by the definitions offered above. …