The given assessment report will primarily focus on core army or military attributes, which is critical to assess on the basis of recent evidence from the literature. The reason is to determine which characteristics of a person serving as military personnel make him or her an outstanding leader in the army environment. The identified elements are character, presence, and intellect, which are critical in order to deliberately design training programs to promote the proper development of the listed characteristics. Understanding these fundamentals will contribute to the current recruiting and educational frameworks to harness army leadership, which is of paramount importance.
Firstly, since the United States Army utilizes comprehensive leader development programs as an integral part of military personnel training, the dimensions of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) dictate one’s prospects in the field. The research conducted on veterans and military service members shows that there are challenges in KSA leadership articulation, inadequate support in the case of transitions, and leadership behavior-related impacts (Kirchner & Akdere, 2019). In other words, the current practices can be improved by identifying the core characteristics, which make the entry process into the army more precise, defined, and directed. Character is among the most fundamental elements in the military, which not only promotes the desired form of leadership but also develops functional and effective followers. One’s character is defined by a wide range of characteristics and personality specificities, but it can also be built and influenced through external forces, such as military culture and environment. Therefore, the recruitment measures need to focus on identifying one’s character and its malleability towards the imposed impacts in order to create strong leadership behaviors. Subsequently, recruiters should view an individual’s character as a combination of skills, which allow him or her to adopt core competencies required for effective leadership in the military.
Secondly, in order to further address the issue of articulation of leadership KSAs in the army, intellect needs to be another major recruitment decision-affecting factor. Research on mentorship and leadership differences between army leaders and civilian leaders shows that the baseline intellect of a person should be higher than that of a civilian since training in this context is more demanding and proceeds in an accelerated succession (Bonica & Bewley, 2018). It is important to note that intellect corresponds to the knowledge dimension of KSAs, which is critical for ensuring effective leadership development among service members. The environment in which military servicemen and servicewomen undergo training is a stressful one with a multitude of requirements in a wide range of areas. Being knowledgeable and having a higher degree of intellect prior to one’s training can greatly boost the overall outcome of educational procedures directed at the subjects, especially recruits. Therefore, the second pillar of army leadership development should prioritize intellect as a centerpiece of knowledge in the KSAs.
Thirdly, the abilities dimension of KSAs should be rooted in presence, which is dichotomous in its manifestation. An individual’s presence can be connected to one’s abilities to present himself or herself, which needs to be authoritative and rigid. In addition, the complementary aspect of presence is one’s ability to be present in any given situation, which emphasizes focus. The latter definition is critical for developing an effective army leader since inattentiveness to details in the military work can have severe consequences in the operations and missions. Leadership development value provision should prioritize presence as one’s ability to focus and commit to both general goals of the army as well as specific target processes. It is stated that “civilian healthcare leaders expressed more value for many of the attributes than their military counterparts, and furthermore, civilian respondents reported a higher level of satisfaction with the quality of mentorship they had received” (Bonica & Bewley, 2018, p. 259). The need for these precise changes in articulation of core leadership KSAs is linked to the fact that there is a lower degree of satisfaction in the military in regards to mentorship and leadership development (Bonica & Bewley, 2018). In other words, civilian workers are more likely to be satisfied with their leadership development and mentorship operations, which is why the recommendation is critical for the abilities element of KSAs.
A certain typology of the leadership qualities of a military institution can be distinguished, reflecting the connection between the effective level of intelligence and certain interdependent components of service and combat activities. One of the main is the motivational-target component, and its function is to internally stimulate the development of leadership qualities. The second is the presence component that performs the organizational function and contributes to the consolidation of the abilities to organize a team to perform an activity. The third is a person’s character, where an individual is able to implement leadership activities in typical conditions.
In conclusion, there are army leadership development issues rooted in the lack of a simple and effective structure. Connecting KSAs to character, presence, and intellect can enable better recruitment, enhanced leadership development, and strong military culture building. A person’s character should be view as a basis for skill, whereas presence and intellect should be the core elements of abilities and knowledge.
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References
Bonica, M. J., & Bewley, L. W. (2018). A Comparison of Mentorship Attitudes and Attributes Between Civilian and Army Healthcare Leaders. Military Medicine, 184(5-6), 255-262. Web.
Kirchner, M., & Akdere, M. (2019). An empirical investigation of the acquisition of leadership KSAs in the U.S. Army: Implications for veterans’ career transitions. Journal of Veterans Studies, 4(1), 1-18. Web.