LEADERSHIP

THE NECESSARY ELEMENT FOR SUCCESS

October – December 2007

Perspective 1

MG Russell J. Czerw

The Leader Training Center: Preparing Army Medicine’s Leaders 4

for Tomorrow’s Challenges

Jody R. Rogers, PhD; MAJ Ralph T. Navarro, MS, USA;

MAJ Thomas J. Anton, MS, USA; Hank Sebastian; Ken Knight

AMEDD Leadership Development: From the Grass Roots Up 19

COL Chuck Callahan, MC, USA; LTC Mark Thompson, MC, USA

Mentoring in the Army Medical Department: Advice for Senior Leaders 26

COL Mark A. Melanson, MS, USA

Mentors and Protégés: Simple Rules for Success 29

COL Mark A. Melanson, MS, USA

Evolving Roles of Highly Successful Mentors 37

COL Mark A. Melanson, MS, USA

The Courage to Lead: Steps to Becoming a Better Leader 40

Jody R. Rogers, PhD

Elements of Leadership for the Successful Organization 46

COL George W. Turiansky, MC, USA

Postmodernism, the Metanarrative, and Principle-Based Leadership 49

COL Chuck Callahan, MC, USA; COL Bryan Martin, MC, USA

Leadership Insights of the Chinese Military Classics for 57

Physician Leaders and Healthcare Administrators

COL Robert W. Enzenaue, MC, ANG
MG Gale S. Pollock

Acting The Surgeon General

Commander, US Army Medical Command

MG Russell J. Czerw

Commanding General

US Army Medical Department Center and School

October – December 2007 The Army Medical Department Center & School PB 8-07-10/11/12

0722601

GEORGE W. CASEY, JR

General, United States Army

Chief of Staff

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October – December 2007 1

Consideration of leadership usually invokes thoughts

of universally acknowledged great leaders on the

world stage, normally those who rose to prominence

during times of crisis. Such leaders may be political,

Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill, or

seemingly unremarkable people who simply evolve

into leadership roles in response to situations and

circumstances, Mahatma Gandhi and Lech Walesa, for

example.

Similarly, discussions about military leaders usually

bring forth the names of senior commanders whose

success in combat in major conflicts carried historic

significance. The US military has many such

individuals whose leadership styles were as varied as

their backgrounds: flamboyant and aggressive in the

mold of General George Patton and Admiral William

“Bull” Halsey, or persuasive and tactful as General

Dwight Eisenhower. However, it must be remembered

that success of military organizations is directly

dependent on the exercise of solid leadership across

the entire force structure, at all levels of rank. Every

military member looks to superiors, whether or not

directly in the chain of command, for leadership, either

as examples or for direction and stability. Conversely,

every military member also very quickly recognizes

the absence of leadership in situations requiring it.

When this occurs, we either look elsewhere, or take

personal responsibility to fill the void. Often, in critical

situations, that exercise of personal leadership can

mean the difference between life and death, either for

ourselves, or others.

In our world of military medicine, situations involving

the lives of others are the primary reason for our

existence. In the deadly chaos of the battlefield, the

Combat Medic assumes a leadership role based on

specialized skills and an unwavering responsibility to

the lives of Soldiers. The Medic is in charge of the

casualty situation, no matter the ranks or roles of

others involved. The leadership displayed by the

Medic in such situations is critical to the morale of the

unit, which must have complete confidence in his or

her skills and ability to use them. At the other end of

the chain of casualty care are the senior medical

Soldiers who must exercise clear leadership among

their counterparts of varying and interrelated medical

specialties. This leadership is critical to ensuring the

correct and timely application of medical resources to

all casualties—the single Soldier with non-lifethreatening injuries or the mass casualty situation

wherein numerous people exercise individual

leadership at many stages, from triage through the

critical care unit, and beyond. However, as in all

military organizations, officers are ultimately

responsible for the success or failures experienced in

the care of our Soldiers. Officers ensure that the Medic

is prepared, academically, physically, and emotionally,

to fully function on the line with his or her fellow

Soldiers. Officers lead their respective medical teams,

by action and attitude, in the decisions and procedures

which save and better lives every single day, whether

in direct patient care, or in the many support functions

attendant to the maintenance of our Soldiers’ health

and well being.

This issue of the Army Medical Department (AMEDD)

Journal features articles on the development and

refinement of leadership skills in Army medical

officers. As with all other aspects of the training of our

medical professionals, the AMEDD Center and School

has the mission to create and deliver leadership

training to medical officers at various stages of their

Perspective

Major General Russell J. Czerw
2 Army Medical Department Journal

Perspective

military careers. Dr Jody Rogers and his coauthors

open with a collection of articles about the Leader

Training Center, the focus of Army medical officer

leadership training. MAJ Ralph Nazzaro offers a

detailed description of the basis and evolution of the

AMEDD Officer Basic Leader’s Course, the training

that establishes the foundation of leadership skills

required by new AMEDD officers. He clearly

articulates the complexities of defining, developing,

and delivering such training to AMEDD officers

whose paths to commissioning are varied and often

complicated. He clearly describes the biggest

challenge for the course designers—ensure AMEDD

officers have background knowledge and leadership

skills on a par with their contemporaries across the

Army, most of whom had been exposed to years of

training and experience in military leadership prior to

commissioning. This course is vital to the success of

Army medicine, both on and off the battlefield.

AMEDD provides additional levels of leadership

instruction for officers as they progress through their

Army careers. MAJ Thomas Anton provides an

overview of the AMEDD Captains’ Career Course,

which prepares officers for those assignments expected

at the mid-grade career point, such as company-sized

unit command or higher staff billets. He clearly

describes the Army doctrinal basis and the academic

approach to the course, with emphasis on its flexibility

to adapt to dynamics of our world environment. The

refinement of leadership skills continues for senior

officers in the AMEDD Medical Strategic Leadership

Program. Ken Knight outlines this component of the

Command and Staff Training Branch which is

designed to stimulate strategic thinking on healthcare

issues from both national and international

perspectives.

Another aspect of “big picture” thinking concerns the

security of the United States as a whole, from the

perspective of all threats, conventional,

unconventional, foreign, domestic, man-made, and

natural. Hank Sebastian describes the Homeland

Security Branch, which was established to provide

officer training in those considerations. Also, he

discusses the initiative to establish a formal master’s

degree course of study in homeland security.

Dr Rogers wraps up the discussion of the Leader

Training Center with a description of the Executive

Skills Branch, where senior officers are provided the

requisite training in the executive and administrative

skills necessary to prepare them for assignments as

facility commanders or senior healthcare executives.

The branch’s resources expose medical professionals

to the disciplines, competencies, and past and current

thoughts and practices involved with executive roles in

the Federal Healthcare System.

Leadership training of medical professionals cannot be

solely the responsibility of the AMEDD Center and

School. COL Chuck Callahan and LTC Mark

Thompson detail the evolution of a locally conceived

and developed officer leadership training program

within a major military treatment facility. This article

describes how such a program can conform to

doctrinal guidelines, adapt to current circumstances,

appeal to diverse individuals and disciplines, and

address the needs of both the participants and the

Army medical system. The initiative, creativity, and

flexibility demonstrated by this continuing 8-year

success story could serve as a model for other

AMEDD commands of all types and sizes. I am

confident in the AMEDD Center and School’s

educational and leader development programs. We

produce capable officers who serve well at all levels.

However, like any enterprise, our programs should

receive critical scrutiny and be improved as necessary

to better suit the needs of the Army Medical

Department.

A longtime advocate of mentorship as a vehicle for

professional development, COL Mark Melanson

contributes 3 articles exploring this very important tool

from several different perspectives. His first article is

written for those leaders who are in positions to initiate

and promote mentoring programs. He describes the

various considerations, techniques, and approaches to

maintaining a viable mentoring program within an

organization. Next, in an excellent article reprinted

from an earlier issue of the Journal, he delineates and

details a series of basic rules for both parties directly

involved in a mentoring relationship, the mentor and

the protégé. His last article is a thoughtful and

articulate look at the complexity inherent in the role of

mentor, and the flexibility required to be successful.

Hopefully COL Melanson’s articles will stimulate

more interest in this proven, yet all too often

overlooked, approach to augment the professional

development of our future leaders.
October – December 2007 3

When all aspects of leadership are reduced to the most

basic elements, one fact is indisputable: the quality of

leadership demonstrated by an individual is a direct

result of that individual’s motivation, attitude, and

choices. Dr Jody Rogers addresses this in his article

detailing the various personal considerations which are

factors in an individual’s development as a leader.

Whether a leader is born or trained, a person is only as

good a leader as he or she wants to be. In his well

researched article, Dr Rogers develops the proposition

that once a person decides to be a leader—or discovers

that he or she must assume a leadership role—there are

definite steps that the individual can follow to evaluate

their personal potential, and then take action to

enhance the strengths and improve the weaknesses. As

in so many things involved in a successful military

career, effective leadership is as dependent on personal

action as it is on institutional resources and training.

COL George Turiansky’s article then explores how the

personal characteristics required for effective

leadership must be reflected in the organizational

ethos. His thoughtful discussion succinctly explains

the unbreakable links between the leader’s attributes

and those of the successful organization. He describes

how a true leader cannot be effective in a vacuum. The

leader must impart the factors of success into the

organizational inner workings and structure to fully

realize the potential of effective leadership.

Most treatments of leadership deal with the definable

attributes found in effective leaders, and discuss

techniques and the application of precepts and

guidelines to achieve success. COL Chuck Callahan

and COL Bryan Martin approach leadership from a

different, much larger perspective. Their absorbing

article discusses leadership in a more philosophical

context, developing the ideas that a person’s life

experiences, particularly the generational and societal

influences, shape that person’s leadership style and the

leadership principles that are imparted to subordinates.

The intriguing concepts presented in this article truly

widen the scope of any conversations about leadership

and should serve as points of reflection for us all.

Since the beginning of recorded history, military

leadership has been discussed by chroniclers and

analyzed by historians, since success and failure of

military campaigns have defined much of the history

of civilization. Among the oldest, and undoubtedly

most profound, writings addressing principles and

philosophy of military organization and leadership are

found in Chinese literature. COL Robert Enzenaue

closes this issue of the Journal with an intriguing

collection of excerpts from those ancient Chinese

military writings which directly address different

aspects of leadership. Most of us are familiar with a

few of the more common maxims from The Art of

War, but the depth and extent of Chinese thought in

this area is truly impressive. COL Enzenaue groups the

excerpts in categories reflecting various aspects of

leadership, within which all of us can no doubt find

examples which relate to situations we have

experienced over our careers, whether extended or in

the beginning stages. The ancient Chinese warriors

were masters at capturing timeless truisms about the

dynamics of human interactions in succinct, clear, and

universally understandable phrases, which are as

valuable to leaders today as when they were written.

COL MATTIX JOINS THE AMEDD JOURNAL EDITORIAL REVIEW BOARD

The AMEDD Journal welcomes COL Marc E. Mattix, VC, USA, to the

Editorial Review Board. COL Mattix is the Deputy Chief of the Army

Veterinary Corps and the Corps Specific Branch Proponency Officer,

AMEDD Center & School, Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

COL Mattix joins the board replacing COL John L. Poppe, VC, USA.

COL Poppe has been a member of the Board since July 2005. We thank

COL Poppe for his efforts in the planning and coordination of the

excellent July-September 2007 issue of the AMEDD Journal, which

was dedicated to the professionals of the Army Veterinary Corps. We

also thank him for his commitment to the overall high standards and

professional quality of this publication, and his years of service and

support to our mission.

The Editors
4 Army Medical Department Journal

The Leader Training Center:

Preparing Army Medicine’s Leaders

for Tomorrow’s Challenges

Jody R. Rogers, PhD

MAJ Ralph T. Navarro, MS, USA

MAJ Thomas J. Anton, MS, USA

Hank Sebastian

Ken Knight

The Leader Training Center has the mission to create

Army Medical Department (AMEDD) leaders for the

21st century by providing collective and individual

leadership training. The development of leaders

capable of taking the Army in general, and the

AMEDD in particular, into the next several decades is

a challenging task. Job complexity, challenging

assignments and deployments, and a rapidly changing

workforce make the development of strong leadership

skills a priority in any organization. Although the

Leader Training Center’s primary focus is on our

younger officers, in reality it exists to help all

AMEDD officers maximize their leadership potential.

The Leader Training Center goals include the creation

of multiskilled leaders who are:

 Strategic and creative critical thinkers

 Builders of leaders and teams

 Competent, full spectrum warfighters and

accomplished professionals who support the

Soldiers

 Effective in the leadership, management, and

modification of large organizations

 Skilled in governance, statesmanship, and

diplomacy, who understand cultural context, and

work effectively across it

The ultimate goal is to develop officers who, above all,

set the standard for integrity and character, and are:

 Confident and competent decision makers in

uncertain situations

 Empathetic and always positive

 Professionally educated and dedicated to lifelong

learning

 Effective communicators

In order to accomplish these tasks, the Leader Training

Center is in the process of a reorganization around

multiple branches focused on a core training area:

 Leader Development Branch

 AMEDD Officer Basic Leadership Course

 Medical Operations Branch

 Captains’ Career Course

 Command and Staff Training Branch

 Homeland Defense

 Medical Strategic Leadership Program

 AMEDD Executive Skills Program

The branches and their attendant responsibilities are

discussed in detail in the remainder of this article.

AUTHORS

Dr Rogers is a Visiting Associate Professor in the Graduate

Program in Healthcare Administration, Trinity University,

San Antonio, Texas. He also works in the AMEDD

Executive Skills Program, Leader Training Center,

AMEDD Center and School, Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

MAJ Navarro is the Plans Officer, Emergency Preparedness

and Response Branch, Headquarters, US Army Medical

Command, Fort Sam Houston, Texas. At the time this

article was written, he was a class advisor and instructor in

the Leader Development Branch, AMEDD Center and

School.

MAJ Anton is a student at the Command and General Staff

College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. When this article was

written, MAJ Anton was an instructor at the Captains’

Career Course, AMEDD Center and School.

Mr Sebastian is the Chief of the Homeland Security Branch,

Leader Training Center, AMEDD Center and School.

Mr Knight is the Director, Medical Strategic Leadership

Program, Leader Training Center, AMEDD Center and

School.
October – December 2007 5

The Global War on Terrorism has created an

operational environment unlike any the Army has

previously seen. Leonard Wong1points out that the

requirements of Operations Enduring Freedom and

Iraqi Freedom mean that company-grade officers are

acting with a level of initiative and making decisions

with strategic implications unlike any required of

junior officers in previous conflicts. With operational

deployments at a scale not since seen World War II,

young officers are being deployed more frequently and

are being thrust into a complex political, social, and

tactical environment where their actions may have

strategic implications. The Army’s Officer Education

System now faces the challenge of transforming cadets

and officer candidates into leaders who are ready to

operate in this environment of ambiguity and rapid

change. New officers must arrive at their first duty

station fully competent in technical, tactical, and

leadership skills because many of them are deployed

shortly after arrival.

The foundation of the current Army Officer Education

System is the Basic Officer Leaders Course (BOLC).

BOLC is a 3-phased officer initial military training

program designed to mold students from a variety of

commissioning sources into confident, adaptive

leaders. With the implementation of this program and

the issuance of the new governing field manual, Army

Leadership (FM 6-22), 2the Army is providing clear

guidance as to the necessary capabilities its officers

must have to prosecute the Global War on Terrorism

and prepare for future conflicts, as well as a

methodology for continuing officer leadership

development throughout their careers.

THE BOLC METHODOLOGY AND THE ARMY

LEADERSHIP REQUIREMENTS MODEL

As stated in Army Regulation 350-1,

3

the 3 BOLC

phases are designed to build upon each other so that

participating officers are indoctrinated into the Army

Warrior Ethos even before accession.

BOLC Phase I encompasses all Army preappointment

and precommissioning training. The United States

Military Academy (USMA), Reserve Officer Training

Corps (ROTC), and the Army Officer Candidate

School are all examples of BOLC I training sites and

sources. Such training may last anywhere from several

months to 4 or more years. It provides the initial

“soldierization” for cadets/candidates and builds the

foundation in common skills, attributes, and

knowledge desired of all officers. Subjects taught

during this phase include customs and courtesies, drill

and ceremony, the Army orders process,

developmental counseling, and troop leading

procedures. Cadets/candidates also learn basic field

skills, small-unit tactical doctrine, and physical fitness.

The focus is on assessing the readiness and potential of

cadets and officer candidates for commissioning as

officers and preparing them for further leader

development. Cadets/candidates receive their

commissions after completion of BOLC Phase I.

BOLC Phase II, or Experiential Leader Training, is

designed to be a tough, standardized branchimmaterial course focused on small-unit leadership.

The primary mission of this phase is to develop and

produce adaptive officers with the confidence to lead

small units upon arrival at their first duty station. All

attending officers, regardless of branch, are grounded

in the basics of small-unit tactics and share a common

bond with their combined arms peers. The purpose of

BOLC II is to provide students with a practical

leadership laboratory, with ample opportunity for

instructor and peer review so that they can have a firm

understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their

leadership style. This occurs through a training

program focused on hands-on training in the 40 Army

Warrior Tasks and 11 Battle Drills, to include

advanced land navigation training; weapons

familiarization and qualification; convoy operations;

chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and highexplosive defense; and squad and platoon-patrol

exercises in both woodland and urban terrain. Students

are assumed to be proficient in all BOLC I tasks (such

as customs and courtesies and physical fitness).

Therefore, those subjects are not the training focus of

BOLC II. The administrative aspects of officership,

such as evaluation reports and property accountability,

are also not taught during this phase. BOLC II training

is 7 weeks in duration at either Fort Benning, Georgia,

or Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION:

HOW THE AMEDD OFFICER BASIC LEADERS’ COURSE GROWS LEADERS

MAJ Ralph T. Nazzaro,USA
6 Army Medical Department Journal

BOLC Phase III is the branch-specific technical and

tactical phase taught at individual officer branch

schools. The length of the phase is established by the

branch school and may range from several weeks to

several months. BOLC III trains new officers in the

skills, tactics, and doctrine specific to their branch so

that they are prepared to deploy and lead Soldiers as

part of, or in support of a warfighting unit. Officership

subjects, such as the evaluation reporting systems,

training management, property accountability, and unit

maintenance management are also taught or reviewed

during BOLC III. Leadership evaluation and training

may continue during this phase, but the main training

mission in BOLC III is branch technical skills.

In summary, BOLC I assesses the cadet/candidate's

character and fitness to serve as an officer, BOLC II

serves as the crucible experience for the officer's initial

leadership development, and BOLC III builds on this

leadership foundation with doctrinal knowledge and

tactical and technical skills. At the completion of the

BOLC program, the new officer is shaped over a

period of months to years into a proficient, adaptive

leader that meets the Army leadership requirements

model as outlined in Field Manual 6-22.

2

In brief, the

Leadership Requirements Model states that an Army

leader must possess the following attributes:

 A Leader of Character. The leader must exhibit

commitment to the Army Values and Warrior

Ethos. The leader must also possess the empathy

to envision the impact that his or her decisions will

have on Soldiers and their Families and on their

efforts to create a cohesive team. These attributes

should be present within the cadet/candidate at the

beginning of his or her military career, but can be

further developed through training and experience.

 A Leader with Presence. The leader must have

proper military bearing, to include physical fitness

and endurance, mental and emotional resilience,

and composure and confidence. Soldiers demand

these attributes from their leaders if they are to

respect and follow them, whether they are part of a

convoy in Mosul, or “code” at an Army hospital or

medical center.

 A Leader with Intellectual Capacity. This

attribute describes a leader who possesses both the

critical thinking skills and creativity to operate in

the complex environment that is the contemporary

operating environment.* Leaders must temper

their adaptability and creativity with sound

judgment, interpersonal skills, and technical

competence in both skills generic to all Soldiers

and specific to their branch and Area of

Concentration (AOC).

In addition of these attributes, the Leadership

Requirements Model calls for Army leaders to possess

certain Core Leader Competencies. Army leaders must

be capable of leading by example, communicating

effectively, inspiring followers, exerting influence and

resolving conflict, developing themselves and their

units through training and a positive climate, and

achieving realistic plans and consistent successful

results. These competencies are acquired at the start of

a leader’s career and shaped and molded over time.

The purpose of the BOLC program is to harness these

attributes and competencies in leaders and develop

them within the new officers in light of current

operational doctrine and the current threat. The result

is an officer that is both ready for deployment to a

combat theater and capable of continued development

and growth.

EVOLUTION OF THE AMEDD OFFICER BASIC

LEADER’S COURSE

The Army BOLC model is designed to function over a

protracted period of time as students evolve from

cadets and officer candidates into Soldiers and Army

leaders. Even in the case of officer candidate school

candidates, the BOLC model recognizes that time and

effort must be invested in the BOLC I “transition

phase” to give students a period of character

assessment and development, and to create a baseline

knowledge of leadership and officer skills. This is

absolutely necessary before it is possible to begin the

practical leadership experience and warrior skills

training of BOLC II, or the technical training of BOLC

III. However, many Army healthcare providers,

particularly those that meet the Army and the

AMEDD’s most critical needs to support the Global

War on Terrorism, come into the AMEDD directly

*The operational environment that exists today and for the

clearly foreseeable future. An operational environment is

defined in DoD Joint Publication 1-02 4as “a composite

of the conditions, circumstances, and influences that

affect the employment of military forces and bear on the

decisions of the unit commander.”

The Leader Training Center: Preparing Army Medicine’s Leaders for Tomorrow’s Challenges
October – December 2007 7

from the civilian sector as officers without the benefit

of a BOLC I-equivalent transition phase. In addition,

the AMEDD receives only 485 BOLC II slots annually

for the approximately 2,400 new officers that enter the

AMEDD each year. These 485 AMEDD slots are

designated for those AOCs that are either assigned to,

or support Army brigade combat teams with the most

frequency or density: Medical Service Corps Field

Medical Assistants (AOC 70B), Aeromedical

Evacuation Pilots (AOC 67J) and Medical Specialist

Corps Physician Assistants (AOC 65D).

The above described officer input environment means

that a majority of AMEDD officers report to the

AMEDD Center and School at Fort Sam Houston for

officer initial military training without the benefit of

BOLC II training. Further, a number of officers do not

even have BOLC I equivalent training. Despite the

lack of opportunity to follow the same initial Officer

Education System model for leadership and officer

development as most other Army officers, these

AMEDD officers in all branches and specialties are

still expected to conform to the same Army leadership

requirements model, serve on the same noncontiguous

battlefield, and be just as ready to lead under fire as

their brethren in the Army Competitive Category*

(ACC) and other specialty branches.

To put this disparity in professional development into

perspective, a typical ACC officer may spend up to 4

years or more in BOLC Phase I training as a cadet,

followed by 7 weeks of BOLC Phase II, and then

several more months of BOLC Phase III training

before reporting to their first duty station. On the other

hand, a directly commissioned AMEDD officer has

only the training received at Fort Sam Houston, Texas,

before reporting to his or her first unit, and possibly

deploying to combat. Consequently, the AMEDD

Center and School is challenged to provide a

comparable initial-entry training program for all

AMEDD officers to ensure that they enter service

capable of leading Soldiers to fight, survive, and

support Army operations anywhere in the world. This

difficult mission is compounded by the variety of

backgrounds, specialties, and commissioning sources

within the AMEDD.

In 1994, the AMEDD Center and School and its

Leader Development Branch, the organization

responsible for the AMEDD Officer Basic Course,

addressed the “delta” between the amount and length

of formalized leadership and warrior skills training

received during the respective Army officer input

tracks: the 12-week AMEDD basic course for direct

accessions into the AMEDD, and the months-to-years

long BOLC program which prepares other Army

officers. Additionally, the new AMEDD officers must

still receive the doctrinal and technical training from

the various branch schools. The Leader Development

Branch initiated a series of course revisions designed

to bring AMEDD officer initial military training in line

with the Army BOLC model, and to better prepare all

AMEDD officers to serve as Army leaders in the

Contemporary Operating Environment, whether they

are reporting to an infantry battalion or to a medicalsurgical ward.

The culmination of this effort is the AMEDD Officer

Basic Leaders’ Course (OBLC). The revised course is

a proven tool, dedicated to forging new officers into

capable and adaptable leaders through training rooted

in the Army Warrior Ethos, Warrior Tasks and Drills,

and warfighting doctrine, and focused through the

prism of the AMEDD mission and tactical medical

doctrine. The result is a course that provides attendees

with the equivalent education of Army BOLC Phases I

through III and has a strong emphasis on fieldcraft,

practical employment of doctrinal concepts, and

leadership development. Together with the AMEDD

BOLC Phase III program for those AMEDD officers

who have attended Army BOLC Phase II training, the

AMEDD OBLC program is producing new officers

whose level of training is comparable to their ACC

contemporaries in preparation to lead Soldiers on both

current and future battlefields.

The Leader Development Branch identified an

additional need to ensure that training was of

equivalent value, not only across all AMEDD branches

and AOCs, but across all components as well. A

significant portion of AMEDD personnel strength

resides in Reserve Component (RC) units assigned to

*Competitive Category is defined in DoD Instruction

1320.14 5as:

A separate promotion category established by the

Secretary of a Military Department, under Section

621 or 14005 of reference (b) [Title 10, US Code] for

specific groups of officers whose specialized

education, training, or experience, and often relatively

narrow utilization, make separate career management

desirable.
8 Army Medical Department Journal

The Leader Training Center: Preparing Army Medicine’s Leaders for Tomorrow’s Challenges

Army National Guard or Army Reserve units. These

units are deploying to Afghanistan and Iraq with the

same frequency and facing the same threats as their

Active Army counterparts. However, the legacy

version of the earlier AMEDD Officer Basic Course

for RC officers was a 13-day course designed to be

completed during the attending officers' required

annual training obligation in order to minimize the

impact on these officers' civilian medical practices.

Health Professional Scholarship Program (HPSP) and

Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences

(USUHS) medical students are another population

with particular requirements. These students attended a

compressed, 6-week version of the AMEDD Officer

Basic Course in conjunction with their medical

training. The requirement for HPSP and USUHS

students to attend a longer course would create

conflicts with their medical school and residency

schedules.

While ACC branches can require all officers,

regardless of component, to attend the full Army

BOLC II and BOLC III courses, the work and

schooling requirements of AMEDD RC officers and

medical students render this requirement unfeasible.

However, all of these officers must be trained to the

same Army leadership requirements model, a task that

could not be accomplished for RC officers and HPSP/

USUHS students with the previously existing course

design and length. To the Leader Development Branch

instructors, it was clear that a total redesign of the

AMEDD Officer Basic Course was necessary if

AMEDD officers were to arrive at their first duty

station with the leadership skills that are required for

them to lead and manage their Soldiers.

THE AMEDD OFFICER BASIC LEADERSHIP

COURSE METHODOLOGY

The threat and demands of the contemporary operating

environment required that the Leader Development

Branch provide a curriculum equivalent to BOLC II

and III in a manner that is relevant and engaging to all

AMEDD officers, regardless of commissioning source

or branch. The task was made more difficult by the

fact that instructors had to determine how to

effectively train officers who had graduated from

BOLC I programs to meet BOLC II and BOLC III

standards, while also providing an effective,

simultaneous, soldierization program for students who

had not benefited from BOLC I. If this balance was

not struck, the course would either be (a) too

overwhelming for most directly commissioned officers

to be confident of their preparation for the Army, or

(b) not sufficiently challenging for BOLC I graduates

to be confident of the value of their training and their

preparedness to serve as officers, or, (c) worst of all,

both. Ironically, complaints along these lines have

plagued the old incarnation of the AMEDD Officer

Basic Course for years.

The answer, evolved over 3 years of continual

evaluation and refinement of the AMEDD Officer

Basic Course, was to create a 7-week course, followed

by approximately 2 weeks of AOC-specific track

training that would serve as an intense integration into

the Army Warrior Ethos mindset. This is accomplished

by focusing on those warrior tasks, battle drills, and

classes that have been determined to be most pertinent

to the success and survival of Soldiers and medical

units in Iraq and Afghanistan. From this Army training

baseline for all officers and leaders, the course builds

to the BOLC III technical tasks of Army operational

doctrine, AMEDD force health protection principles

and tactical doctrine, and, finally, the technical

officership skills pertaining to personnel, property and

maintenance management; and training doctrine that

leaders must have to run their units and take care of

their Soldiers. Students then receive up to 2 weeks

(more for some AOCs) of AOC-specific track training.

It is during this final phase that branch and AOC

representatives from across the AMEDD demonstrate

how all the training integrates into their daily mission,

whether as a nurse, a physician, a laboratory officer, or

any of the other vital AMEDD AOCs.

Obviously the Leader Development Branch instructors

could not replicate the same BOLC I transition

experience gained over 4 years at the USMA or in an

ROTC program without making the course length

untenable. They created an accelerated soldierization

process by choosing key BOLC I subjects and “frontloading” them during the officer's first days in the

course. Upon arrival, OBLC students are immersed in

customs and courtesies and given introductory drill

and ceremony training. BOLC I graduates remain

engaged and challenged with assigned responsibilities

to continue this training past the first week, and to

evaluate and assist their directly commissioned peers.

Students are also given a Record Army Physical

Fitness Test (RAPFT) immediately upon arrival. This
October – December 2007 9

allows immediate identification of students who have

difficulty passing the RAPFT, or meeting Army

height/weight and body fat standards. This allows the

course cadre to provide early corrective training to

ensure that commanders receive physically fit officers.

The other, and—within the framework of the course—

more important, aspect of soldierization is building the

Army Warrior Ethos mentality into all students. As

with Army BOLC II, this is accomplished through a

curriculum rooted in fieldcraft and hands-on training.

It starts with rigorous physical training during both the

garrison and field phases of AMEDD OBLC. This

includes not only student-led physical training

sessions, but also tactical foot marches and Level I

Army Combatives training.6 Nearly 50% of AMEDD

OBLC is taught under tactical conditions at Camp

Bullis, Texas, in the Leader Development Branch

Forward Operating Base (FOB). The initial emphasis

during the field phase training is the core individual

warrior skills, such as weapons qualification, day and

night land navigation, and communications. The

emphasis then shifts to predeployment training and

certifications most frequently required by deploying

units, such as convoy operations, urban room clearing

operations, middle eastern cultural awareness, media

on the battlefield, and searching and processing of

enemy prisoners of war.

All training is reinforced through scenario training in

which students are required to build upon and link

their knowledge of individual and collective tasks. For

example, dismounted land navigation training leads

into mounted land navigation, and eventually to

convoy operations. M16A2 rifle familiarization

training leads into room clearing operations and FOB

defense exercises, and then into FOB command and

control exercises where students provide companylevel command and control while defending the FOB.

The difficulty level is then further increased by having

the students work through area damage control

operations, mass casualty scenarios, and patient

tracking. This methodology gives the students the

complex training environment necessary to hone

critical thinking and adaptability. It also shows

students how warrior skills and drills support the

treatment and evacuation of casualties.

In addition to field training on BOLC II tasks, the

students receive BOLC III-level classroom lectures on

Army and AMEDD operational doctrine. This includes

classes on the evacuation continuum and employment

of treatment facilities, as well as training in the

medical protection system. Students also receive 6-

hours of training on Blue Force Tracker* and how to

employ it for command and control and movement

tracking. Students also spend time on AMEDD officer

roles and responsibilities during pre- and

postdeployment phases, to include training on pre- and

postdeployment health assessments, field sanitation,

and the medical evaluation board and physical

disability process.

All field and classroom training culminates in a 5-day

capstone medical support field training exercise

(FTX). Students learn Tactical Combat Casualty Care

principles and employ all they have learned in the

deployment of battalion aid stations, ambulance

exchange points and a Level II medical company in

support of a simulated brigade combat team operation.

Students also receive an in-depth orientation to a Level

III Combat Support Hospital. At the conclusion of the

FTX, students know that the knowledge of individual

Warrior Tasks is essential to the ability of tactical

medical units to successfully provide life-saving care

in the contemporary operating environment.

The expectation of this training is not necessarily

complete proficiency on the part of the students, nor is

this the expectation when the same tasks are trained at

BOLC II sites. Rather, the goals are to introduce and

familiarize new officers with these tasks; to orient all

medical professionals, regardless of specialty, to the

missions conducted by the Soldiers for whom they

provide medical support; and—a particularly key

purpose—to build individual confidence and a

warfighting mentality in each student through the

successful execution of these tasks. Army nurses and

physicians who attend the OBLC are not told that they

should necessarily expect to personally conduct room

clearing operations in Baghdad. They are told that the

experience they gain from understanding what types of

operations infantry Soldiers conduct, and the

confidence they gain from training to close with the

*Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade and Below System

(FBCB2). Also known as Blue Force Tracker or BFT, it

gives combat vehicles a dashboard-mounted laptop and a

roof-mounted transponder/receiver to beam information

via satellite to headquarters and other vehicles. The

result is an all-weather, always-on, near-real time picture

of the battlefield.7
10 Army Medical Department Journal

The Leader Training Center: Preparing Army Medicine’s Leaders for Tomorrow’s Challenges

enemy will make them better Soldiers, and ultimately

better able to support those Warfighters.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

As with BOLC II, successful completion of a majority

of a student's evaluated leadership positions is a

graduation requirement for AMEDD OBLC. The fact

that a significant number of each AMEDD OBLC

student class will have no BOLC I or other prior

military experience creates some unavoidable

differences in methodology between AMEDD OBLC

and Army BOLC II. AMEDD OBLC is, by necessity,

focused on instructor-led training on the mechanics of

the warrior tasks and battle drills as a vehicle for

soldierization, as well as to teach critical baseline

military leader skills. By comparison, BOLC II is more

focused on providing students with practical leadership

experience and peer and instructor evaluation of their

leadership techniques, rather than the mechanical

process of the warrior tasks and battle drills. The taskcentered approach of the AMEDD OBLC curriculum

allows its students to make up lost ground on their

BOLC contemporaries in terms of their technical

knowledge base, but it also means less free-form,

practical leadership experience than that gained by

BOLC II students.

The AMEDD OBLC program of instruction

compensates for this with an intense course pace that

serves as the desired “crucible event” to encourage the

development of student leadership styles and personal

adaptability. Students are placed in leadership

positions which are rotated weekly (sometimes more

frequently) and, while in those positions, are

responsible for the accountability of, and mission

accomplishment by the OBLC student company. The

student leadership receives guidance from the class

advisor as to what tasks must be accomplished, such as

having students seated in their platoon classroom

according to the training schedule or deploying the

student company to the field. It is up to the student

chain of command to analyze, through troop-leading

procedures, how to accomplish those tasks and, guided

by the instructors, how they can meet their

requirements more efficiently. For instance, the

student chain of command is allowed to determine the

times and frequency of student company formations.

Some student chains of command may try to eliminate

formations entirely but soon discover, as they try to

meet the class advisor's requirements for

accountability and dissemination of information, that

formations are a vital part of the day for a unit. In this

way, the student leadership learns both specific lessons

about leadership and general lessons about the Army

culture.

Other student leadership opportunities include the

physical training ability group leader, convoy

commander, part of the student company leadership

for the forward operating base defense exercise, squad

leader during the urban patrolling/room clearing

operations exercise, and any number of leadership

positions during the capstone medical support FTX.

Each of these positions requires the students to use

their knowledge of troop leading procedures and the

Army orders process to plan, brief, execute, and assess

mission success as part of their duties. OBLC

instructors provide informal feedback throughout the

leadership rotation. At the end of a student leadership

rotation, whether the student served as a physical

training group instructor for 50 minutes or as a student

platoon sergeant for a one-week FTX, an OBLC

instructor provides formal written feedback to the

student and verbal counseling on observed strengths

and weaknesses. The counseling is a dialogue between

student and evaluator that ensures the student

understands how he or she performed in the

framework of the Army leadership requirements

model, what they did well, and how they can improve.

Other than the graduation requirement of an overall

satisfactory leadership performance, student

performance during the leadership rotation and the

written counseling are not linked to a grade at the end

of the course. The goal is to give the student one-onone mentoring, discuss specific aspects of their

leadership that they can carry to their next assignment,

and provide the student with a document to which they

can refer as they conduct further self-evaluation of

their leadership skills. In short, the instructors lay the

groundwork for future growth and mentoring

throughout the officer's career.

BALANCING THE GAP FOR RESERVE

COMPONENT, HPSP, AND USUHS STUDENTS

In response to the scheduling challenges of RC and

Health Professional Scholarship Program (HPSP) and

Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences
October – December 2007 11

(USUHS) students, the Leader Development Branch

devised unique ways to integrate these officers into the

OBLC program. Starting in fall 2007, RC officers that

would normally have attended the 13-day AMEDD

Officer Basic Course-RC attend the same OBLC

program of instruction as Active Army officers.

However, RC officers only attend in-residence for 26

days of the 7-week AMEDD OBLC. These 26 days

coincide with the 3-week field training phase of

OBLC, during which the RC officers are integrated

with an Active Army class that is already in session.

Prior to arrival, attending RC officers are required to

complete the classroom training received by resident

Active Army attendees through an online distance

learning program. Once the RC student has completed

the distance learning phase, he or she is enrolled in the

Phase II resident portion of OBLC at Fort Sam

Houston and Camp Bullis. The RC officers thus

receive the same program of instruction as attendees at

the 7-week OBLC, while limiting their time at Fort

Sam Houston to only the critical field training phase.

For HPSP and USUHS students who are restricted to a

narrow, 6-week period of availability prior to reporting

to medical school or residency programs, the solution

for providing identical training to the 7-week AMEDD

OBLC was less challenging. Since June 2007, the

HPSP/USUHS OBLC course works through weekend

periods as necessary to meet the requirements of the

complete AMEDD OBLC program of instruction. This

provides an extremely intense leadership and training

experience and gives HPSP/USUHS students the same

number of overall training days as the 7-week

AMEDD OBLC. An intense soldierization experience

is especially important for HPSP students, as they will

return to civilian medical programs and may not return

to the Army for several years after the completion of

OBLC. Instilling a clear understanding and

appreciation of the Army Warrior Ethos in medical

students during initial entry training should reap

enormous dividends years later when their medical

treatment facility commanders reintegrate them into

the Army culture as they return to active duty.

THE AMEDD BOLC III COURSE

In the process of determining how to meet the needs of

AMEDD officers who may not have the benefit of

BOLC I and II training before arriving at Fort Sam

Houston, the Leader Development Branch was equally

concerned about providing appropriate and adequate

training for another student population, Medical

Service Corps Field Medical Assistants, Aeromedical

Evacuation Pilots, and Medical Specialist Corps

Physician Assistants, all of whom attend Army BOLC

II training at Fort Benning or Fort Sill. These officers

then report to Fort Sam Houston for BOLC III

training. The Leader Development Branch determined

that, while the AMEDD OBLC course contained all of

the BOLC III technical tasks and doctrinal knowledge

that an AMEDD officer requires prior to reporting to

the first duty station, Army BOLC II graduates would

receive more benefit from a separate AMEDD BOLC

III course. This allows instructors to focus on the

training needs of officers who are reporting to

assignments primarily within brigade combat teams

and divisional units.

The resulting AMEDD BOLC III course is a 5-week

curriculum followed, as with AMEDD OBLC, by 2

weeks of AOC-specific track training. It is designed to

reinforce the crucible leadership experiences and

warrior leader skills training of BOLC II with

advanced training in these areas while linking them to

AMEDD technical and doctrinal tasks. For example,

students are expected to arrive from BOLC II

competent in convoy operations. Therefore, the BOLC

students are given the mission to conduct a convoy to a

certain grid, where they will establish a battalion aid

station and provide Level I care to a (notional)

battalion task force during offensive operations. The

students are already capable of conducting a map

reconnaissance, writing and briefing an operations

order, conducting precombat inspections and checks of

vehicles and equipment, and then maneuvering the

convoy to its destination, while maintaining

communication with their higher headquarters

throughout the operation.

Once at the destination, BOLC III instructors take over

and teach the students the principles of site selection,

aid station establishment, mass casualty operations,

and patient tracking. Training continues until the

students are proficient enough to conduct site selection

and establishment on their own. This methodology

allows for continued leadership development while

providing the students with the focused branch

technical and tactical skill training expected of a

BOLC III site.
12 Army Medical Department Journal

DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMEDD OFFICER

AFTER OBLC

Commanders may wonder, given the dramatic

redesign of the AMEDD Officer Basic Course

program, what should be expected from an AMEDD

officer after he or she completes initial officer training.

The AMEDD officer should report to his or her first

unit with:

1. A mentality rooted in the Army Warrior Ethos

and the increased confidence and level of

physical fitness that comes with adopting the

warrior ethos mindset.

2. Certification in Antiterrorism Level I training

and most annual Skill Level 1 Warrior Task

Training requirements (such as weapons

assembly/disassembly and functions check;

individual chemical, biological, radiological,

nuclear and high-explosive defense; and the

operation of a tactical communications radio).

3. Familiarization with M16A2 rifle and M9 pistol

marksmanship. Students receive the opportunity

to zero the sights of the M16A2 rifle and to

qualify with both weapons, although they will

only be provided a grade sheet for the M9 pistol.

4. A solid grounding in predeployment field

training, to include convoy operations and use of

Blue Force Tracker,7urban room clearing

operations, middle eastern cultural awareness,

media on the battlefield, handling enemy

prisoners of war, and platoon and company-level

command and control.

5. An introduction to Level I Army Combatives

Training.6Students that show proficiency and

motivation will be given the opportunity for

additional training and may receive Level I

Combatives Instructor Certification upon

graduation from AMEDD OBLC/BOLC III.

6. An understanding of Army and AMEDD

doctrine, to include practical experience in the

employment of Level I thru Level III medical

units in support of a brigade combat team

offensive operation, as well as planning and

providing command and control during multiple

FOB mass casualty incidents.

7. Training in AMEDD officer roles and

responsibilities during predeployment and

postdeployment to monitor and maintain the

health of the command.

8. An understanding of basic officership principles,

to include development counseling, officer and

noncommissioned officer evaluation systems,

property accountability, and maintenance and

training management.

9. An increased understanding of their strengths

and areas for improvement as leaders.

Officers depart AMEDD OBLC with a broad

education in the Army and AMEDD mission and

doctrine. Due to the focus on preparing AMEDD

officers for deployment—some officers may deploy in

support of OEF and OIF as soon as they arrive at their

unit—very little time beyond the first few days of

AMEDD OBLC can be devoted to BOLC I tasks. For

leaders in the contemporary operating environment,

knowledge of drill and ceremony is not as vital an

attribute as confidence in their ability to execute

convoy battle drills.

Commanders should understand the training focus of

AMEDD OBLC and adjust their own integration

training as necessary, based on the individual officer's

proficiency and the mission of their unit. Commanders

will have to reinforce and supplement some tasks, such

as medical protection system and combatives training,

to ensure the proficiency they require of their officers.

It is equally important to continue to develop officers

as leaders by providing them adaptive opportunities to

strengthen their initiative, critical thinking, and

execution and assessment skills. However,

commanders will also see that, overall, the officers

they now receive from AMEDD OBLC have more

confidence in themselves and their military knowledge

base, are easier to assimilate into the Army culture,

and are more prepared for deployment in support of

the Global War on Terrorism than those who have

come before.

The Leader Training Center: Preparing Army Medicine’s Leaders for Tomorrow’s Challenges
October – December 2007 13

The US Army is currently undergoing a tremendous

transition, and the AMEDD Captains’ Career Course is

no different. As stated in DA Pam 600-4,

The Army has made a total commitment to the

development of its future leaders (officers,

noncommissioned officers, and civilians) by providing

them opportunities to develop the skills, knowledge,

and attributes (SKAs) required to meet the challenges

of an increasingly complex, volatile, and unpredictable

world.8(p4)

This commitment is realized through a discipline

known as leader development, the process the Army

uses to develop its leaders to be successful trainers,

role models, and standard bearers, both today and in

the future. Simply put, good leaders are the result of

the education, training, and experience they receive

throughout their entire careers.

Since October 2004, the AMEDD Captains’ Career

Course has gone through significant changes in order

to prepare our officers for the Global War on

Terrorism. Based on lessons learned from the

contemporary operating environment and in response

to a revision of the TRADOC Officer Education

System, the Captains’ Career Course has undergone

many changes from initial concept in November of

2004, to the 9-week course implementation in July,

2006.

The goal of the AMEDD Captains’ Career Course is to

facilitate practical leader development coupled with

critical thinking skills. It is charged with the

responsibility to develop AMEDD officers to lead

company or like-sized units and to serve successfully

in US Army staff positions. The methodology is quite

simple: facilitate learning through small-group

instruction of no more than 15 students per group,

conduct the course on a pass/fail basis to alleviate

student competition, and improve all students through

small-group leader feedback. By the time a student

graduates from the course, he or she is better prepared

to lead in support of the full spectrum of joint and

coalition operations. This is accomplished primarily

through small-group instruction.

The areas of training emphasis include national

military strategy, the Army problem-solving process,

the military decision-making process, written and

verbal communication skills, staff group coordination

of synchronization, understanding of Army

organizations, and intense physical fitness and modern

Army combatives training, all the while fostering

AMEDD pride. Redesign teams worked hard to

develop relevant and actionable learning objectives

and incorporate Army lessons-learned into each block

of instruction.

The 9-week course has a total of 43 classroom days. A

detailed view of the course redesign which was

implemented in July 2006 is presented in the Figure.

The TRADOC Officer Educational System is

undergoing transformation to better support the goals

of increased readiness, greater relevance of the force,

and the expeditionary nature of the Army. With this

transformation, the AMEDD Captains’ Career Course

has led the way in efforts to ensure that our officers

receive a quality education and prepare them for

assignments in support of the joint team of military

medical operations.

Throughout the Army, leader development is executed

through 3 pillars: institutional training, operational

assignments, and self-development. The goal is the

same for each of the 3 pillars: develop leaders who are

capable of maintaining a trained and ready Army in

peacetime to deter war, and have the required

competence and confidence to successfully engage and

defeat an enemy in battle should the need arise. The

AMEDD Captains’ Career Course has been redesigned

to better support the 3 pillars of leader development,

but more specifically, institutional training, which is

defined as:

...all of the "schoolhouse" training and education

leaders receive in the SKAs [skills, knowledge, and

attributes] needed to perform critical tasks essential to

high quality leadership.8(p6)

When these same skills, knowledge, and attributes are

tested, reinforced, and strengthened by follow-on

operational assignments and meaningful selfdevelopment programs, leaders attain and sustain true

competency as officers in the armed services.

Developing Future Leaders: The Captains’ Career Course

MAJ Thomas J. Anton, MS, USA
14 Army Medical Department Journal

In the end, the AMEDD Captains’ Career Course

provides the progressive, sequential education required

to develop technical and tactical competencies—as

well as common core leadership skills—to form a solid

foundation upon which stands all future development

for our Warrior Leaders.

Inprocessing (4 days)

Introductory briefs

Conduct Army physical fitness tests

Team building

Leadership reaction course

Agile Leader Block (3 days)

Critical thinking

Creative reasoning

Leadership vignettes

Negotiations

National Military Strategy Block (1 day)

Homeland security

The Profession of Arms

Critical thinking

Leader Development Block (4 days)

Leadership styles

Ethics

Evaluations

Counseling

Command climate

Company Block (4 days)

Supply operations

Training

Legal

Equal opportunity

Unit movement

Quarterly training briefs

Cultural Awareness (1 day)

What is culture?

Iraq

Afghanistan

Counterinsurgency (1 day)

Insurgency

Staff Ride (1 day)

Military history

Military tactics

How to conduct a staff ride

Hospital Operations in a Fixed Facility (4 days)

Professional Filler System

Managed care

AMEDD organization

Resource management

Medical protection system

Hospital emergency/crisis management

Balanced scorecard

Combined Arms Battle Staff (15 days)

Introduction to the following Army Field Manuals:

FM 1-02: Operational Terms and Graphics

FM 3-0: Operations

FM 3-90: Tactics

FM 5-0: Army Planning and Orders Production

FM 6-0: Mission Command: Command and

Control of Army Forces

FM 7-100.1: Opposing Force Operations

Application of the following:

Military decision-making process

Force health protection planning

Joint/combined operations

All material learned

Specialty Branch & Track Week (5 days)

Leader panel

Introduction to different Areas of Concentration

Additional Professional Education training

The 43-day course of instruction presented during the AMEDD Captains’ Career Course

The Leader Training Center: Preparing Army Medicine’s Leaders for Tomorrow’s Challenges

Growing Senior AMEDD Leaders

COMMAND AND STAFF TRAINING BRANCH

Jody R. Rogers, PhD

The Command and Staff Training Branch has the mission of training senior AMEDD officers who have been

selected for specific command and staff positions. The branch accomplishes this task by conducting courses such

as the precommand course, division and brigade surgeon’s courses, the Health Services Plans, Operations,

Intelligence, and Security Training Course (70H), and the Forward Surgical Team Course. In addition to these

courses, the Command and Staff Branch also includes the Medical Strategic Leadership Program and the

Executive Skills Program. Each of these conducts their own courses to provide senior AMEDD officers

additional leadership skills.
October – December 2007 15

COMMAND AND STAFF TRAINING BRANCH (CONTINUED)

Medical Strategic Leadership Program

Ken Knight

The Medical Strategic Leadership Program is a forum

to provide training support focused on strategic level

military medical leadership health issues with

emphasis on working within coalitions and alliances,

combating terrorism, and providing a networking

environment for military professionals. Seen as a

critical leadership skill for senior AMEDD officers,

this course is designed to foster strategic thinking on

healthcare issues and the importance of creating

alliances with important allies from around the world.

The Medical Strategic Leadership Program (MSLP) is

a multinational, postgraduate, continuing medical

education program designed for international and US

military medical officers (lieutenant colonel and

above, or equivalent). The program provides

healthcare leadership related training to prepare

attendees for the strategic leadership challenges of

combined health service support operations, and

operating within coalitions and alliances. Major areas

of focus include the United Nations, US combatant

commands, strategic leadership, international law,

military medical readiness, host nation/coalition

partner support, health resources allocation and

management, nongovernmental organizations,

counterterrorism, and homeland security and medical

observer training.

The MSLP consists of 3 weeks of instruction. Week

one is for international students only and consists of 5

days of in-processing, joint and US Army medical

policy, medical observation training, and tours,

including a day trip to Fort Hood, TX. The second

week is 5 days of in-residence instruction at the Army

Medical Department Center and School, consisting of

strategic level healthcare and leadership presentations.

US students join the course at the beginning of week

two. Week three is convened in New York City and

Washington, DC, where students spend 5 days

participating in briefings and discussions on

international medical issues, and visit the United

Nations, US healthcare and research facilities,

government agencies, and civilian organizations such

as think tanks and international media outlets. The

MSLP is offered 3 times per year.

A major leadership goal of the MSLP is to encourage

and promote networking opportunities between the US

and international attendees. Recent international

graduates include the Surgeons General from Iraq,

Afghanistan, the Philippines, the Czech Republic,

Hungary, Canada, and Moldova. A number of

international deputy surgeons have attended as well.

HOMELAND SECURITY BRANCH

Hank Sebastian

A complete understanding of the principles and

complexities of homeland security is a knowledge

critical to leadership that has gained prominence in just

the past few years. Efforts are underway within the

Leader Training Center to ensure our future leaders are

competent in this skill.

The AMEDD has formed a Homeland Security Cell at

the Medical Command Headquarters with the mission

of preparing AMEDD medical facilities for any natural

or manmade emergencies. Outside of the AMEDD, all

major commands have formed Homeland Security

Cells to prepare for any contingency. There are

requirements in all of these commands for qualified

AMEDD leaders to fill homeland security billets.

Currently, there is no educational curriculum to

prepare AMEDD officers to fill any of these positions

except through long-term health education and

training.

The Hart-Rudman Commission report 9suggested an

increasing need for homeland security education to

protect against threats to our own soil. The report

suggests that the strategy to defend the country is up to

the educated, ie, those with the knowledge to prevent

the disaster. The national strategy was formulated

based on the content and provisions of the Homeland

Security Act of 2002.10 Since 2002, the Department of

Homeland Security (DHS) has expounded on these

areas and constructed corresponding departments.

Offshoot directorates have also been created as the

DHS continues to expand vision and mission. It is a

long-term goal of the DHS to create sanctioned

degrees and certificates in Homeland Security. With

the DHS emphasis and the AMEDD requirement for

qualified officer leaders, the development of a master’s

program in Homeland Security at the AMEDD Center

and School is imperative. The formation of the

master’s program will position the AMEDD as

prepared for any contingency. The resulting educated

and well-informed officer leaders will understand their

roles and react appropriately during any contingency,

thus saving lives and protecting property.
16 Army Medical Department Journal

The proposed location for the master’s program is the

AMEDD Center and School. In the near future, the

AMEDD Center and School will become the DoD

Medical Education and Training Command, a

triservice medical education and training organization

that will build on the synergies of the 3 services to

provide a robust medical training environment for all

DoD. Therefore, the curriculum will be taught by

faculty representing all 3 services to triservice student

classes. The master’s program will be sponsored

academically by a major university which grants

master’s and doctoral level degrees.

The Leader Training Center: Preparing Army Medicine’s Leaders for Tomorrow’s Challenges

Ensuring Administrative Competency within the Military Health System

Jody R. Rogers, PhD

JOINT MEDICAL EXECUTIVE SKILLS INSTITUTE

The Joint Medical Executive Skills Institute (JMESI)

is the agency within DoD/Health Affairs with the

overall responsibility to ensure senior executives

across all 3 services are adequately prepared for

command or service as senior healthcare executives

within the Military Health System. The JMESI

accomplishes this task through the Joint Medical

Executive Skills Program, which is a congressionally

mandated project to assure that military treatment

facility TRICARE* lead agents and their senior staff

members are adequately prepared for their increased

administrative and leadership responsibilities. Failure

to ensure Military Health System officers are

sufficiently competent to serve as a senior executive

could result in Congress withholding funds from

military treatment facilities.

The primary focus of the JMESI is the 40 medical

executive competencies shown in the Figure that

represent the unique skill set necessary for successful

healthcare executive management.

The JMESI has created an outstanding website†

containing pertinent information specific to a senior

healthcare executive. In addition to containing

important information on competency development, it

has a wonderful distance learning section that will

enable officers to gain competency in a wide range of

skills. Not only are these well-designed courses,

officers are also able to obtain continuing medical

education credit and continuing education units as

well. Currently, JMESI provides over 50 hours of

outstanding distance learning programs.

The JMESI also offers a Capstone Symposium

designed for senior grade officers selected at The

Surgeon General level. It is considered a pinnacle

event for participants, most of whom have been

recently assigned as senior military treatment facility

commanders, lead agents, and senior medical officers

in key staff positions, who will benefit from exposure

to and familiarity with entities that shape the Military

Health System. The symposium is offered 3 times

annually in Washington, DC.

AMEDD EXECUTIVE SKILLS BRANCH

The AMEDD Executive Skills Program (ESP) was

created to ensure senior AMEDD healthcare

executives meet the requirements of the Joint Military

Executive Skills Program. The AMEDD ESP performs

several functions. Its most important function is to

track the competencies for all AMEDD officers. This

is an automated process that cross-references

information included in an officer’s Officer Record

Brief with a matrix that identifies competencies earned

based on an officer’s education, experience, and

professional certification.

Officers interested in serving in a senior leadership

position can track their competency level by going to

the ESP website.‡ The website includes all necessary

information about the AMEDD ESP and gives all

AMEDD officers in the ranks of captain and above the

ability to view their own competency level (View

Profile). The algorithm for determining competency

uses the information included in the Officer Record

Brief. If a course or an assignment isn’t in the brief,

the algorithm will not accurately determine the level of

competency. This also is a great tool if the officer’s

unit has an officer professional development program,

or when mentoring junior officers.

‡

https://executiveskills.amedd.army.mil

*TRICARE is DoD’s health care program for members of

the uniformed services, their families and survivors.

Information available at http://www.tricare.mil.

†

http://jmesi.army.mil
October – December 2007 17

A second important function of the ESP is a one-week

course to prepare newly selected deputy commanders

for their new responsibilities as senior executives of

military treatment facilities. The course is offered

every April at Fort Sam Houston. Attendance is

determined by selection by each AMEDD Corps.

A third important function of the ESP is to serve as a

clearinghouse of leadership thought and practice

within the AMEDD. This is accomplished through the

Center for Leadership Excellence in Healthcare.

CENTER FOR LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE IN

HEALTHCARE

One of the most important competencies for a senior

healthcare executive is leadership. The Center for

Leadership Excellence in Healthcare (Center) was

created to capture leadership thought, practice, and

theory as it applies to military medicine. The Center

was created to serve as a repository of current

healthcare leadership thought and practice, with the

intent of increasing the leadership capabilities of

individuals and organizations within the Federal

Healthcare System (FHS). The motivation behind the

Center is the belief that the FHS is fortunate to have

several outstanding leaders who have made significant,

long-lasting contributions to medical mission

accomplishment. These contributions must be

identified, captured, and made available to future

leaders. As such, the Center’s primary goal is to

advance the understanding and practice of leadership

theory as it applies to federal healthcare, by capturing

Core Competencies

The 40 medical executive competencies—the primary focus of the Joint Medical Executive Skills Institute of

DoD/Health Affairs—which represent the unique skill set necessary for successful healthcare executive

management.

Military Medical Readiness

Medical Doctrine

Military Mission

Joint and Combined Operations (formerly Joint

Operations/Exercises)

Total Force Management

National Disaster Medical Systems Management

Medical Readiness Training

Contingency Planning

General Management

Strategic Planning

Organizational Design

Decision Making

Change and Innovation

Leadership

Health Law/Policy

Public Law

Medical Liability

Medical Staff By-Laws

Regulations

External Accreditation

Ethics in the Health Care Environment

Ethical Decision-Making

Personal and Professional Ethics

Bioethics

Organizational Ethics

Performance Measurement & Improvement

Quality Management

Quantitative Analysis

Outcome Measurements

Patient Safety (formerly Clinical Performance

Improvement)

Individual and Organizational Behavior

Individual Behavior

Group Dynamics

Conflict Management

Communication

Public Speaking

Public and Media Relations

Clinical Understanding

Epidemiological Methods

Clinical Investigation

Integrated Health Care Delivery Systems

(changed from Alternative)

Health Resources Allocation & Management

Financial Management

Human Resource Management

Labor-Management Relations

Materiel Management

Facilities Management

Information Management and Technology

(changed from Information Management)
18 Army Medical Department Journal

outstanding leadership thoughts and practices and

making them available for others to study.

Today, leadership development is absolutely critical to

organizational success. This is especially true within

the FHS. Unfortunately, most healthcare organizations

spend very little time developing their leaders. Recent

research has shown that less than 10 hours a year of

leadership training is provided by most organizations

today. This is simply not enough time to ensure future

leaders receive the training necessary to serve as

effective leaders in the years ahead. The result is a

growing population of administrators seeking

leadership training and information, but not finding a

suitable source from which to learn. To that end, the

Center has created a website* intended to serve as a

repository for relevant leadership thought and practice

for healthcare administrators within the FHS.

The website is divided into 6 categories:

 Leadership book reviews

 Leadership quotes

 Leadership resources

 Leadership surveys

 Leadership spotlight

 Leadership topic of the month.

Listed below each category is a partial list of

documents available for review by the user. As the

Center grows and more documents are posted, older

documents will be archived.

Although the focus of the Center is on the Federal

Healthcare System, it is obvious that the outstanding

leadership thought and practice common within the

FHS will also be a valuable resource for civilian

healthcare executives.

REFERENCES

1. Wong L. Developing adaptive leaders: the crucible

experience of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Carlisle

Barracks, PA; Strategic Studies Institute of the US

Army War College: July 1, 2004. Available at: http://

www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/

display.cfm?pubID=411.

2. Field Manual 6-22: Army Leadership: Competent,

Confident, and Agile. Washington, DC: US Dept of

the Army; 12 October 2006.

3. Army Regulation 350-1: Army Training and Leader

Development. Washington, DC: US Dept of the

Army; 13 January 2006.

4. Joint Publication 1-02: DoD Dictionary of Military

and Associated Terms. Washington, DC: Joint Staff,

US Dept of Defense: July 12, 2007. Available at:

http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/new_pubs/

jp1_02.pdf.

5. Department of Defense Instruction 1320.14:

Commissioned Officer Program Procedures.

Washington, DC: US Dept of Defense; September 24,

1996:E2-15.

6. Field Manual 3-25.150: Combatives. Washington,

DC: US Dept of the Army; January 18, 2002.

7. Goure D. Standardize Blue-Force Tracking.

DefenseNews.com [serial online]. November 8, 2004.

Available at: http://dfn.dnmediagroup.com/story.php?

F=494578&C=. Accessed August 30, 2007.

8. DA Pamphlet 600-4: Army Medical Department

Officer Development and Career Management.

Washington, DC: US Dept of the Army; June 27

2007.

9. Road Map for National Security: Imperative for

Change. Washington, DC; US Commission on

National Security/21st Century; February 15,

2001:38. Available at: http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/

nssg/PhaseIIIFR.pdf. Accessed August 31, 2007.

10. Homeland Security Act, Pub L No. 107-296, 116 Stat

*http://cleh.amedd.army.mil 2135 (2002).

The Leader Training Center: Preparing Army Medicine’s Leaders for Tomorrow’s Challenges
October – December 2007 19

THE NEED FOR MEDICAL LEADERSHIP

The Army assumes that officers will be leaders. It is an

assumption based on the need for men to be led into

the face of dangers they can see, for reasons they

cannot. It is expected that as captains become majors

then colonels, they will be students of leadership.

Eisenhower, himself a lifelong student, believed that

leaders were learners whose character and qualities

were "ripened and matured" in battle and the

classroom.1

Army medicine has at least as much need for effective

leadership as combat units. Where leadership in the

chaos of combat requires controlled expression of

aggressive tension, the practice of medicine in combat

requires controlled repression of the same aggressive

tension.

To date, those professionals best prepared for

leadership in Army medicine have been those who

have studied the subject elsewhere; at the United

States Military Academy, in Reserve Officer Training

Corps courses, or through prior service. For many, the

leadership lessons learned directly in the Army

Medical Department (AMEDD) system have been bad

ones. It is remarkable how successful the system has

been, despite a somewhat piecemeal approach to the

training of those who lead it. Unfortunately, with our

current challenges, the system can no longer afford a

passive, piecemeal, parochial, or personal approach to

the study of leadership.

GLOBAL WAR ON TERRORISM

Army medicine has been to war before. But this

conflict is unique in a number of ways. In Afghanistan

and Iraq, the deployed class picture changes

constantly. As professionals rotate to different forward

operating bases, they find themselves thrown into

leadership positions with different players on a daily or

weekly basis. The doctor or physician’s assistant has

to lead people from diverse backgrounds; eg, a new

private first class with no experience or middle-aged

reservist who already has all the answers. Just as the

people change, the locations change and a deployed

professional may practice in several different settings

in the same week period. Finally, the required skills

can change multiple times in the same day; eg, combat

trauma care, humanitarianism, civil/military affairs,

sick call.

GLOBALIZATION

Corporations whose markets expand internationally

must confront the leadership challenges of operating in

diverse cultural settings. The language of Program

Budget Decision 753 will require increasing leadership

of joint medical units by Army officers,2a process

already underway in theater. Navy and Air Force

medicine share a common commitment with the Army

to excellence in patient care. But that is where the

common thread ends. Civilianization of the work force

also means that Army leaders will have to lead

nonmilitary subordinates in garrison, and possibly

AMEDD Leadership Development:

From the Grass Roots Up

COL Chuck Callahan, MC, USA

LTC Mark Thompson, MC,USA

You cannot prepare for the shock of seeing and treating combat casualties. The wounds can be

horrific and extensive. But you will be the one that all the medics look to for leadership in the

trauma care setting.... If you have the type of personality that screams and yells and curses when

you are in a stressful trauma setting, figure out how to change. Take a deep breath and stay calm.

Many of these Soldiers on the trauma table are still alert and may or may not know how close they

are to dying. You must do everything in your power to remain calm, for their sake. Your medics will

most likely be young and have little experience. If you lose your cool, then they will lose their

focus. It all spells badness.

MAJ Rick Bickel, USA; Sadr City, Iraq; October 2004
20 Army Medical Department Journal

AMEDD Leadership Development: From the Grass Roots Up

even in the combat theater. And finally, expansion of

TRICARE* and multimarket management will require

Army medicine to increasingly understand capitation

and the business of medicine. New languages, new

culture, and new values all confront the leaders of

Army medicine in this unique process of globalization.

GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION

Residency programs are the factories of Army medical

leadership. Leadership, professionalism, and the core

competencies have made the Accreditation Council on

Graduate Medical Education†requirements more labor

intensive to meet and document. In addition, we have

less time to train residents. There are only 80 hours a

week for 3 years (12,480 hours) in a 3-year (family

practice, medicine, pediatrics) residency. In practice,

the available time is shorter. Subtract 8 weeks of

vacation scattered over the 36 months and the total

drops to 11,840 hours. In contrast, 20 years ago,

workweeks of 100 hours were typical. Two or three

24-hour days on call with 12-hour days for the

remainder of the week, even with a rare day off, adds

up to 14,800 hours a year. Thus, today residency

training time is 20% shorter. The current situation

violates the “Bermuda Triangle” of business that states

you can only get two of the following three in any

given product: good, fast, or cheap. If we want good

residency graduates, and we want them faster (less

training time) then it won’t be cheap. If we won’t

spend the money it will take to train them in less time,

then they will not be as good. Leadership of graduate

medical education will require new and greater depth

of leadership capability.

MODELS FOR LEADERSHIP TRAINING

At Tripler Army Medical Center (Honolulu, HI)

Pediatrics, we began formal training in leadership for

staff and house staff in 1999 using the Army’s then

new publication, Field Manual 22-100, Army

Leadership, published a year earlier (superseded in

2006 by Field Manual 6-22 3). The initial efforts were

not well organized and the manual, although an

excellent overview, did not read well. Journal articles

were also included, but as with most additional reading

for journal clubs, it is difficult to get participants to

read the material ahead of time, and, of course, lack of

preparation hampers discussion.

In 2002, an annual lecture, “The Intentional Officer,”

outlining some of the practicalities of leadership and

officership was added as preparation for graduating

residents. An accompanying article (published in the

AMEDD Journal 4in 2005) provided additional grist

for discussion, but suffered from the same challenges

of participant preparation.

In subsequent years, leadership was a monthly topic at

the resident weekly graduate military education

session. With several of the lectures, video clips were

presented to foster discussion. For example, the speech

by Kenneth Branagh as Shakespeare’s King Henry V

at Agincourt from the movie Henry V (MGM, 1989)

supplemented a discussion of the imperatives of

leadership based on Keegan’s The Mask of Command.

5

These clips proved to be among the most successful

tools introduced to date, as it seems that participants

were more comfortable watching and responding to

the video than to reading and discussing an article. In

fact, subjectively it seemed that introducing the article

as background for the video clip often led to greater

readership after the session and discussion in

subsequent sessions.

The success of these tools led to the introduction of a

more formal, weekly series, “Leadership@Lunch”

introduced to the department of Pediatrics in the winter

of 2003. A formal schedule, an example of which is

included at Appendix 1, was developed covering a

range of topics that follow the leadership outline “Be,

Know, Do.”3(p1-1). This series, currently in its fourth

iteration, has proven to be very successful with several

dozen regular participants, lively debate, and vigorous

discussion. Especially successful have been the

introduction of case-based scenarios (example

included at Appendix 2). Each session, therefore, has a

combination of a reading (provided a week ahead),

some opening remarks, a video clip, discussion of the

video, a scenario with discussion, then a wrap-up. The

session is one hour in length.

As with any educational venue, we expect the format

and content to change with time and with context.

*TRICARE is the Department of Defense health care

program for members of the uniformed services, their

families, and survivors. Information available at http://

www.tricare.mil.

†Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

(ACGME) (Suite 2000, 515 North State Street, Chicago,

IL 60610-4322) is responsible for the accreditation of postMD medical training programs within the United States.

Information available at: http://www.acgme.org/acwebsite/

home/home.asp.
October – December 2007 21

Some of the same readings and scenarios have proved

very useful in mentoring discussions (one-on-one) and

in less formal, smaller group discussions.

Understanding that the future curriculum may change,

it was clear to us that our staff was anxious to discuss

leadership, their experiences with leaders, and to think

about the science of leading others.

A PROGRAM FOR CEO SUCCESSION

In an article published in Harvard Business Review,

Charan outlined the weaknesses in the current

approach to leadership succession in industry.6 Half of

the companies he surveyed had no meaningful plans

for CEO succession, and less than one fifth of

surveyed corporations were satisfied with their

leadership succession processes. More striking, 40% of

the CEOs chosen by traditional methods failed within

their first 18 months of office.

Traditionally, a chief executive officer (CEO) in a

major US corporation assumes that position when he

or she is between 46 and 52 years of age. This is very

similar to AMEDD general officers, who are often in

their fifties, and midway through their third decade in

Army medicine when they are appointed. Charan

proposed that industries with successful CEO

succession plans often identify potential candidates 15

to 20 years before they become CEOs. In the

AMEDD, that would equate to identifying potential

general officers or senior level commanders while they

are still midlevel captains or junior majors. Should we

be identifying our future CEOs at this level? And if we

did, how would we prepare them? There are many

options, but, as an example, the following 4 basic steps

could help us to do a better job of preparing future

AMEDD CEOs for leadership positions.

Train—Leadership seminars could be established at all

graduate medical education programs. Taking one

lunch a week does not overly tax the program and does

not adversely impact the 80-hour work week. The

exact substance of the course is less important than

establishing the opportunity to discuss leadership and

encouraging young officers to become lifelong

students of leadership. Senior leaders could host

similar weekly journal clubs at the medical activities

(MEDDAC). It is possible that there could be a core

curriculum based on the Army’s leadership manual.2

The Surgeon General could develop a suggested

reading list with titles from basic leadership science

(ie, John Keegan, Stephen Covey, Marcus

Buckingham) and leadership in medicine (Institute of

Medicine, Richard Seltzer). These readings could be

the basis for the ongoing weekly meetings. “Industry”

leadership seminars could be made available to more

senior leaders, along with opportunities for physician

executive training.

Track—Program directors and department chiefs could

identify “stars” in their program for a list maintained

by the specialty consultant. For captains and majors,

the consultant could maintain this dynamic, fluid list

and help the young officers by guiding their career

paths. The consultant could work with the MEDDAC

commander and deputy commander of clinical services

to offer opportunities to these junior officers, including

a range of possible duties. The consultant could also

maintain frequent contact with these officers by phone

and electronic mail in an effort to keep them on active

duty and in assignments at both TDA* and TO&E†

units which will enhance their leadership development.

Tutor—More senior majors and lieutenant colonels

would be the subject of formal mentoring‡by medical

center department or MEDDAC command leaders.

The specialty consultant and the branch chief would

facilitate the mentorship of these leaders. Different

specialty leaders could participate in the mentoring,

including senior nursing and administrative leaders.

These young leaders could facilitate and participate in

local leadership training at their hospital, as one learns

as much by researching and teaching these seminars as

by attending them. The officers need to participate in

hospital level committees and multidisciplinary teams

to see how senior level leaders spend their days.

Frequent contact with the consultant will help the

officer with career choices.

Tailor—By the time the officer is selected for colonel

(approximately 16 years of service for Medical Corps

officers), it will be important for him or her to make

directed career choices that may include a purposeful

move from primary clinical, teaching, or research roles

*Table of Distribution and Allowances: Prescribes the

organizational structure, personnel and equipment

authorizations, and requirements of a military unit to

perform a specific mission for which there is no

appropriate table of organization and equipment.

†Table of Organization and Equipment: Defines the

structure and equipment of a military organization or unit.

‡

See related articles on pages 26, 29, and 37.
22 Army Medical Department Journal

AMEDD Leadership Development: From the Grass Roots Up

into more full time administration. These are the

officers who would most benefit from general officer

mentorship. They should be offered a formal “360

degree” leadership profile from one of the

commercially available organizations and should

closely coordinate positions with the specialty

consultant and their senior level mentor.

THE WAY AHEAD

There is little question that the challenges currently

facing the AMEDD and, even more so, those on the

horizon, will require a more intentional approach to

leadership development and succession. It is especially

so if medical corps officers are to play a continued key

role in AMEDD leadership. While there are a variety

of options, the exact form of the needed steps should

be directed from the Army Medical Command or The

Surgeon General level. A list of suggested readings

and discussion points could be drafted and modified

annually, perhaps at the winter meeting of the joint

services graduate medical education selection board

and consultants. Leadership seminar development

could also be a topic of this meeting on a regular basis.

Specialty consultants could work with program

directors and department leaders to identify “track” list

stars who have the potential to be developed for

possible “CEO succession.”

“May you live in interesting times” is said to be a

Chinese proverb. There is a thought, however, that it is

really a Chinese curse. According to Pratchett,7the

curse was accompanied by two others: “May the

authorities take an interest in you,” and “May the gods

give you everything that you desire.” There is no doubt

that we live in interesting times. Whether our

interesting times become a curse may well turn on our

application of the other two points: whether our best

leaders come to the attention of those in authority, and

whether, in their development as leaders, they are able

to realize the opportunities they desire.

REFERENCES

1. Eisenhower DD. Speech to disabled veterans at

American University; February 10, 1946;

Washington, DC. Available at: http://

www.eisenhowermemorial.org/speeches/19460210%

20Speech%20at%20American%20University.htm.

2. US Dept of Defense. Program Budget Decision 753.

Washington, DC: US Dept of Defense, Office of the

Assistant Secretary of Defense; 23 December 2004;8.

Available at: http://www.missilethreat.com/

repository/doclib/20041200-DOD-pbd753budget.pdf.

3. Field Manual 6-22: Army Leadership: Confident,

Competent, and Agile. Washington, DC: US Dept of

the Army; October 2006.

4. Callaghan C. The “intentional” officer. Army Med

Dept J. April-June 2005:29-32.

5. Keegan J. The Mask of Command. New York, NY:

Penguin Books USA Inc; 1988.

6. Charan R. Ending the CEO succession crisis. Harv

Bus Rev. 2005;83(2):72-81.

7. Pratchett T. Interesting Times. New York, NY:

HarperTorch; 1994.

AUTHORS

COL Callahan is Deputy Commander for Clinical Services,

Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He is slated to be the

Commander, DeWitt Army Community Hospital, Fort

Belvoir, Virginia, in the summer of 2008.

LTC Thompson is Chief, Department of Pediatrics, Tripler

Army Medical Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, and the Senior

Pediatric Consultant to The Army Surgeon General

Leadership@Lunch Seminar Series

Tripler Army Medical Center Department of Pediatrics

Be

IMPERATIVES OF LEADERSHIP

READING: Callahan CW. Imperatives of leadership: Henry at Agincourt. Mil Rev. 1999;79(3):88-90.

Appendix 1
October – December 2007 23

VIDEO: Henry V (MGM, 1989), speech prior to battle at Agincourt

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE – INTRODUCTION

READING: Goleman D. What makes a leader? Harv Bus Rev. 2004;82(1):82-91.

VIDEO: Gettysburg, Scenes: 8-10; Prisoner delivery/Used by idiots/What we’re fighting for

(New Line Cinema, 1993).

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE – STYLES OF LEADERSHIP I

READING: Goleman D. Leadership that gets results. Harv Bus Rev. 2000;79(2):78-87.

VIDEO: Miracle, Scenes 14 & 16; I am a hockey player / This is your time (Disney, 2004).

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE – STYLES OF LEADERSHIP II

READING: Goleman D. Leadership that gets results. Harv Bus Rev. 2000;79(2):78-87.

VIDEO: Gettysburg, Scene 5, Side B: Lee admonishes Stuart. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,

Disc 1, Scene 23: The King’s decision (New Line Cinema, 2002). The Lord of the Rings: The Return

of the King, Disc 2, Scene 59; The last debate (New Line Cinema, 2003).

THE LEADERSHIP MOMENT: COL JOSHUA CHAMBERLAIN AT LITTLE ROUND TOP

READING: Useem M. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain defends Little Round Top. In: The Leadership

Moment. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press; 1998:127-152.

VIDEO: Gettysburg, Scenes 28-35, Little Round Top; name to remember.

INTEGRITY – THE CASE OF NATHAN JESSUP, PART 1

READING: Cohen WA. Maintain absolute integrity. In: The Stuff of Heroes. Atlanta, GA. Longstreet Press;

2001:9-39.

VIDEO: A Few Good Men, Scenes 25-28; Jessup takes the stand; the verdict (Columbia Pictures, 1992).

INTEGRITY – THE CASE OF NATHAN JESSUP, PART 2

READING: Sherman S. Rethinking integrity. Leader Leader. 2003;28:39-45. Available at: http://

leadertoleader.org/leaderbooks/L2L/spring2003/sherman.html.

VIDEO: A Few Good Men, Scene 5; COL Jessup.

Know

VISION AND GETTING THE BIG PICTURE: BG JOHN BUFORD AT GETTYSBURG

READING: John Buford and the Gettysburg Campaign. (http://www.gdg.org/research/people/buford)

VIDEO: Gettysburg, Scene 10, Side A; Bloody moment ahead.

LEADING YOUR PEERS

READING: Blumenson M, Stokesbury JL. Eisenhower. In: Masters of the Art of Command. Boston, MA:

Houghton Mifflin; 1975:287-303.

Appendix 1 (continued)
24 Army Medical Department Journal

AMEDD Leadership Development: From the Grass Roots Up

VIDEO: Ike: Countdown to D-Day, Patton problem; A plan unveiled (Columbia TriStar, 2004).

LEADERSHIP AGAINST ALL ODDS: SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON. BUILDING A TEAM

READING: Alexander C. Shackleton: epic of survival. Natl Geogr Mag. November 1998:83-101.

VIDEO: Shackleton, Disc 1, Scene 8; setting sail (A&E Television Networks, 2002).

SCENARIO: Building the Team

LEADERSHIP AGAINST ALL ODDS: SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON. FACING MUTINY

READING: Alexander C. Shackleton: epic of survival. Natl Geogr Mag. November 1998:83-101.

VIDEO: Shackleton, Disc 2, Scene 6; breaking point.

SCENARIO: Facing Mutiny

Do

CRISIS RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

READING: Gaba DM, Fish KJ, Howard SK. Crisis Management in Anesthesiology. New York, NY:

Churchill Livingstone; 1994:37-44

VIDEO: Apollo 13, Scene 19; Houston, we have a problem... (MCA Universal Pictures, 1995).

LEADERSHIP AGAINST ALL ODDS: SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON. OPTIMISM IN THE FACE OF CRISIS.

READING: Alexander C. Shackleton: epic of survival. Natl Geogr Mag. November 1998:83-101.

VIDEO: Shackleton, Disc 2, Scene 8; On the edge.

SCENARIO: Facing a Crisis

TOXIC LEADERSHIP

READING: Reed GE. Toxic leadership. Mil Rev. 1999;84(4):67-71.

VIDEO: Band of Brothers, Episode 1, Currahee: Scene 2; Anything but easy, Scene 5; Trial by court

martial (HBO, 2001).

CEO SUCCESSION

READING: Charan R. Ending the CEO succession crisis. Harv Bus Rev. 2005;83(2):72-81.

VIDEO: Master and Commander, Scene 23; Hollom’s weakness (20th Century Fox, 2003).

SCENARIO: I want to be a general. What do I have to do?

SERVANT LEADERSHIP

READING: Greenleaf RK. Servant Leadership. In: Spears LC, ed. Insights on Leadership. New York, NY:

John Wiley and Sons; 1998.

VIDEO: Gandhi, Disc 1, Scene 10 (Columbia Pictures, 1982).

Appendix 1 (continued)
October – December 2007 25

Shackleton Scenarios

Life as an AMEDD Leader

1. Building the Team (A fictional story)

You have been named the new chief at Fort Hipp. You are stepping into the Army’s largest and

busiest MEDDAC. There are 10 other general pediatricians and 3 neonatologists. The clinic sees

100,000 visits a year, and the nursery makes 3,600 deliveries. The previous chief did not see “sameday” appointments nor pull in-house call like the other members of the staff. He was busy most of

the time with administrative duties, but had given several of the hospital committee meetings to

junior staff so they could “gain from the experience.” He had an open-door policy, but the door was

seldom open. When the door was open, visitors found the desk was between his chair and the door,

and he frequently was called or emailed during conversations with the staff. He invariably answered

the emails or phone calls saying, “This will just take a moment.” He also was one of very few staff

members who had not yet deployed.

How will you approach this leadership moment?

2. Facing Mutiny (A fictional story)

You are the Chief at the San Antonio Joint Medical Center, and have responsibility for the Air Force

pediatric clinics in San Antonio as well, especially since Wilford Hall closed several years ago. You

have recently launched CHCS-III, and your department clinics have not regained their productivity.

In addition to the myriad of deployments, you have lost several key general pediatricians and the

consultant could not replace them. The Air Force general has insisted that his people’s beneficiaries

not be denied access at the Air Force clinics, but you do not have the staff. So, you gingerly

approach a plan to have the Air Force clinics staffed by your pediatric subspecialists. They are not

happy. One, a senior curmudgeon pulmonologist, refuses to attend the clinics. He lets you know with

a blistering email message addressed “to all staff.”

3. Facing a Crisis (A fictional story)

You have been Chief at Fort Crandell for 2 years and decided to remain in the Army since your

promotion to major last summer. MEDCOM has pushed up the deployment of CHCS-III for your

site, although the number of trainers has been cut. You should have 6 pediatric staff, but you are

down to 4, with 2 of them deployed. One of the remaining staff is pregnant and on profile with

restricted work hours. The remaining three share the call, and have picked up the evening clinic that

was previously staffed by a civil service pediatrician who was married to a service member but had

left recently as her husband had been transferred. You have been informed that one of the three of

the remaining staff will have to deploy.

How do you decide, and how do you tell your staff?

Appendix 2
26 Army Medical Department Journal

INTRODUCTION

During effective mentoring, a senior leader takes a

junior officer under his or her wing and provides

guidance and advice to help the subordinate grow

professionally. A successful mentoring relationship is

beneficial for both participants. The protégé receives

assistance in career development and learns from the

wisdom of the mentor. Meanwhile, the mentor gets a

boost to his or her self-esteem and the satisfaction of

helping the next generation of Army leaders grow.

However, there is another stakeholder with a vested

interest in the success of this special relationship,

namely the Army Medical Department (AMEDD).

Significant benefits to the AMEDD include the

retention of qualified officers, continuity of leadership,

and regimental esprit de corps. Given these facts,

senior AMEDD leaders may wonder what they can do

to assist their officers in finding and establishing

mentoring relationships. The purpose of this article is

to provide advice for senior AMEDD leaders to help

foster a culture of successful mentoring.

AVOID MANDATORY MENTORING PROGRAMS

If mentoring is so essential for leader development,

then why not just assign each officer a mentor through

the establishment of a mandatory mentoring program?

The problem with such a program lies in the fact that

effective mentoring is a special relationship between

two unique individuals. Successful mentoring requires

enthusiasm, compatibility, and rapport between the

mentor and the protégé. Assigning mentor and protégé

pairs will not guarantee the type of affinity or

chemistry that is so essential for a lasting mentoring

relationship. Furthermore, a bad pairing with a mentor

may actually turn a protégé away from mentoring,

especially if the mandatory relationship is negative.

That is why I strongly oppose the establishment of

mandatory mentoring programs and prefer a

decentralized system where mentors and protégés

choose each other based upon mutual interest and

respect. Otherwise, the participants may simply go

through the motions just to “satisfy a requirement,” or

worse, become entirely disillusioned with mentoring.

INCORPORATE MENTORING INTO AMEDD

VISION STATEMENTS

Given that mentoring is vitally important to the

AMEDD, it should be clearly reflected within

AMEDD vision statements. Such a delineation would

be clear proof of the importance of mentoring and the

senior leadership’s commitment to it. Since

development of future leaders is a vital strategic goal,

it only makes sense to incorporate mentoring into

AMEDD vision statements which are, by their very

nature, strategic.

PROMOTE AND ENCOURAGE MENTORING

While AMEDD leaders should not mandate

mentoring, they should promote and encourage the

establishment of mentoring relationships. Senior

leaders can become passionate champions for

mentoring and openly speak of the importance of

mentorship. Another way to encourage mentoring is

for senior leaders to share their own personal stories of

mentoring and being mentored. This could be done by

the informal telling of “war stories,” or by writing

about their mentoring experiences in journals and

newsletters. Of course, the ultimate way to promote

mentoring is for senior leaders to be effective mentors

themselves and serve as role models that inspire others

to become mentors.

REWARD MENTORING

One of the major barriers to mentoring is the fact that

mentorship does not usually contribute to the urgent

tasks at hand. Developing tomorrow’s leaders is tough

when potential mentors are struggling to accomplish

today’s missions. Unfortunately, short term focus on

the immediate mission often eclipses the long term

goal of developing future AMEDD leaders. A way to

help rectify this situation is to provide an incentive to

mentors by publicly rewarding those who do it well.

Mentoring in the Army Medical Department:

Advice for Senior Leaders

COL Mark A. Melanson, MS, USA
October – December 2007 27

This could be something simple like selecting and

recognizing an outstanding mentor of the year.

However, the actual method of rewarding does not

matter. Rather, what is important is that the rewarding

is done publicly, so that everyone can see that

mentoring has value and those who do it successfully

are rewarded.

IDENTIFY TARGET TIMES FOR MENTORING

While guiding the careers of their junior officers,

senior AMEDD leaders should identify those critical

times when junior officers might especially need

mentoring. Initial officer training during the Officer

Basic Leadership Course is a clear example. Another

important period is during a junior officer’s initial duty

station tour, however, this may be difficult depending

upon the nature of the assignment (deployment, for

example). Senior officers at Regional Medical

Commands may wish to reach out to junior officers

that are assigned within their region. I have done this

with other Nuclear Medical Science Officers that are

assigned within the North Atlantic Regional Medical

Command. Another occasion for mentoring is an

officer’s promotion to major, the important transition

from company grade officer to field grade officer.

Finally, officers in long-term civilian training are

another group that may particularly need mentoring as

they pursue graduate studies and are “out of the

mainstream.”

TRAIN MENTORS

Since being a mentor is inherently a matter of personal

style, one cannot teach mentoring like one would teach

a simple skill such as map reading. However, I do

believe fundamental mentoring principles can be

taught. One way to teach mentoring is through the use

of role models who practice effective mentorship.

Incorporating instruction on mentoring during

meetings and conferences is also a good way to help

mentors learn and grow in this important role. For

example, during the annual Force Health Protection

Conference, the Health Physics and Radiological

Sciences Track typically includes a block of

instruction on mentoring. During some years the

training for this track was purely didactic, while during

other years it included small group exercises that

encouraged interactions between junior and senior

officers, and opened the door for future mentoring

opportunities. Finally, there are many commercially

available courses on mentoring. By recognizing and

exploiting these training opportunities, senior AMEDD

leaders can train aspiring mentors, thereby making

them more competent and ultimately more effective.

PROVIDE RESOURCES FOR MENTORING

Once mentors are trained and willing, they need

resources to practice their craft. The most important

resource is time; this can be accomplished by

establishing an active Officer Professional

Development program that sets aside time for the

purpose of developing and mentoring subordinates.1

Another important resource is the establishment of a

suggested mentoring reading list where interested

mentors can find more information on mentoring. As a

starting point, I have included a bibliography of books

and articles that I have found helpful in my personal

growth as a mentor. When possible, unit funds should

be made available to procure any needed reference

material or allow personnel to attend mentor training

courses.

SEEK FEEDBACK FROM JUNIOR OFFICERS

Since mentoring is really about the needs of the

protégé, it only makes sense to periodically check with

the junior officers to see if their mentoring goals and

objectives are being met. This can be achieved through

the use of surveys or by having meetings with junior

officers during professional society meetings or

military conferences. Based upon this vital feedback,

senior AMEDD leaders can gauge the progress of

mentoring efforts and make any necessary midcourse

corrections.

STAY OUT OF THE WAY

Once mentors have been properly trained and

resourced, senior AMEDD leaders should step back

out of the picture. With positive feedback from the

junior officers, the senior AMEDD leadership should

feel confident that their junior officers’ mentoring

goals are being realized. So, it is helpful to remember

the old adage, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” If

mentors are doing their jobs, senior AMEDD leaders

need to get out of the way!

COMMIT TO CONTINUOUS LEARNING

Having done considerable research into the subject of

mentoring, I have learned that it is an evolving field.

Given that, senior AMEDD leaders should strive to

stay abreast of developments in the area of mentorship.

The reading material in the included bibliography is a
28 Army Medical Department Journal

good place to start. Also, senior leaders can search the

internet to find further information and material on

mentoring. Much information exists on the subject,

within both public and private sectors.

SUMMARY

The purpose of this article is to provide suggestions

about mentoring for the senior AMEDD leadership

that I have gleaned through ongoing research and

personal experience, as both a mentor and a protégé.

Key points include resisting the temptation to initiate

mandatory mentoring that forces junior and senior

officers into mentoring pairs. Since mentoring is so

very important, it should be clearly articulated in

AMEDD vision statements. Senior AMEDD leaders

should promote and encourage mentoring whenever

they can by being strong champions for mentorship

and sharing their own mentoring stories. The

establishment of a reward system for mentoring may

inspire more senior officers to become effective

mentors and show that the AMEDD truly values

mentoring. Identifying critical times for mentoring in

the careers of junior officers will assist in the

development and retention of these future AMEDD

leaders. Mentors must be trained if they are to be

effective in mentoring and better prepared to develop

their own personal style of mentorship. Providing

resources to mentors, most notably time, is critical to

ensure that mentoring opportunities are made

available. Periodic feedback from those being

mentored is essential to be sure that the junior officers

are getting what they need. When effective mentoring

is taking place, senior leaders should stay out of the

way and let the process unfold. Finally, the senior

AMEDD leadership should be perpetual students of

the evolving field of mentoring in order to guarantee

that our junior officers are being properly groomed to

one day take the reins of AMEDD leadership.

REFERENCE

1. Melanson MA, Winstead AD. Officer professional

development: a case study in officer mentorship.

Army Med Dept J. 2003;January–March:7-10.

Hendricks HG, Hendricks WD. As Iron Sharpens Iron.

Chicago, IL: Moody Press; 1995.

Maxwell JC. Developing the Leaders Around You.

Nashville, TN: Nelson Business; 1995.

Peddy S. The Art of Mentoring. Houston, TX: Bullion

Books; 1998.

Pegg M. The Art of Mentoring. Gloucester, UK: Forge

House; 1999.

Shea GF. Making the Most of Being Mentored. Menlo Park,

CA: Crisp Learning; 1999.

Wicks RJ. Sharing Wisdom: The Practical Art of Giving and

Receiving Mentoring. New York, NY: Crossroads

Publishing; 2000.

Lacey K. Making Mentoring Happen. Warriewood, NSW,

Australia: Business and Professional Publishing; 2001.

Dalcort CJ. Mentoring: establishing a legacy, shaping the

future. Mil Rev. November-December 2002;82;No. 6:35-

39.

Murray M. Beyond the Myths and Magic of Mentoring. San

Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; 2001.

Kosper GJ, Mentoring in the military: not everybody gets it.

Mil Rev. November-December 2002;82;No. 6:40-44.

Portner H. Being Mentored: A Guide for Protégés.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press; 2002.

Kem JD. Mentoring: building a legacy. Mil Rev. May–June

2003;83;No. 3:62-64.

Melanson MA, Winstead AD. officer professional

development: a case study in officer mentorship. Army

Med Dept J. January–March 2003:7-10.

Stoddard DA. The Heart of Mentoring. Colorado Springs,

CO: Navpress; 2003.

Hunsinger N. Mentorship: growing company grade officers.

Mil Rev. September-October 2004;84;No. 5:78-85.

Johnson W, Band Ridley CR. The Elements of Mentoring.

New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillian; 2004.

Zachary LJ. Creating a Mentoring Culture. San Francisco,

CA: Jossey-Bass; 2005.

AUTHOR

COL Melanson is Chief of the Health Physics Office, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC.

SUGGESTED READING

Mentoring in the Army Medical Department: Advice for Senior Leaders
October – December 2007 29

Mentors and Protégés:

Simple Rules for Success

COL Mark A. Melanson, MS, USA

Mentoring is a partnering relationship where a senior, more experienced officer provides guidance and advice to

a junior officer in order to foster professional growth in the subordinate. Speaking from personal experience,

mentoring has been and remains the single most important factor in my development and growth as an officer

and a leader. The following are some “kernels of wisdom” for the mentoring relationship that I have discovered

during my nearly quarter century of experience as both mentor and protégé. I have distilled this experience into

two sets of 10 common sense, yet remarkably often overlooked rules—one set each for the mentor and the

protégé respectively.

Ten Simple Rules for Mentors

When initiating any discussion on mentoring, a natural question to ask is where to begin? Do you start with the

mentor or the one being mentored (protégé)? While the contributions of both participants are important,

mentoring successes or failures most often depend upon the skills of the mentor. If the mentor is not prepared to

do his or her job, then the entire mentoring process may be ineffective and, consequently, discourage the protégé

from any future mentoring opportunities. It is hoped that by considering these 10 simple rules, mentors, present

and future, will be better prepared to assume this very important role.

This article, updated by the author, is reprinted from the July–September 2006 issue of the AMEDD Journal. COL

Melanson is Chief of the Health Physics Office, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC.

MENTOR RULE #1

It’s Not About You!

Being chosen to be someone’s mentor is a powerful, potentially intoxicating

experience. Not surprising, it is easy to let it go to your head. However, if you simply

engage in mentoring to satisfy your own ego, you will ultimately fail. At best, your

protégé will recognize that you are just doing this for yourself and not for him or her.

At worst, you will model a self-centered behavior that your protégé may emulate and

then perpetuate when he or she becomes a mentor. While mentoring does offer

benefits to the mentor, such as self-validation and establishing a legacy, the primary

focus of mentoring is on the individual being mentored, the protégé. Since not all

attempts at a mentoring relationship will be successful and not all of your advice will

necessarily be followed, you should be humble while mentoring and check your ego

at the door. It is also essential that you do not use the mentoring relationship as a

vehicle to exploit the protégé for your own personal gain. For example, avoid giving

“busy work” that you do not want to do to a protégé under the guise of it “being good

for him or her”. Chances are your protégé will see right through this veiled attempt at

exploitation and understandably grow to resent it.
30 Army Medical Department Journal

MENTOR RULE #2

Always Maintain Confidences

Trust is critical in a healthy mentoring relationship. Hence, matters discussed

between a mentor and a protégé must remain confidential (as long as the issue does

not involve violations of Army regulations or the Uniform Code of Military

Justice). It is in this “safe” environment that a protégé can openly share mistakes or

any lack of self-confidence. It also allows the junior mentoring partner to take risks

without fearing negative consequences. Given that, the mentor should not share the

protégé’s mistakes and setbacks with others. Of course, maintaining confidences

goes both ways. This trusting environment allows the senior mentoring partner to

share lessons learned from personal mistakes and failures without the fear of these

“blunders” becoming common knowledge. Always remember, trust takes a long

time to become fully established, yet it can be destroyed in a matter of moments.

MENTOR RULE #3

Set and Enforce Boundaries

This rule deals with avoiding one of the darker aspects of a mentoring partnership—the

development of an inappropriate relationship. Throughout the course of mentoring a junior

officer, it is easy to develop a liking or affinity for your mentoring partner. But, it is

imperative that the mentor keep the relationship professional. As a mentor, you must always

insist on maintaining military courtesy with no exceptions. As a personal example, I called

my mentor of more than 20 years, “Sir” until the day he retired as a colonel. If you are a

supervisor to your protégé, you must never let your role as a mentor compromise your duties

and responsibilities as a rater. You must avoid letting any hint of cronyism or favoritism to

creep into your decision making. Of course, a romantic relationship with your protégé is

strictly forbidden and will probably adversely affect both of your careers. A final note: you

should never allow your mentoring relationship to circumvent the chain of command.

MENTOR RULE #4

Know Your Limitations

Once you have gained the trust and confidence of your protégé, you may find yourself

asked for guidance in areas about which you know very little, or, perhaps, nothing at

all. That is why it is so important that you acknowledge any such limitations when

providing advice. There may be the temptation to provide guidance, any guidance, just

so that you don’t lose face. Admitting a lack of knowledge on a subject may seem like

a weakness and threaten to undermine your standing with the protégé. But, in

actuality, acknowledging your own lack of expertise or experience will further

strengthen your mentoring relationship. Those being mentored do not expect their

mentors to know everything, but, rather to share their experiences and point them in

the right direction. So, if you are asked to provide advice on a subject about which

your knowledge is limited, you should guide the protégé in the proper direction and, if

possible, to the best person who can give them the necessary guidance.

Mentors and Protégés: Simple Rules for Success
October – December 2007 31

MENTOR RULE #5

Keep Your Promises

Mentoring takes time, your most valuable resource. Before entering into a mentoring

partnership, it is crucial that you determine whether or not you can make the time to

dedicate to such an endeavor (I strongly believe that if you truly think that mentoring is

important, you will make the time for it!). If you cannot dedicate the time, then I suggest

that you do not even attempt it. Once you have decided to commit to a mentoring

relationship, you must follow through with your promises. For example, if you agree to

weekly meetings with your protégé, you must keep these appointments. If you promise to

review a junior officer’s OER Support Form, then do it and provide your feedback in a

timely manner. A pattern of broken appointments and unfilled promises will send a clear

message to your mentoring partner that you are not really devoted to his or her

development. So, do what you say you are going to do, when you say you are going to do it.

MENTOR RULE #6

Listen and Ask Questions

A common misconception about mentoring is that the protégé simply brings

problems to the mentor and the mentor tells the protégé what to do. Although this

may be tempting for both mentoring partners, it should be done sparingly. First, do

not assume that you automatically know what your mentoring partner needs from

you. You need to truly listen to the questions that the protégé is asking. Practice

effective listening to be sure you are giving the actual help or advice that is required.

Interestingly enough, a highly effective way to impart wisdom is by asking

questions that lead the protégé to discover the right answer for him or herself. I

know firsthand that this can be very frustrating to the protégé who usually simply

wants a quick answer. However, in the long run, it teaches the one being mentored

how to think through problems and independently develop sound solutions.

MENTOR RULE #7

Reach Out to Junior Officers

It is essential that, as a senior officer and potential mentor, one must remain

approachable. In the Army, rank can be very intimidating. Remember how you were

intimidated by senior officers when you first joined the Army. Given that fact, we as

senior leaders need to break the ice. A practice that I learned from another of my

mentors is to initiate conversations with junior officers whom I do not know. I

introduce myself and ask where they are from and try to learn a little about them.

This simple gesture pays big dividends in the long run. It greatly increases the

probability that these officers will seek me out for guidance in the future.
32 Army Medical Department Journal

Mentors and Protégés: Simple Rules for Success

MENTOR RULE #8

Don’t Sugarcoat Feedback

Honest feedback is very important in an effective mentoring partnership. However, there may be a

temptation to soften constructive feedback so as not to offend the protégé or ruin the mentoring

relationship. Typically, when handled correctly, such corrective feedback is usually some of the most

important mentoring that you can give a young officer. Now, I am not condoning, degrading, or

belittling the individual. Negative feedback needs to be specific, given judiciously and unemotionally.

Of course, it helps if such feedback is “sandwiched” between positive comments. As with all

counseling, it should be done immediately and in private to have the greatest impact. The feedback

should also provide recommendations on how to address shortcomings or areas that need improvement.

It is important to always separate the individual from the undesirable behavior. Finally, once the matter

is discussed, it should not be brought up again unless the behavior or mistake is repeated.

MENTOR RULE #9

Be Yourself

Since mentoring is a relationship between two unique individuals, there is no single guaranteed

recipe for mentoring. The relationship will naturally reflect the distinct personalities of the pair

of individuals involved. So, it is important that, as a mentor, you are authentic. Your deeds

should match your words or “your walk should match your talk.” If you are an introvert by

nature, trying to come across as an extrovert will seem phony. One thing that may help you in

developing your own style is to do some self-reflection. This can help you identify the key

elements of your leadership style and how you can use these traits to become a more effective

mentor. The good thing about mentoring is the more that you do it, the better you will become.

So take pride in being a mentor and do it your own way, with both passion and conviction.

MENTOR RULE #10

Commit to Continuous Learning

Whatever your military specialty, you should be dedicated to maintaining your technical competency and

staying abreast of advancements in your field. This is also true for the leadership and mentoring skills

required to be an effective officer. A way to do this is to set aside some quiet time for reading professional

journals, those relating to your military specialty and those related to officership. While you are probably

aware of professional references for your technical discipline, you may not be aware of journals for leader

development. Army journals that may be of help are Military Review, published by the US Army

Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, KS, and Parameters, from the US Army War College at

Carlisle Barracks, PA. Both institutions support websites from where their articles may be downloaded:

Military Review – http://usacac.leavenworth.army.mil/CAC/milreview/index.asp

Parameters – http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/

This publication, the AMEDD Journal, is another venue for staying current in developments with the

Army Medical Department. Finally, if you are serious about growing as a mentor, you should avidly read

all that you can on the subject of mentoring. For a list of suggested reading material, I have included a

bibliography of books and articles (page 28) that I have found helpful in my personal growth as a mentor.
October – December 2007 33

SUMMARY

The key points of the above rules include remembering that mentoring is about the protégé, not the mentor.

Confidences must always be maintained to ensure trust. The mentor needs to set and enforce boundaries in the

relationship to ensure professionalism. A mentor must know his or her limitations when giving guidance or

advice. Promises made by the mentor need to be kept if the relationship is to last. During the mentoring, the

senior officer must use effective listening and should refrain from simply telling the protégé what to do in order

to develop problem-solving skills in the protégé. Potential mentors must be approachable if junior officers are to

feel comfortable in seeking them out as mentors. Feedback needs to be specific and, when necessary, include

constructive criticism. Mentors must understand themselves and develop a mentoring style that is authentic and

consistent with who they really are. Finally, mentors need to dedicate themselves to continuous learning,

technically, tactically, and as mentors.

It is my sincere hope that, by considering these key points, mentors will be better prepared to focus on the

individualized needs of their respective protégés, the real goal of any successful mentoring relationship.

Ten Simple Rules for Protégés

While the skills of the mentor are critical to mentoring, the protégé also shares responsibility for ensuring that

the relationship is successful. Unfortunately, some new protégés may not be aware of their responsibilities as a

mentoring partner. Hence, the following 10 rules for protégés are presented to help them realize the greatest

benefit from their mentoring relationships.

PROTÉGÉ RULE #1

Cherish your Mentor’s Time

It is important that as a protégé you truly value your mentor’s time. Your mentor is setting

aside time exclusively for your development and growth. Consequently, you owe it to your

mentoring partner to always be on time and fully prepared for meetings with him or her. If he

or she assigns you “homework” to do, such as reading assignments, then you must be sure to

complete your tasks before they are due. To not do so may be viewed by your mentor as a

cavalier attitude and will likely hurt the relationship. Your mentor may reasonably conclude

that, if you do not take your professional development seriously, why should he or she?

PROTÉGÉ RULE #2

Always Maintain Confidences

One of the cornerstones of a successful mentoring relationship is trust. It is within a safe

relationship that the protégé is able to freely ask questions, express concerns, and take risks

without the fear of negative consequences. One of the most effective ways for mentors to impart

wisdom is by sharing personal challenges and setbacks and what lessons the mentor has learned

from them. Since it is unlikely that anyone would want their mistakes widely advertised to

others, the same is probably true for those who mentor. Therefore, when your mentor tells you

things in confidence, you must honor that special trust and not share the information outside of

the mentoring relationship. Simply put, genuine trust only develops over time and can be

destroyed in an instant. Consequently, it is imperative that you always maintain confidences.
34 Army Medical Department Journal

Mentors and Protégés: Simple Rules for Success

PROTÉGÉ RULE #3

Learn from Your Mistakes

Good mentors do not expect perfection in those they mentor and fully expect their

protégés to make mistakes. Interestingly enough, it is usually from our mistakes and

failures that we learn our greatest lessons. So, be willing to take risks and try new

things; it is essential for your growth as an officer and a leader. Also, accept that you

will, from time to time, make mistakes. If and when you do fall short, reflect upon

those setbacks and glean whatever lesson that lies at the heart of your failure. Now,

while a mentor should be tolerant of mistakes, an effective mentor will not tolerate a

protégé repeating the same mistake. Such behavior does not show personal growth

and maturity. Be sure to learn from your mistakes and not repeat them.

PROTÉGÉ RULE #4

Be Receptive to Feedback

One of the most effective tools in successful mentoring is the use of feedback. Often

feedback is positive and encouraging. It can be just what a protégé needs during trying

or difficult times. But, sometimes the feedback is more critical. The key to being a

good protégé is to accept the bad with the good. If you expect your mentor to only

shower you with praise, you will be missing the full breath and depth of mentoring.

So, keep your ego in check and listen objectively to any constructive feedback from

your mentor. While it might not seem so at the time, such wisdom and insight can

often be some of the most important mentoring that you will receive.

PROTÉGÉ RULE #5

Keep Your Promises

Mentoring requires your most valuable resource, namely your time. Before entering into a

mentoring partnership, be sure that you can dedicate time to such an endeavor. If you

cannot set aside the time, then I suggest that you do not enter into a mentoring

partnership. That being said, if you do commit to a mentoring relationship, you must

follow through with your promises. For example, if you agree to weekly meetings with

your mentor, you must keep these appointments. If you promise to provide your OER

Support Form to your mentor, then do it promptly. Broken appointments and unfilled

promises will clearly demonstrate that you are not serious about being mentored. To avoid

this common pitfall, keep your promises to your mentor. By doing this, you will also be

keeping an important promise to yourself, namely to make the most of being mentored.
October – December 2007 35

PROTÉGÉ RULE #6

Genuinely Consider Advice Given

One of the most valuable benefits of mentoring is the opportunity to freely ask for advice.

Guidance can range from the technical aspects of getting the job done, to suggestions about

choosing an assignment, or whether or not to continue pursuing a military career. As a courtesy

to your mentor, you should thoughtfully consider any advice that is given. Now, this does not

mean that you simply do whatever the mentor suggests. Rather, it is best to listen to the

suggestions given and then carefully decide whether or not to follow the advice. A self-confident

mentor does not expect the protégé to follow every bit of advice. However, if you are constantly

seeking advice from your mentor, but never follow his or her guidance, then chances are that

your mentor will stop giving you any advice. (This happened to me with one junior officer I was

mentoring. This recurring behavior ultimately ended the mentoring relationship.) So, genuinely

consider any guidance that is given and, if you choose not to follow it, explain to your mentor

why you elected not to follow the advice. This kind of open dialogue will help to ensure that

your mentor does not feel that he or she is wasting his or her time.

PROTÉGÉ RULE #7

Clarify Your Expectations

Since the focus of the mentoring is on the needs of the protégé, it is important that you clarify

your expectations to your mentor. For example, if you are only looking for someone to be a

role model or a sounding board, you should make that clear. If you are looking for a more indepth relationship, you should also spell this out. What you require from the mentoring

relationship will determine the degree of your mentor’s involvement. Therefore, open and

honest communication is critical to ensure that your actual needs are being met. Clarifying

your expectations will make it easier for you to gauge your progress and determine whether or

not your mentoring goals are being fulfilled.

PROTÉGÉ RULE #8

Respect the Chain of Command

It is important to remember that mentoring is not a way to bypass or interfere with the chain of

command. For example, you should never use your mentor to “go over your boss’s head” in

order to reverse a decision with which you disagree. Also, refrain from asking your mentor to

intervene in matters between you and your rater. Now, that is not to say that you cannot ask

your mentor for advice on how to talk with your rater or resolve any disagreements. However,

your mentor should not be inserting him or herself between you and your rater. Any such

interference would be highly inappropriate. So, always remember to respect your chain of

command and do not use your mentoring relationship as a short cut around it.
36 Army Medical Department Journal

Mentors and Protégés: Simple Rules for Success

PROTÉGÉ RULE #9

Bring More Than Just Your Problems

Over the years, I have had protégés come to me with problems and they wanted me to simply tell

them what to do (Much to their chagrin, rarely did I just give them the answer!). Since the

ultimate goal of mentoring is the development of a self-reliant officer that can independently

make timely and effective decisions, it is important for protégés to develop their own skills in

problem-solving. To help achieve this goal, it is desirable that, along with the given problem that

needs solving, you come armed with potential solutions. While this may seem like more work for

you and your proposed courses of action may ultimately prove to be inappropriate, this sort of

exercise will help you in the long run by improving your ability to solve your own problems.

PROTÉGÉ RULE #10

Commit to Continuous Learning

Whatever your military specialty, you should be dedicated to maintaining your technical

competency and staying abreast of advancements in your field. This is also true for the leadership

and mentoring skills required to be an effective officer. A way to do this is to set aside some

quiet time for reading professional journals, those relating to your military specialty and those

related to officership. While you are probably aware of professional references for your technical

discipline, you may not be aware of journals for leader development. Army journals that may be

of help are Military Review, published by the US Army Combined Arms Center at Fort

Leavenworth, KS, and Parameters, from the US Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, PA.

Both institutions support websites from where their articles may be downloaded:

Military Review – http://usacac.leavenworth.army.mil/CAC/milreview/index.asp

Parameters – http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/

This publication, the AMEDD Journal, is another venue for staying current in developments with

the Army Medical Department. Finally, if you are serious about growing as a protégé, you should

avidly read all that you can on the subject of mentoring. For a list of suggested reading material, I

have included a bibliography of books and articles (page 28) that I have found helpful in my

personal growth as a protégé.

SUMMARY

The key points of the protégé’s rules include remembering that the protégé must cherish the mentor’s time and

make the most of it. Mutual trust is dependent upon maintaining confidences. A protégé must learn from his or

her mistakes if he or she is to grow as an Army leader. Being receptive to feedback, both positive and negative,

is essential to maximize the mentoring experience. Promises made by the protégé must be kept if the relationship

is to last. While not all advice must be followed, the protégé should genuinely consider the guidance that is

received and, if the advice is rejected, explain to the mentor why it was not followed. Clarifying expectations

will ensure that the type of help wanted is provided and that the mentoring goals are achieved. Protégés must

never use their mentors to bypass the chain of command or ask the mentor to intervene in issues between the

protégé and his or her rating chain. When bringing problems to their mentors, protégés should also have possible

solutions in mind to foster the development of their own problem-solving skills. Finally, those being mentored

must dedicate themselves to continuous learning, technically, tactically, and as protégés.

I offer these key points in the hope that they will assist junior officers to better prepare for their roles as

successful mentoring partners in order to reap all of the lasting rewards of being mentored.
October – December 2007 37

Evolving Roles of Highly Successful Mentors

COL Mark A. Melanson, MS, USA

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this article is to share what I view as

the evolving roles of a highly successful mentor. This

short, but important list of interrelated roles is derived

from several years of research on the subject of

mentoring, observations of superb mentors in my own

career, and an assessment of my own strengths and

weaknesses as a mentor. It is important to note that the

order of these roles is not arbitrary, each role builds

upon the previous ones. Ideally, a perfect mentor

moves seamlessly from one role to another and back

again, adopting the most suitable role that is needed at

the time. However, while there are no perfect mentors,

there are poor mentors, fair mentors, good mentors,

and great mentors. This paper is all about how to

become a great mentor. Hopefully, by identifying the

roles of a highly successful mentor, individuals who

mentor or aspire to be mentors can benefit from this

critical analysis and prepare to successfully fulfill

these essential roles.

COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL

First and foremost, a mentor must be a thoroughly

competent professional in his or her field. Simply put,

mentors must know their stuff and know it “cold.”

Most often, it is this technical mastery that first attracts

potential protégés. So, mentors must be subject matter

experts in their chosen area of practice. What it means

to be an expert may mean different things in different

fields. For example, expertise may be achieved by

obtaining advanced degrees, pursuing board

certification, becoming an active member of a

professional society, publishing in professional

journals, or perhaps by achieving all of these things.

So, whatever the relevant benchmarks of expertise

may be, a mentor must achieve them to fulfill this

fundamental role in mentoring.

RESPECTED LEADER

Unfortunately, simply being a true subject matter

expert is not enough to secure one’s place as a great

mentor. While expertise is absolutely necessary, it is

not sufficient. Your mastery of technical excellence

must be accompanied by a well-earned and lasting

respect from those within your career field.

Interestingly enough, the role of respected leader is

one of the two roles that you cannot claim for yourself;

it is bestowed upon you by others. Once earned, this

coveted respect is widespread, shared by your

superiors, peers, and subordinates alike. It goes well

beyond the homage due to your rank, title, or position.

In order to earn this sincerest form of respect, you

must be viewed as trustworthy and deeply committed

to the development of those junior to you. So

beware—if you put yourself and your career ahead of

others, they will see this and will probably deny you

the mantle of respected leader. Likewise, if you are not

authentic, it will be become readily apparent to those

who might be considering you as a potential mentor.

HUMBLE SAGE

Paradoxically, the great mentor is a true master of his

or her craft, is well renowned as a respected leader,

and yet consistently maintains a healthy degree of

humility. By being humble, mentors continue to be

open to learning from all their mentoring relationships,

whether as protégés or as mentors. Because of this

humility, the mentor recognizes any personal

weaknesses along with his or her own strengths. A

humble mentor does not think that he or she has all of

the answers, but rather, asks the right questions that

will steer the protégé in the appropriate direction and

foster personal growth. Proper humility makes a

mentor more approachable to prospective protégés and

also shields the mentor against the potentially stinging

disappointments that may occur during mentoring

(such as useful advice being ignored or protégés who

think that they no longer need advice and abruptly end

the mentoring relationship). Hence, to be most

effective, a mentor needs to assume the role of a

humble sage.

PASSIONATE TEACHER

Highly successful mentors are passionate teachers. In

this role, they can readily spot a protégé’s untapped,

but hidden potential and pass on just the right lesson at

just the right moment. They truly delight in watching
38 Army Medical Department Journal

their protégés learn and grow. Inherent in this

grooming is a quiet, calm patience that readily accepts

the fact that protégés are not perfect and will make

mistakes. But, the mentor’s contagious enthusiasm

about the learning partnership helps to lift those they

mentor to new heights and achievements that were

either previously unimagined or simply viewed as

unattainable. Most important, these highly skilled

teachers recognize the critical lessons that lie at the

heart of each challenge facing their protégé and find

the most effective way to illuminate the subtle, often

camouflaged message.

REFLECTIVE TRAVELER

One of the most powerful skills of outstanding mentors

is the ability to critically look back upon their careers

and see the relevant wisdom that can be gleaned from

their journey. Learning from one’s own experiences,

as well as those of others, is the hallmark of adult

learning. By coupling technical principles with realworld examples, the mentor can offer precious pearls

of wisdom to the eager protégé. Fortunately, the

careful blending of theory with appropriate case

studies makes the mentor’s tutelage more appealing.

Given this, skilled mentors periodically don the role of

reflective traveler and take time out for introspection

and ponder the meaning of their own personal voyage.

By routinely doing this, they are better able to guide

those who are following behind them.

AVID STORYTELLER

War stories have probably been around forever and

remain by far one of the most effective ways to convey

wisdom. By being avid storytellers, highly successful

mentors can weave important teaching points into

engaging yarns that sustain the interest of the listener

and are remembered throughout a protégé’s career. For

me, some of the most poignant and memorable lessons

in my career are directly tied to wonderful, vivid

stories that I enjoy telling again and again. (The

constant challenge remains remembering to whom I

have told the stories and to whom I have not!) While

many of these tales evoke a strong sense of pride,

others reveal some of my worst blunders, and many

are quite humorous. Some of the great things about

storytelling are its informality, it is engaging, and it is

fun. Often those being mentored in this manner do not

even realize that it is actually a form of sharing

wisdom. Therefore, be a teller of tales, stories rich in

fertile lessons.

KEEN LISTENER

In addition to telling stories, a top-notch mentor is also

a keen listener. He or she is able to practice effective

listening, focusing on what the protégé is saying, as

well as not saying. Rather than immediately jumping

to conclusions about what has just been said, the

effective listener ensures that he or she is truly

understanding the speaker. A useful tool in effective

listening is to paraphrase what has been said and to ask

reaffirming questions to ensure understanding. Even

though it is very difficult, practicing effective listening

is an indispensable skill of a highly successful mentor

and this critical role should never be underestimated.

OPTIMISTIC CHEERLEADER

In my opinion, a world-class mentor is always an

optimist who can see the silver lining in any situation.

I know for me, personally, this is the hardest role to

consistently play and play well. Being upbeat and

positive is essential when dealing with a protégé that is

experiencing a setback, a time when the mentor is

usually needed most. Now, this does not mean being a

“Pollyanna.” There needs to be an acknowledgement

of the hurt and disappointment associated with such

defeats, but the mentor needs to help put things in

proper perspective and perhaps share a perennial truth:

sometimes when one door closes, another door opens.

Recounting relevant personnel failures, and sharing

how the mentor survived and grew or learned from

them, is also particularly helpful. So, while in this role,

have empathy, but also offer encouragement and hope

to your protégé.

TRUSTED COUNSELOR

The role of trusted counselor is the pinnacle of the

mentoring relationship and one that can take a long

time to achieve. It is built upon successfully fulfilling

the previous roles and by getting to know the protégé

over the years. Not surprising, this is the second

mentoring role that must be earned; it is conferred

upon you by your protégé. A proven track record of

providing sound guidance, keeping confidences, and

being there for your protégé when it matters most is

what earns you this revered distinction. Given the

tremendous influence that you now have over your

Evolving Roles of Highly Successful Mentors
October – December 2007 39

protégé, you must always know your limitations when

giving advice and restrict your guidance to appropriate

areas (for example, do not delve into taboo subjects

such as religion or politics). While this ultimate

mentoring role is a powerful one, it is extremely

fragile and can be lost in an instant; either by a

violation of trust or some other form of destructive

behavior. So, be proud (inside) and enjoy the view

from the summit of mentorship, but do not lose your

balance (humility) or you will most certainly fall!

CONSUMMATE STUDENT

One of the ways that mentors remain renewed and

vital is by being consummate students, of both their

profession and mentoring. By setting aside time to

remain technically competent and tactically proficient,

one can continue to retain and further hone their

perishable expertise. Likewise, staying updated on the

evolving art of mentoring ensures that the mentor

remains useful and is able to successfully pass on vital

insights that have been discovered throughout one’s

career. Although this may seem difficult, especially

when faced with the many overwhelming and

competing priorities of the day, it is imperative to

ensure that one is not becoming stale and out of touch.

Finally, in order to at last come full circle, highly

successful mentors must remain consummate students.

SUMMARY

This article was written to help groom mentors, old

and new, by identifying the evolving roles that highly

successful mentors play in order to share wisdom with

their protégés. First, aspiring mentors need to become

subject matter experts in their profession by achieving

the relevant benchmarks of mastery in their career

fields. Next, they must win the coveted role of

respected leader by being trustworthy and putting the

development of others first. The mastery of knowledge

and earning of respect must also be balanced by

genuine humility if the mentor is to be effective in

sharing what he or she knows. Highly successful

mentors are teachers, plain and simple, and they are

most effective in this role when they have a deep

passion for teaching. By properly using reflection,

adroit mentors look back upon their many adventures

and carefully select critical stories to share with their

protégés. While outstanding mentors have a lot to say,

they need to spend most of their time listening to those

they mentor to ensure that they understand their

protégés’ individualized needs and goals. To help

protégés through the setbacks and disappointments that

can accompany an Army career, high-speed mentors

need to don the role of optimistic cheerleaders,

encouraging those they mentor and restoring hope.

Once a striving mentor has finally reached the summit

of mentoring and is a trusted counselor, he or she must

continue to nurture and protect this fragile, but most

influential role. Lastly, great mentors need to be

consummate students of both their profession and

mentoring so that they remain vital and responsive to

those they mentor. In closing, it is hoped that by

considering and embracing these evolving roles,

dedicated students of mentoring will derive a deeper

satisfaction and have greater success in this critically

important leadership responsibility.

AUTHOR

COL Melanson is Chief of the Health Physics Office,

Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC.
40 Army Medical Department Journal

Army Medical Department (AMEDD) leadership—

complementary words or oxymoron? There should be

no doubt that outstanding leadership is present

throughout the AMEDD. There also should be no

doubt that the AMEDD’s cumulative leadership skills

need improvement. Today’s complex and increasingly

chaotic environment simply mandates that the

AMEDD must develop more leaders at all ranks and

specialties who are capable of leading organizations

much more diverse in terms of capability and location

than ever before. As the AMEDD transforms to meet

the Army’s new missions and organizations, the ability

to inspire, direct, manage, and lead becomes

exponentially more important.

Keep in mind that we need more leaders willing to

develop the next generation of AMEDD leadership.

We can not stop until all AMEDD officers and

noncommissioned officers have maximized their

individual leadership potential. One of my favorite

quotes about success applies equally well to

leadership. Abraham Lincoln, one of this country’s

greatest leaders, said, “Success is not measured by

how high up the ladder you climb, but in how many

people you help up the ladder.”1

Our responsibility to develop our own leadership skills

is not enough. We must all work diligently to ensure

we also develop the next generation of AMEDD

leaders. We must give them hope for a better future by

helping them develop the leadership skills that will

help them create that future. The French Jesuit priest

and philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, said it

best when he wrote: “The future belongs to those who

give the generation reason for hope.”2

Organizations with the best leaders have the most hope

for a better future.

THE COURAGE TO LEAD; DEVELOPING FUTURE

AMEDD LEADERS

Leadership is an extremely personal issue. It has

everything to do with your innermost desire and

aspirations, and little to do with capability. Although

there is a mental component to leadership, it is much

more an affair of the heart than an intellectual exercise.

As such, everyone can become a better leader.

Leadership is not just the responsibility of the

command team. Leadership is everyone’s

responsibility. Considering that 99% of the most

effective leadership happens in areas other than the

command suite, it becomes increasingly more

important to introduce all officers to the concept of

leadership and its importance to organizational

success. Look around your organization and you will

see great examples of “informal” or “quiet” leaders

impacting your organization in just about every area.

They are not hard to recognize if you open your eyes

to all the great things that your organization is

currently doing. Those great things are happening

because of people with little to no formal authority

using highly effective leadership skills to get the job

done. A closer look at this concept called leadership

reveals several axioms that require further discussion.

LEADERSHIP AXIOMS

I believe several axioms, statements universally

accepted as true, exist when the concept of leadership

is discussed. These axioms help frame a discussion of

what leadership is and how it can be taught:

Leadership Is A Choice

Leadership has nothing to do with position, education,

age, gender, race, religion, or any other physical

characteristic of a person. It has everything to do with

desire, courage, and a willingness to study and work

hard to become a better leader. If you choose to

become a better leader, you can always improve your

leadership skills.

That does not mean that becoming a better leader is

easy for everyone. Some people face far greater

challenges to becoming a better leader than do others.

While some have to work very hard to overcome these

challenges to become a better leader, the point is that if

someone chooses to enhance their leadership skills,

they can do so through hard work and study.

The Courage to Lead:

Steps to Becoming a Better Leader

Jody R. Rogers, PhD
October – December 2007 41

You Can Always Improve Your Leadership Skills

This is often the toughest axiom for senior, more

experienced officers to accept. Leadership skills are

very transient. Success as a leader in the past does not

guarantee success in the future. This axiom is even

harder to comprehend when one considers that

leadership content has not really changed that much

over the years. If you were to study the myriad of

leadership books found in your local bookstore or

online, you will see common theories discussed in

almost every book. What changes, however, is the

context in which leadership is practiced. The

leadership skills that served me so well when I was a

lieutenant or young captain over 20 years ago would

not be as effective today. In fact, those same skills may

be more harmful than good.

What has changed is the context in which leadership is

practiced. While leadership content has remained

relatively consistent, the context in which leadership is

practiced has changed dramatically in just the past few

years. Globalization, organizational downsizing,

longer and more frequent deployments, decreasing

resources, higher levels of interconnectivity, and a

changing workforce are just some of the contextual

changes our leaders must face today.3 Different

organizations, missions, positions, and people mean

that a leader’s skills must continually evolve to remain

effective. When you hear someone say they already

know everything they need to know about leadership,

realize they are rapidly becoming obsolete or worse as

a leader. The very best leaders are always developing

their leadership skills for the next great challenges.

Your Leadership Challenges Will Increase

A close corollary to the second axiom, leadership

challenges are much greater today than at any other

time in the AMEDD. A much higher tempo of

operations, force reductions, mission creep, a more

educated and younger workforce, increasing numbers

of civil servants and contractors in organizations,

reduced budgets, etc, simply means that you must get

more from your people than ever before. This means

one’s leadership skills will continue to be tested.

Failure to develop and refine your leadership skills

simply means your effectiveness as a leader today and

the future will be severely compromised.

This axiom is also very applicable to our younger

officers and new leaders throughout the AMEDD. For

example, we are asking more of our younger officers

at a much earlier time in their careers. Our younger

officers are serving in leadership positions that just a

few short years ago were being filled by much more

senior officers. Failure to equip these officers with the

appropriate level of leadership skills will only serve to

frustrate them as they struggle with an increasingly

demanding environment. We simply can not afford to

wait until our officers become more senior in grade to

start developing their leadership skills.

Developing Leadership Skills Takes Time

A close corollary to the third axiom, developing

leadership skills takes time. The very best leaders have

worked hard to become the leaders they are today. It

did not happen overnight. As I looked back over my

career as a leader, I often thought that if I only knew

then what I know now, I would have been a much

better, more effective leader, especially late in my

career. I wish I had started on my leadership journey

much earlier. We simply must, as an institution,

continually stress the importance of leadership to all of

our officers. They must then be put in positions to

develop their leadership skills under the skillful

mentorship of our more experienced leaders at a much

earlier stage in their careers. Remember, there is no

quick fix or silver bullet to becoming a better leader. It

is the consistent application of specific leadership

behaviors that will help ensure leadership success.

Leadership is Everyone’s Business

All military personnel, but especially officers and

noncommissioned officers, must be prepared to lead.

We know not the time or place, but rest assured, there

will be a time when you are summoned to be a leader.

Failure to prepare is unacceptable. Our colleagues and

nation expect this of us.

LEADERSHIP DEFINED

There are as many definitions of leadership as there

are leadership books. The one I prefer:

The ability to inspire people to turn

challenging opportunities into remarkable

successes using ethical means.3

A closer examination of the key words/phrases in this

definition is in order.

A simple algorithm helps explain this concept of

leadership.

Leadership = ƒ(preparation + opportunity)
42 Army Medical Department Journal

Leadership is a function of preparation and

opportunity. Both must be present for leadership to

occur. The good news is we are surrounded by plenty

of opportunities to demonstrate effective leadership. If

organizations are not as effective as they should or

need to be, the problem can almost always be traced to

a lack of leadership. We simply may not be properly

preparing officers of all ranks across the AMEDD

Corps to provide the leadership so necessary to meet

organizational requirements.

When studying leadership, people often ask, are

leaders born or are they made? The best answer is a

resounding yes. Some people are born with natural

leadership skills so you could say that leaders are

made. If you doubt this, go to a nursery or preschool

and watch a group of toddlers. You will quickly see

more leadership ability in some and less in others. I

also strongly believe that leaders can be made. The

axiom Leadership is a Choice addresses this question.

Perhaps the best answer comes from Leonard Sweet:

Leaders are neither born nor are they made. They are

summoned by opportunity and those who accept the

challenge are called leaders.6

We simply must do a better job of preparing our

officers to accept the challenge of leadership.

Dr Patrick Quinlan, CEO of Ochsner Health System,

reinforced this need to be ready during a recent

presentation in San Antonio, Texas.7 He told his

audience,

There are moments in everyone’s life that will

define who they are. The problem is you don’t know

when those moments will happen.

These moments almost always require some

degree of leadership. Failure to prepare could

easily result in these defining moments passing

you by. Preparation is simply the key to

leadership success. There is no better time than

now to develop or enhance your leadership skills

for the challenges you are about to face.

How can we better prepare our officers, early

careerists and experienced officers alike, to

become better leaders? The first and probably

most important step—also the one not frequently

taken in leader development—is to ensure that all

officers have taken the time and made the effort

for some self-examination of their current

leadership strengths and weaknesses. Several US

business leaders were recently asked about the most

important capability that a leader should develop.

Their nearly unanimous answer was self-awareness.8

Leaders must know what motivates them to greatness

before they undertake an important leadership role.

Even if you realize that you need to change your

leadership style to be effective, you must first

determine where you are from a leadership standpoint.

We all have what I call “leadership DNA.” Whether

we ever discover or utilize our leadership DNA is

another issue, but we all have it. We just need to

develop it. In this case, DNA stands for Desire, Need,

and Ability. Do you have the desire to lead? Can you

identify a need within your organization for better

leadership? Have you developed your ability to lead?

All are necessary for leadership effectiveness. Rest

assured we all have leadership DNA. The very best

leaders develop this DNA to ensure they can meet the

challenges before them.

In many ways, our leadership DNA is hidden deep

within us. The only way to discover and develop this

DNA is to undergo sufficient self reflection or

introspection. Without this step, we can never become

the very best leaders we need to be. Dr Kevin Purcell 9

identified 3 levels of leadership, depicted in the Figure.

We tend to spend a lot of time studying the first two,

while ignoring the most important level.

The Courage to Lead: Steps to Becoming a Better Leader

LEVELS OF LEADERSHIP

Organization Level — Plot a Course

“Know your organization and its market” (leadership theories)

Group Level — Build a Team

“Know your group” (team, department, etc)

Dr Purcell’s 3 levels of leadership.10

Organization

Individual

Group

Coeur
October – December 2007 43

The organizational level is important because of its

importance in environmental scanning, creating and

sustaining a vision, and understanding how your

organization works together. We frequently learn these

skills by studying the various leadership theories that

help us understand what motivates our subordinates.

While the study of leadership theories such as traits

theory, leadership traits and behaviors theory; or

leadership traits, behaviors, and situations theory is

important and necessary to understanding how

leadership works, it is hardly sufficient in the

development of leadership skills.10 Too frequently,

many academic organizations focus at this level at the

expense of the other, in my opinion, more important

levels.

The group or build-a-team level is very important

because, as COL (Ret) George Masi (Senior Vice

President and Chief Operating Officer, Harris County

Hospital District) once told me, “The vast majority of

the important decisions made in healthcare are made as

a team.” As a result, team leadership becomes

extremely important within the rubric we call a

healthcare team, whether it is a military treatment

facility or a combat support hospital. We are beginning

to spend more time training officers how to work in

teams, but we need to do more. Our officers must

know how groups function, what motivates people

working within groups, the importance of selecting the

best team members, and how to make the necessary

midcourse directions, should the team get off course.

Most important, however, is the individual level. It is

here where “the rubber meets the road” when it comes

to leader development. It is truly the heart or coeur of

leadership. Without knowing what makes a leader tick,

ie, what touches their heart, they will never be able to

fulfill their full leadership potential. Personality

evaluations like the Myers-Briggs test11 can help with

this, but are clearly not enough. Discovering the

leader’s heart requires a lot of soul searching. This

type of activity often makes people very

uncomfortable. It is this softer side of leadership that

many people avoid “like the plague” because it makes

people too vulnerable.

Answers to the following questions can help an officer

discover his or her leadership heart. These questions

are designed to get officers thinking about themselves

and what motivates them to do the things they do well.

They are especially good within small group

discussions, such as an officer professional

development meeting or a one-on-one mentoring

session.

Once we have discovered our own courage, or coeur,

to lead, we can all become much better leaders. But the

road to better leadership has to start with the courage

to know ourselves. For those who have not done the

requisite introspection to becoming a great leader, this

is not an easy task. It takes a lot of time, thought, and

reflection. This may explain why this critical step to

leader development is frequently bypassed or ignored

altogether.

Being a successful leader is more about the consistent

implementation of seemingly small, common sense

things than doing something complex or heroic.

Consistently implementing these relatively small,

common sense type things can make a huge difference.

This is very good news. Unfortunately this good news

is closely associated with some bad news. The bad

news is that these seemingly simple, common sense

things are often the most difficult to implement.

1. Who is the greatest leader you’ve ever met or

studied and, most important, why?

2. What makes a great leader?

3. How do you know if you are an effective

leader?

4. What kind of leadership is necessary in this

age,...in this profession?

5. Are leaders born or made?

6. The most important leadership skill is ______

7. What motivates you to greatness?

8. What is your purpose in life, professionally

and personally?

9. What is important to you?

10. Who is important to you?

11. What is your most important value?

12. What do you want your legacy to be?

13. Which leadership value is non-negotiable?
44 Army Medical Department Journal

STEPS TO BECOMING A BETTER LEADER

As you will soon see, these seemingly simple,

common-sense things can help you become a better

leader. The question that must be answered: if these

are so simple to do, why isn’t everyone doing them?

The following are 9 behaviors you could employ

immediately to help you become a more effective

leader.

1. Care

A seemingly simple step, a caring attitude by the

leader can have an extremely powerful effect on an

organization. Leaders must care for people, not as

functional subordinates but as human beings. A caring

attitude shows respect and is extremely important in

helping the leader build trust. Leaders are seen as

caring when they demonstrate a genuine interest in

employees, greet them warmly when they come to

work, visit their subordinates’ work sites, and when

they work to understand the motivations and concerns

of their workers. Unfortunately, busy schedules and

other demands often result in the perception of leaders

as not having a caring attitude, even if they truly do

care.

The leader’s demonstration of a caring attitude is not

enough by itself, however. The best leaders also

motivate their subordinates to care as much as they do

for their fellow workers, for their customers, and for

the mission of the organization. The most effective

way to do this is to constantly remind your workers of

the importance and contribution of their work toward

the accomplishment of the mission.

2. Focus on Intangibles, Especially Values

Although organizational values are important,

identification of individual values are also very

important. What values are most important to you?

Have you written them down? Have you shared them

with your fellow employees? Research by Kouzes and

Posner has shown that “people who have the greatest

clarity about both personal and organizational values

have the highest degree of commitment to the

organization.”3

Other intangibles of which the leader must be

cognizant include organizational morale, culture, and

esprit-de-corps. All are extremely important to the

leader, and all must be actively managed. The best

organizations have leaders who spend a lot of their

time ensuring the organizational culture is healthy and

contributing to organizational success.

3. Recognize Outstanding Contributions

All organizations consist of people doing outstanding

work on a daily basis. Unfortunately, leaders spend

more time looking for poor work than for outstanding

work. This is extremely counterproductive. Leaders

make a conscious effort to “catch” people doing good

things, and then recognize them for their good deeds.

Remember, people will work hard to maintain a good

reputation. Recognition of people for their good work

serves as a great motivational tool for future good

work. Mark Twain once said, “I can live for two

months on a good compliment.” Don’t underestimate

the impact you will have on subordinates when you

discover them doing good things.

4. Become a Good Communicator

The ability to communicate with your people is a

critical leadership skill. This does not mean having the

ability to speak and motivate hundreds of people at a

time. The leaders who are exceptional communicators

are able to connect with their listeners in a deep and

profound way. As long as you are able to connect with

your listeners, you will be seen as a great

communicator, even if you do not have the skill or

talent of the great communicators. An integral part of

communication is listening skills. The best leaders are

exceptional listeners. They make the effort and take

the time to listen to their employees. The best leaders

also listen for what is not being said. They are great at

“listening with their eyes” and are able to detect the

true message being spoken.

5. Master the “Q” Factor

The best leaders ask more questions than they offer

answers. They learn how to ask the right question of

the right person, at the right time, and in the right

manner. They use questions to get their people to share

information about what they do, what they like about

their jobs, and what they would do differently if they

were in charge. Leaders also ask great questions in an

effort to educate themselves about what is happening

in their organization.

6. Leaders Never Pule

Leaders never whine or complain. When you are

leading, you lose all right to complain or whine.

People want their leaders to have an eternally positive

The Courage to Lead: Steps to Becoming a Better Leader
October – December 2007 45

attitude. Leaders must also be realistic. They should

not downplay a difficult situation or problem. But they

must always offer a positive attitude as to how they are

going to resolve this issue or problem. People have

enough of their own problems without the leader

whining publicly about his or her problems. The best

leaders never pule in front of their workers, period.

7. Leaders Create a Sense of Urgency for the Work

to Be Done

Leaders work hard to avoid complacency within the

organization. All organizations move toward the status

quo. Leaders work hard to create a sense of urgency

for the work to be done and the changes that must

occur within the organization to remain successful.

Complacency is not part of the lexicon of the best

leaders. People enjoy being challenged. They like

working for something bigger and better than

themselves. Leaders push their people by creating a

sense of urgency that keeps the organization alive and

moving.

8. Leaders Stress Increasing Everyone’s

Adaptability Quotient

Change is a way of life. Organizations as well as

people must change, or adapt in order to survive.

Increasing everyone’s Adaptability Quotient is critical

to organizational success. The ability to thrive in a

constantly changing environment requires constant

learning and training. Leaders stress this in their

communication and actions. Instead of becoming

frustrated by change, the best leaders see a changing

environment that is loaded with new opportunities, not

necessarily challenges.

9. Leaders Always Remember Their Role

Leadership is not about you. It is about your people

and your organization. Never put yourself first when it

comes to your people or organization. The concept of

being a servant leader is extremely powerful and

accurate. You exist to help others become better. You

exist to help your organization become better. If both

things occur, you will be seen as a great a leader.

It also is important that you remember this: Do not

ever underestimate the impact you can have by

becoming a better leader. Even if you are a novice, any

improvement you make to become a better leader will

help your organization maximize its capabilities. Hard

work, constant learning, and seeking opportunities to

develop your leadership skills will help you become

the leader you want to be, and that your organization

needs you to be. By implementing these steps, you will

be seen as a better leader and you will be well on your

way to maximizing your leadership potential.

REFERENCES

1. Lincoln A. Quoted by: Carlton PK. Presentation to

the US Army-Baylor University Graduate Program in

Health and Business Administration; 2006; Fort Sam

Houston, TX.

2. Veninga R. Effective leadership: a public health

perspective. MN Vision. Spring 2006:7-8. Available

at http://www.hpm.umn.edu/res_pubs/files/mnvision/

MNvision306final.pdf.

3. Kouzes J, Posner B. The Leadership Challenge. 3rd

ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; 2002.

4. Collins J. Good to Great. New York, NY:

HarperCollins Publishers Inc; 2001.

5. Lombardi V, Heinz WC. Run to Daylight. Upper

Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall; 1963.

6. Sweet L. Summoned to Lead. Grand Rapids, MI:

Zondervan; 2004.

7. Quinlan P. Presentation to the Trinity University

Graduate Program in Healthcare Administration. San

Antonio, TX: January 2007.

8. George B, Sims P, McLean AN, Mayer D.

Discovering your authentic leadership. Harv Bus Rev.

2007;85(2):129-138.

9. Purcell K. Graduate Research Paper. Trinity

University, San Antonio, TX: 2004.

10. Longest BB Jr, Rakich JS, Darr K. Managing Health

Services Organizations and Systems. 4th ed.

Baltimore, MD: Health Professions Press; 2000.

11. Briggs-Myers I, Briggs KC. Myers-Briggs Type

Indicator®(MBTI®). Available at:

http://www.cpp.com/products/mbti/index.asp.

AUTHOR

Dr Rogers is a Visiting Associate Professor in the

Graduate Program in Healthcare Administration,

Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas. He also works

in the AMEDD Executive Skills Program, Leader

Training Center, AMEDD Center and School, Fort Sam

Houston, Texas.
46 Army Medical Department Journal

Leadership is defined in the Army’s leadership

manual, FM 6-22, as “...influencing people by

providing purpose, direction, and motivation while

operating to accomplish the mission and improving the

organization.”1 My leadership philosophy emphasizes

6 areas that are critical to achieving success in any

organization:

 Vision

 Communication

 Courage

 Development of subordinates

 Know yourself

 Passion

Leaders who successfully tap these factors in their

personal and professional life are role models for their

organizations.

Vision is key to leadership. “Without vision, the

people perish.”2(p94) Vision is the leader’s roadmap of

the organization’s future. It provides the organization

with direction and a sense of purpose. An organization

needs to know the plan for its future and the

milestones that will be used to attain successful results.

People who work in an organization without a vision

have no sense of belonging and feel there is no higher

reason for their existence. Work is not meaningful

without a vision. Vision is thus the key ingredient that

stokes the fire of creativity and transforms an

organization. An intellectual image of the future is a

prerequisite for change and must precede any physical

change. Organizational change is undirected,

unfocused, and unproductive without a unifying

vision.

Communication is paramount to leadership. A wellformed vision for an organization is not enough. Goals

are useless if members of an organization do not

understand what they are. A leader’s vision must be

communicated to the organization in a clear and

succinct manner so that it is easily grasped by

organization members. Communicating the vision

involves persuading people to “buy into” it. To

achieve success, subordinates at every level of the

organization must be able to translate and apply the

leader’s vision to their daily jobs. Leaders must widely

articulate their vision in frequent interactions with

organization members. Communication can be verbal

or written and within formal or informal settings.

Newsletters, email communications, and small and

large group forums are effective and practical ways of

disseminating the vision. Every contact with a member

of the organization is an opportunity to reach out and

spread the vision.

Communicating the vision is only one of many

messages that must be conveyed throughout an

organization. Stressing the need for constant

improvement keeps the organization focused on

attaining future goals. Dissemination of results-based

learning about what is working and what needs

improvement within an organization is critical. Giving

praise, credit, and positive reinforcement for a job well

done is essential. By the same token, counseling and

constructive criticism is also important in the pursuit

of the vision.

A leader is a facilitator and moderator who influences

the behavior of individuals and teams within the

organization. Effective communication fosters group

problem solving and decision-making. It encourages a

climate of openness and truthfulness for free

interactions about commonly shared problems, errors,

and lessons. An open door policy and a willingness to

listen are integral components of effective

communication. Listening is just as critical as

speaking. Openness to new ideas capitalizes on an

organization’s creativity. Being accessible sends a

message that the leader cares and is approachable.

Nonverbal communication through behavior and

gestures sends a powerful message to organization

members. Leaders should not underestimate the extent

Elements of Leadership for the Successful

Organization

COL George W. Turiansky, MC, USA

This article, updated by the author, is reprinted from the July–September 2006 issue of the AMEDD Journal.
October – December 2007 47

to which their followers observe them. A simple

gesture of integrity or compassion can be worth a

thousand words and can encourage role-modeling

behavior within the organization. Conversely, a leader

who sends inconsistent and contradictory messages by

not living up to the expectations that he sets for his

organization breeds mistrust and disrespect.

Courage is a third element of leadership. It is one of

the 7 Army values forming the acronym LDRSHIP

that all Soldiers are expected to possess. Courage can

be summarized by the phrase, “When in charge, be in

charge.”2(p39) A leader must have courage to follow his

vision, take action, and initiate change. He must

translate his vision into reality. This involves a

willingness to take a public stand on his beliefs and

sometimes to challenge the status quo. A leader who

takes action does what he says and then more. He

speaks the truth and displays integrity, another of the 7

Army values. A courageous leader takes risks and

searches for solutions. He is tough enough to ensure

that the organization executes the actions necessary to

transform vision into reality and to achieve the desired

end result. He delegates responsibility to empower his

subordinates. He also stands up for subordinates when

necessary. Courage also means taking responsibility

for decisions and acknowledging mistakes. Through

personal reflection, a leader uses mistakes as a

learning tool in the lifelong process of selfimprovement. A leader with courage embodies the

values he cultivates in his organization and lives by

them. A leader consistently conducts his personal and

professional life in a manner that will bring credit not

only to himself, but also to his organization. This

encourages subordinates to follow the path to success

by emulating the leader’s behavior.

Developing and mentoring subordinates is essential to

effective leadership. “Leadership conceived as the lone

warrior is really heroic suicide.”3 A leader cannot

command in a vacuum disregarding his staff’s input. A

leader needs subordinates to advise and challenge him

and to help him identify his weak and blind spots. A

leader recognizes that developing and mentoring his

subordinates enhances his own effectiveness.

“Building leadership into the genetic code of an

organization is the ultimate competitive advantage.”4

According to Charan and Tichy, General Electric

attributes its abundance of chief executive officer

talent to its focus on “nurturing” and “growing”

leaders from within the organization.4 This means

making time for people issues such as encouraging,

mentoring, coaching, and advising. An effective leader

gives both positive and negative feedback to his

subordinates. A leader rewards, recognizes, and

celebrates the accomplishments and successes of their

subordinates. A leader provides guidance and suggests

pathways for problem solving. A leader also

encourages reflection as a tool for self-improvement

and emphasizes that people learn from mistakes.

An integral part of subordinate development is the

creation of a work environment in which people can

succeed. This is done by earmarking resources for

learning in areas such as training and education, pilot

projects, and developmental assignments and ensuring

the availability of basic resources such as financial

support, tools, materials, and facilities so subordinates

can excel. An environment for success encourages

teamwork and collaboration at each level of the

organization. A leader develops subordinates by

establishing and maintaining an ethical climate, which

emphasizes that racism, sexism, and prejudice are

unacceptable. Subordinate development also means

caring deeply about your people, both personally and

professionally. Respect and recognition are essential.

Providing resources to remedy social issues such as

marital discord and alcohol abuse is important for

harmonious and effective work performance. A fair

and caring command climate fosters role model

emulation and subordinate development.

Effective leadership means knowing yourself by

recognizing your limits, abilities, shortcomings, and

values. This also involves searching deeply within

yourself to understand your own assumptions, biases,

prejudices, and beliefs, as well as those of others. An

effective leader explores how he differs in these areas

from others and realizes the implications of these

differences on his behavior and interactions with

organization members. It is imperative that a leader

look inward and explore feelings toward race, gender,

rank, and sexual and religious orientation. The

implications of not recognizing differences between

your feelings and those of your organization members

can be immense. In addition, a leader must recognize

that others have varying decision-making, learning,

and interpersonal styles and that these styles may be

just as effective as any of his own. “Before you can

lead others, before you can help others, you have to

discover yourself... And nothing is more powerful than

someone who knows who they are... if you know who

you are, then people trust you.”5 A leader who knows

himself ultimately contributes to a command climate
48 Army Medical Department Journal

of fairness and trust which can only spur role model

behavior in subordinates.

Effective leadership is passion. Passion is the inner fire

to inspire and motivate people.

Passion is born of empathy, the ability to connect with

people.... With passionate leadership, the pulse of an

institution and its people beats faster, it breathes harder,

it runs stronger.6

Passionate leadership involves instilling optimism,

high morale, enthusiasm, and an esprit de corps in the

work environment. According to the Blair House

Papers, one way to maximize people talent is to “...

raise the spirit of the workforce... Empowering and

energizing the front lines...”7 A leader must create a

work climate in which people feel good about their

jobs and their contributions to the organization. A

leader can instill enthusiasm for his vision by his mere

frequent presence and personal interactions with

organization members. This shows people that you

care enough to see how things are going, to make sure

that political red tape does not bog people down in

their jobs, and to make people feel that they really do

make a difference. An effective leader inspires people

to focus their energy on specific goals directed toward

the vision. However, a leader must be wise enough to

balance appropriate optimism with the realities that

face the organization members on a daily basis.

Inspiring subordinates to attain their goals generates

feelings of fulfillment, self-esteem, and job

satisfaction. By virtue of the role model status, a

passionate leader breeds enthusiasm in subordinates.

To achieve the end result, an effective leader must

create a climate that stimulates positive change within

his organization. He must have a vision that is clear,

succinct, and understood by his subordinates. He must

have excellent communication skills as a speaker,

listener, facilitator, and moderator. He must have

courage to be a true leader. A smart leader nurtures

future leaders for his organization and becomes a

people’s leader by mentoring and developing his

subordinates and dealing with people issues. A leader

can be fair only when he knows deep inside who he

really is, how this compares with others, and how the

actions of his subordinates affect his own behavior.

Passionate leadership ignites the organization in

pursuit of the vision. These 6 elements are critical to

effective leadership in today's Army.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author gratefully acknowledges Lieutenant

Russell A. Baum, Jr., Supply Corps, United States

Naval Reserve, for his critical review and editorial

comments.

REFERENCES

1. Field Manual 6-22: Army Leadership: Confident,

Competent, and Agile. Washington, DC: US Dept of the

Army; October 2006:1-2.

2. Sullivan GR, Harper MV. Hope is Not A Method. New

York: Broadway Books; 1996.

3. Heifetz R. Quoted by: Gary L. The work of a modern

leader: an interview with Ron Heifetz. Harv Manag

Update. April 1997:4-6.

4. Charan R, Tichy N. Need a CEO? Here’s how to grow

one. USA Today. October 20, 1997:21A.

5. Jaworski J. Quoted by: Webber AM. Destiny and the

job of the leader. Change Agent. June/July 1996:40-42.

6. Rodin J. Quoted by: Trafford A. Leading medicine into

the future. Washington Post. November 4, 1997:Health

Section:6.

7. Clinton WJ, Gore A. Blair House Papers. January

1997: Part III, Section 1. Available at: http://

govinfo.library.unt.edu/npr/library/papers/bkgrd/

blair.html.

AUTHOR

COL Turiansky is the Program Director of the National

Capital Consortium Dermatology Residency Program at

the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington,

DC, and the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda,

Maryland. He is also the Dermatology Consultant for

the DiLorenzo TRICARE Health Clinic at the

Pentagon.

Elements of Leadership for the Successful Organization
October – December 2007 49

The world is made of stories, not atoms.

Muriel Rukeyser

In the movie City Slickers (Castle Rock Entertainment,

1991), the old cowboy, Curly Washburn, challenges

city-slicker Mitch Robbins:

“Do you know what the secret of life is? One

thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and

everything else don't mean ! ”

“Yeah, but what's that one thing?” Mitch asks.

“That's what you've got to figure out.” The old

cowboy replies.

The same question holds true for the leader in the

modern world. We each must understand that one

thing that holds the secret of our life. Each of us lives

within our own story—a narrative that defines who we

are and contributes to our leadership effectiveness.

Leadership researchers Irving and Klenke proposed

that a leader’s story, particularly when it represents a

“metanarrative,” or all-encompassing story, is part of a

leader’s effectiveness. As they put it, “There is a

nonspurious relationship between leadership

effectiveness and the presence of an integrated

metanarrative in the life of a leader.” 1

Effective leaders can better appreciate and build on

their own metanarrative, and more effectively work to

train the next generation of leaders by remaining true

to principles and understanding the role of

generational sociology on the application of leadership

and leadership development.

To understand the metanarrative, we must first look at

the major influences that affect humanity, and then

review a number of individual values that most would

agree are important foundations for leadership.

PHILOSOPHICAL EPOCHS

Western philosophers divide history into 3 broad, basic

periods or epochs, times with dominant philosophical

systems or ways of thinking: premodern, modern, and

postmodern. The premodern era, where people

accepted knowledge from authoritative sources

without proof, spanned from the earliest recorded time

up to about 1650 AD. The dominant source of such

information was the church. The modern era began

around 1650. It was an era of science and discovery

that stretched to 1950. During this period, knowledge

was based on reason, scientific logic, and proof.

Over the last century, society has grown disenchanted

with science, which did not appear to provide all the

answers. Philosophers believe we have witnessed the

beginning of a new epoch, the postmodern era

characterized by pluralism and the deconstruction of

the authoritative sources that have contributed to the

way we think.

The French philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard wrote

extensively about postmodernism. In his book, The

Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge,

2

he

posited that the postmodern epoch was characterized

by “an incredulity toward metanarratives.” He coined

the term metanarrative to help describe the postmodern

era. A metanarrative is an all-encompassing (meta,

Greek word for behind) true story (narrative) about the

history, purpose, and goals of humanity that provides

the foundation for the interpretation of information and

organization of knowledge. The metanarrative is more

than just a story. It is a methodology to organize life

events into a coherent whole that provides inherent

meaning and adheres to the individual’s overall values.

For many, religion serves as a metanarrative. But there

are other dominant ways of thinking which can also

serve: social development theories such as

functionalism and interactionism; political theories

such as Marxism, capitalism, and communism; and

even science, feminism, and rationalism may all serve

as metanarratives.

According to postmodernism, the dominant

philosophical system of the current era, history cannot

Postmodernism, the Metanarrative, and

Principle-Based Leadership

COL Chuck Callahan, MC, USA

COL Bryan Martin, MC, USA
50 Army Medical Department Journal

Postmodernism, the Metanarrative, and Principle-Based Leadership

be defined by metanarratives, since they do not exist.

Rather, it is defined by micronarratives, subjective

stories that we and those with whom we identify most

closely embrace as true. Therefore, to many whom we

will lead, the metanarrative may be a foreign way of

thinking.

If the metanarrative does in fact exist, if it exists for an

individual leader and, most importantly, if the

individual truly lives as though he or she believes the

metanarrative exists, it provides an advantage for the

leader, as it can become a central organizing theme for

his or her life. However, leaders of different ages and

experience may approach even the concept of the

metanarrative differently, due to the characteristics of

the generation in which they were born.

GENERATIONAL SOCIOLOGY

Generations are approximately 2 decades long and

represent the time it takes to move from infancy to

adulthood. Sociologists William Strauss and Neil

Howe have written extensively on the characteristics

of the American generations since the mid-16th

century.3,4,5 They describe cycles of generational types

and the characteristics of the different generations.

Their theory is based on the belief that people of each

generation are shaped differently by the world in

which they live, as well as the influence of the

generations on both sides of them. In the Army today,

there are 3 distinct generations of officers. Much has

been made of the differences between the generations,

and it is clear that no characterization completely

explains any one person’s behaviors. It is instructive to

realize that officers at different ages and ranks are

influenced by very different experiences, with very

distinct generational worldviews.

“Baby Boomers” were born between 1940 and 1960

(the ages are hotly debated, and the approximate date

used herein are rounded so they are easy to remember).

They grew up in a time of prosperity and rebellion,

often with an intact nuclear family and stay-at-home

mom that doted on them. In the workforce, men and

women poured themselves relentlessly into their

careers, often at the expense of their marriages and

families. They came to be defined by their careers, and

their work became, in essence, their reason for being.

They grew up solidly in the late stages of the modern

era and bring the mechanistic, scientific approach into

life philosophy. In 2007, all general officers (over 50

years of age) colonels (over 45 years) many lieutenant

colonels, and some senior noncommissioned officers

are baby boomers.

Members of “Generation X” were born between 1960

and 1980. They grew up with a latchkey in one hand

and the television remote or game-controller in the

other. Many came from single parent homes and were

overlooked or neglected. They developed skepticism

about authority as they listened to their parents rail

about Watergate and Three-Mile Island. They learned

cynicism from watching Homer Simpson, Bevis and

Butthead, and the space shuttle Challenger exploding

on their televisions. On the job, they remember the

workaholic tendencies of their parents and seek to

maintain balance in their lives. They are the first

generation to be raised during the era of evolving

postmodern philosophies. Many lieutenant colonels

(35 to 40 years of age), most majors (30 to 35 years),

captains (25 to 30 years), and senior noncommissioned

officers are from Generation X.

The “Millennial Generation” was born between 1980

and 2000 in the most “child-centric” time in American

history. Parents from the neglected Generation X have

showered attention and affection on them; running

them between activities in search of something at

which they excel. They are used to getting trophies for

just being a member of the soccer team. So they may

seem cocky and arrogant in their self-confidence. They

are masters at multitasking and expect structure at

work because they are used to it at home. Medical

students (20 to 25 years), young enlisted (18 to 25

years), and junior officers are mostly from the

Millennial Generation. And, in the summer of 2006,

the first class of Millennial Generation residents

entered graduate medical education programs as brand

new captains.

It is important that leaders at all levels today have a

basic understanding of generational sociology in order

to appreciate that there may be large, fundamental

differences in the ways that individuals from different

generations relate and respond to leaders and

situations. It is especially true with the generations that

have arisen in the last 5 decades of the past century as

they have, in addition to the normal cycle of changes

between generations, also experienced the effects of

living through the end of one of the world’s major

philosophic epochs (modernism), and the birth of
October – December 2007 51

another (postmodernism). Today’s leaders have been

more heavily influenced by the philosophy of the

postmodern era than any previous group of leaders.

This includes the incredulity of the postmodern era to

the existence of a metanarrative.

LEADING AND MENTORING FROM THE

METANARRATIVE

Leaders must have a method. Those who work with

leaders should have a model. The metanarrative can

provide the foundation of an individual’s philosophy.

In this leadership model, values serve as the map,

while the principles of integrity, humility, honor, and

faith or belief are the points of the compass. By using

our values as a map and our principles as an azimuth,

we can move toward our destination or our goals.

Goals  Destination

Our worlds are made of stories, of narratives. This is

how we remember our experiences, how we relate to

one another, how we learn and how we live. As we

grow, we learn to struggle when listening to another’s

story, trying not to chime in or try to top that story

with one of our own. Children (and some adults) find

that to be impossible. Sometimes, we just cannot relate

to anything outside of the context of our own story.

Unfortunately, stories are typically historical, too few

people tell themselves the story of where they hope

their life will go. It is often illuminating to ask a

younger colleague, “Where do you want to be in 10 to

15 years, and what do you want to be doing?” These

are examples of the what questions regarding their

life’s goals and destination that a person should ask

themselves.

What do you want to be doing?

What do you want your life to be like?

What is a good day for you?

What is a bad day?

What is really important to you every day?

What do you end up doing that really

isn’t that important?

One learns where one wants to go by looking at the

lives of others, including the lives of credible mentors.

At its most base level, the answer to these questions

usually revolves around the kinds of relationships we

hope to have with our spouses, children, coworkers,

and bosses. We want to be happy. Most of us want to

be successful, particularly when it comes to the way

we relate to others. Research has shown that the key to

our success in relating to others at work and at home is

a concept called emotional intelligence.

Goleman et al describe emotional leadership in the

following context:

The emotional task of the leader is primal...It is both

the original and most important act of leadership.6(p5)

This can be the spark that ignites a great performance:

one must understand both oneself, and then

consciously understand and relate to others.

Emotionally intelligent leadership “drives performance

in organizations of every kind.”6(p84)

Emotional intelligence, simply put, is the leader’s

ability to understand self and others. It is not difficult

to imagine that emotional intelligence may be

influenced both by the dominant philosophy of an era

as well as the sociologic influences of the generation.

It is an important leadership skill as there is evidence

that the leader’s success is directly related to his or her

level of emotional intelligence.

An understanding of the concepts of emotional

intelligence researched and championed by Daniel

Goleman and his associates for the past several

decades hold great promise for leader development.

Increasingly, leadership pundits refer to emotional

intelligence as the foundation of successful leadership.

Emotionally intelligent leaders are characterized by

their skill in personal and social competence. These

leaders have keen self-awareness and selfmanagement, as well as well-developed social

awareness and relational skills, a list of which is

presented in the Table. Unfortunately, depending to a

large degree on their upbringing and prior experience,

leaders of every age and rank may well have gaps in

their emotional intelligence. These gaps provide fertile

ground for individual progress through personal

development and mentoring relationships.

Values  Map

In a model borrowed from Steven Covey’s Principle

Centered Leadership,

7

values represent the how to
52 Army Medical Department Journal

Postmodernism, the Metanarrative, and Principle-Based Leadership

describe the way we will achieve these goals. They are

the map by which we reach our destination. Values are

the actions we do that reflect who we are best to those

around us.

How do I want to live my life?

How do I want to make my way ahead?

How do I want to relate to others?

Values serve as the map that helps us negotiate life to

reach our destination. They include things such as:

loyalty (steadfastness or faithfulness to a person or

group of people), veracity (passionate adherence to the

truth), kindness (warmhearted, considerate, humane

and sympathetic), courage (willingness to face danger

with determination), and perseverance (adherence to a

course of action, belief or purpose.) Values define the

way we “live and move and have our being” especially

in regards to the way we relate to others. But the map

is relatively useless unless it can be properly oriented.

Principles  Compass

Principles act as the compass that orients our “values

map.” Like the 4 points of a compass, there are 4

principles that can be considered “master principles”

upon which others can be based: humility, honor,

integrity, and faith or belief. These are the fundamental

reasons that we act or move in a certain way.

Principles are what orient values. They determine how

Personal Competence: How we manage

ourselves

Self-Awareness

Emotional self-awareness

Reading one’s emotions, recognizing their

impact, using one’s “gut” sense or instincts

to guide decisions

Accurate Self-Assessment

Knowing one’s strengths, talents and limits

Self-confidence

A sound sense of one’s worth and capabilities

Self-Management

Emotional self-control

Keeping destructive impulses and emotions in

check

Transparency

Displaying honesty, integrity, trustworthiness

Adaptability

Flexibility in responding to changing or

challenging situations

Achievement

The drive to improve performance to meet

internal standards of excellence

Initiative

Readiness to act to seize opportunities

Optimism

Seeing the “upside” in events

Social Competence

Social Awareness

Empathy

Sensing another’s emotions, understanding

their perspective and acting on their

concerns

Organizational awareness

Reading the currents, the decision networks

and politics of an organization

Service

Recognizing and meeting follower, client or

customer needs

Relationship Management

Inspiration

Guiding and motivating with a compelling

vision

Influence

Wielding a range of tactics for persuasion

Developing others

Bolstering others abilities through guidance

and feedback

Change catalyst

Initiating, managing and leading in a new

direction

Conflict management

Resolving disagreements

Building bonds

Cultivating and maintaining a web of

relationships

Teamwork and collaboration

Cooperation and team building

Emotional Intelligence Domains and Competencies
October – December 2007 53

the values that others may use to describe us are

reflected in our character (combination of qualities or

features that distinguish one person from another.)

They answer, in essence, the who questions about a

person:

Who do I want to be?

Who do I want people to think that I am?

There are numerous lists and summaries of principles

and values that characterize the who and how of a

person’s life. It is important for leaders and especially

for mentors to develop in their own minds a concept of

the principles that they hope describe them, the ability

to articulate these principles and even more

importantly, the ability to demonstrate these principles

consciously, conspicuously, and consistently.

Humility

In his book, Good to Great,

8

Jim Collins specifically

set out to discount the role of leadership in companies

that experienced a major turn-around. He described

himself as “a leadership agnostic.” He and his team

researched 1,435 Fortune 500 companies from 1965

through 1995, looking specifically for companies that

were mediocre for 15 years or longer, then

experienced a dramatic turnaround. Eleven companies

“made the cut,” including Walgreens, General Electric,

and Abbott Laboratories.

What stood out first, much to his initial dismay and

surprise, was that leadership was important. There was

something in a leader that could drive a company from

“good to great.” These companies were all led by men

and women whom he characterized as having “Level

5” leadership skills. The leaders had personal humility,

an almost fanatical professional will, workmanlike

diligence (more plow horse than show horse) and

steadfast ambition for the company’s success, not their

own. They shunned publicity and self-promotion and

were rarely or begrudgingly showcased on the front of

major business publications.

Level 5 leaders were characterized by the “window

and the mirror” phenomenon—they tended to look in

the mirror and blame themselves for mistakes, but

when things were good, they would look out the

window to find the reason for their successes. They

would either proclaim how everyone in the company

was wonderful, or how factors of fortune caused

success. They were humble leaders who did not lead

for self-aggrandizement.

A senior AMEDD leader was confronted with the

possibility that a decision he was making might be

looked at disparagingly by those above him. Without

prompting, he commented, “Look. I was selfactualized two pay-grades ago. I am not worried about

what they will think.”

The opposite of this personal humility is demonstrated

by the narcissistic leader. These leaders are

characterized by a false sense of self. While they may

be charming and engaging, they are tremendous actors

who use persuasion and manipulation to garnish the

input from others that regulates their self-esteem. They

tend to have grandiose views of themselves. They are

poor judges of reality and they use people as tools to

reinforce the self.

Narcissistic leaders are envious of the successes of

others. They take credit and distribute blame. They

downplay and diminish contributions of others. They

are characterized by rage and envy toward perceived

competition and demonstrate attention-seeking

behaviors. They tend to be poor, disruptive team

members, micromanagers, and are critical and

belittling of others, especially behind their backs. For

the narcissistic leader, people are tools to reinforce a

shaky or nonexistent self image. They do not embrace

the principle of personal humility. To use Collins’

analogy of the mirror and the window,8unlike the

Level 5 leader, they look into the mirror for credit and

out the window to assign blame.

Honor

Honor is both a verb and a noun. As a verb, to honor is

to show respect for another. As a noun, it is the

specific respect that we show, the honors we render.

Hospital personnel in every department are encouraged

to address patients by title or rank, Ms Smith or

Sergeant Smith. In so doing, they demonstrate honor,

and bestow honor in a setting where a patient can very

easily feel dishonored and identity is very easily lost.

Honor is the right way for us to treat others. The

Golden Rule is found in one form or another in most

of the world’s major religions and cultures. However,

if attempts at honoring another are merely my
54 Army Medical Department Journal

Postmodernism, the Metanarrative, and Principle-Based Leadership

projections of my own insecurities, then I will fail

often as not in showing honor. To truly show honor I

must know myself and others.

Honor is not only how we treat or respect others. We

also talk about behaving with honor. That is to show

respect for ourselves and our ideals, and to act within

the confines of our ideals.

Leaders characterized by the principle of honor are

aware of and unthreatened by their own weaknesses.

They are also unimpressed by their strengths and

talents. They see every interpersonal interaction as an

opportunity to grow and, more importantly, an

opportunity for others to grow as well. The desire to

honor others is one of the points on their personal

compass.

Integrity

Most leadership discussions start on the subject of

integrity. The Army leadership manual9defines it as to

“consistently act according to principle” and “morally

complete and true to yourself.” For his book, The Stuff

of Heroes,

10 General William Cohen surveyed 200

combat military leaders, including 62 admirals and

generals, regarding the lessons they had learned from

leadership in battle. Ninety-five percent of their

responses fell into one of 8 principles, the first of

which was “maintain absolute integrity.”

It is not just the military that focuses on integrity.

Integrity was the Merriam-Webster* Word of the Year

in 2005, where the first definition of integrity was

“adherence to a code.”

The definition of integrity is interesting because it has

changed through the centuries, as described by

Stratford Sherman.11 The first definition in the Oxford

English Dictionary12 is “the condition of having no

part or element taken away or wanting; undivided or

unbroken state; material wholeness, completeness,

entirety.” It stresses completeness or consistency. The

concept of consistency and incorruptibility remained

first among the definitions through the 1950s, which

was, interestingly, through the end of the modern era.

In the ancient Hebrew world, animals and people were

described as having integrity, or more specifically in

Hebrew, tamiym (without blemish, complete, perfect,

blameless, having integrity). For a sacrificial animal to

have tamiym, it had to be everything it was supposed

to be (male, domestic animal, first born), nothing it

was not supposed to be (imperfect, defective,

blemished), consistent (without spot or blemish from

head to tail), and complete (has all its features, is

missing nothing). Integrity was a blend of what was

expected as well as what was intrinsically consistent; a

combination of an external standard, but, more

importantly, an internal completeness and consistency.

This is in contrast to the modern definition of integrity,

demonstrated by the previously cited 2005 MerriamWebster definition (adherence to a code). The first

definition of integrity has become, “firm adherence to

a code of especially moral or artistic values:

incorruptibility.” Thus the principle of integrity has

migrated from something that was inside of a person,

to something imposed on a person from the outside.

Integrity is being constant and consistent to the story

we tell ourselves, and the story in which we find

ourselves. It is internal first, rooted and based on the

metanarrative we embrace, so that all our actions

reflect what we say we believe and stand for. It also

has an external aspect as we adapt to the everchanging circumstances of our lives, and encounter

unique challenges on the road to our destination. When

we are lost, the map may not be of value. We use our

compass—our principles—to shoot an azimuth and

determine the best way to go.

Faith  Belief

One of the things that characterizes humans, and

distinguishes them from animals, is their ability to

believe in something that is not seen, in something that

is bigger than themselves. It is one of the core tenants

that make life possible. As infants, we learn to trust

that our parents will be there when we cry, that our

mothers will feed us when we are hungry; that they

will care for us and provide for us as we grow. When

this is not the case, the consequences for the growing,

developing child and adolescent can be devastating. In

fact, psychologists have defined the resulting condition

as Reactive Attachment Disorder.†

*Merriam-Webster, Inc, 47 Federal Street, Springfield,

MA 01102

†

Reactive attachment disorder is a disturbance of social

interaction caused by neglect of a child's basic physical

and emotional needs, particularly during infancy.

Source: http://www.healthline.com/adamcontent/

reactive-attachment-disorder-of-infancy-or-earlychildhood.
October – December 2007 55

Reactive Attachment Disorder is characterized by

mistrust and an inability to relate normally in children.

It is seen in children who lack consistent parental

availability, either because of separation from primary

caregivers, or the caregiver’s inability or disinterest.

Children with reactive attachment disorder develop

defensive mechanisms to cope with stress on their

own, including lying, stealing and hoarding food,

mistrust of basic statements, withheld or inappropriate

affection. They do not learn to trust, and thus they find

it difficult to believe.

While the word faith usually refers to belief in God or

a set of religious doctrines, the word (from the Latin,

fides: to trust) also implies a firm belief in something

for which there is no proof. Animals can learn to trust

that they will be fed or not beaten by a master, but as

far as we know, are not capable of believing anything

for which they have not learned by reinforced

demonstration. Humans must learn to trust and believe

in one another to survive on the battlefield or in the

workplace.

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who certainly

would not have considered himself religious,

acknowledged that “He who has a why can endure any

how.” If we have something in which we can believe,

a purpose on which we can focus, we can endure any

set of circumstances. The belief that one’s life has a

purpose that is bigger than the immediate and obvious

was the way that psychiatrist Victor Frankl survived

the concentration camp at Theresienstadt.* He

developed the psychological theory of “logotherapy”

based on the Greek logos (word, intent, or purpose).

Frankl writes, “Man’s search for meaning is the

primary motivation in his life, and not a ‘secondary

rationalization’ of instinctual drives.”13 In order to

believe in this purpose, something that cannot be seen,

like the ability to embrace the metanarrative, one must

exercise the uniquely human characteristic of faith.

Thus faith—the ability to believe—is one of the

primary principles, and one of the 4 points of the

personal compass that describe who we are: humility,

honor, integrity, and faith.

True North: The Metanarrative

If there were not a true north to give meaning to the

points on the compass, it would be no more than a

relatively uninteresting toy. By analogy, one’s

metanarrative serves as the true north to which one’s

personal life compass is anchored. The metanarrative

provides the why for the who, what and where

questions of our lives—it provides the meaning to our

lives.

Why do I want to go that way?

Why do I want to be that kind of person?

Why do I want to be different?

Just as the orientation of the map and the azimuth of

the compass are based on north, so the values and

principles of life, as well as ultimately the direction,

are based on the metanarrative. It has to be powerful

enough to surmount the “micronarrative” of selfinterest, the “mesonarrative” of the immediate clan or

group, and even the “macronarrative” of a particular

cause or movement. The metanarrative provides an

explanation for knowledge and experience that goes

beyond all of these.

The cinema cowboy Curly Washburn provides good

advice for the leader today. The rising Millennial

Generation of leaders, some think, are looking for the

return of the metanarrative as they plot their course

toward improving the world. They are, according to

Howe and Strauss,5the next “great generation” of

Americans, and will surpass the last American “civic

generation,” the “GI Generation” born between 1900

and 1920. That is the generation that won World War

II, built the suburbs, and provided 7 American

presidents: Johnson, Reagan, Ford, Nixon, Kennedy,

Carter, and George Bush Sr.

The Millennial Generation will learn their

metanarrative, as they will learn about principles and

values, when they see them lived out in the lives of

credible, believable, sincere mentors. It is the single

most important thing we can do to lead the next

generation, just as it is the single most important role

we have as parents, biological or otherwise, to children

who are looking to us for examples and for hope.

John McCain, himself a member of the “silent

generation” born between 1920 and 1940, suffered as a

prisoner of war in Vietnam for 51⁄2 years. At one point,

he was invited to enjoy an early freedom because he

was the son of a famous US Navy admiral who at the

time was commander of the US Pacific Command. He

*Theresienstadt was a Nazi internment camp in the Czech

Republic village of Terezin during World War II which

was used as a transhipment terminal for prisoners

enroute to the extermination camp at Auschwitz, Poland.
56 Army Medical Department Journal

Postmodernism, the Metanarrative, and Principle-Based Leadership

declined, according to his book, Faith of My Fathers,

14

and suffered increased torture as a result of his refusal.

John McCain had a metanarrative and a belief system

that enabled him to get through his darkest times when

everything physical had been stripped away from him.

By staying true to his metanarrative, true to his

compass—principles of humility, honor, integrity and

faith—he reflected the influence of the generations

who had gone before him. Buoyed by this assurance,

he was able to survive imprisonment and torture, and

ultimately to thrive and to serve upon his return to

society. He wrote:

Glory is not conceit. It is not a decoration for valor. It is

not a prize for being the most clever, the strongest, or

the boldest. Glory belongs to the act of being constant

to something greater than yourself, to a cause, to your

principles, to the people on whom you rely, and who

rely on you in return. No misfortune, no injury, no

humiliation can destroy it.

This is the faith that my commanders affirmed, that my

brothers-in-arms encouraged my allegiance to. It was

the faith I had unknowingly embraced at the Naval

Academy. It was my father’s and grandfather’s faith. A

filthy, crippled, broken man, all I had left of my dignity

was the faith of my fathers.

It was enough.14(p257)

REFERENCES

1. Irving JA, Klenke K. Telos, Chronos and hermeneia:

the role of the metarnarrative in leadership through

the production of meaning. Int J Qual Meth.

2004;3:1-31. Available at: http://www.ualberta.ca/

~ijqm/english/engframeset.html.

2. Lyotard JF. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on

Knowledge. Manchester, England: Manchester

University Press; 1984:14.

3. Howe N, Strauss W. Generations: The History of

America's Future, 1584 to 2069. New York, NY:

HarperCollins; 1992.

4. Howe N, Strauss W. The Fourth Turning. New York,

NY: Broadway Books; 1997.

5. Howe N, Strauss W. Millennials Rising: The Next

Great Generation. New York, NY: Vintage Books;

2000.

6. Goleman D, Boyatzis R, McKee A. Primal

Leadership. Realizing the Power of Emotional

Intelligence. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School

Press; 2002.

7. Covey SR. Principle Centered Leadership. New

York, NY: Simon and Schuster; 1991.

8. Collins JC. Good to Great. New York, NY:

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc; 2001.

9. Field Manual 6-22: Army Leadership: Confident,

Competent, and Agile. Washington, DC: US Dept of

the Army; October 2006.

10. Cohen WA. The Stuff of Heroes. Atlanta, GA:

Longstreet Press; 2001.

11. Sherman S. Rethinking integrity. Leader Leader.

2 0 0 3 ;2 8 : 3 9 -4 5 . Av a i l a b l e a t : h t t p : / /

leadertoleader.org/leaderbooks/L2L/spring2003/

sherman.html.

12. Simpson J, ed. Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed.

Oxford, England: Oxford University Press; 1989.

13. Frankl V. Man’s Search for Meaning. New York,

NY: Touchstone, Simon and Schuster; 1984:105.

14. McCain J. Faith of My Fathers. New York, NY:

Random House, Inc; 1999.

AUTHORS

COL Callahan is Deputy Commander for Clinical

Services, Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He is

slated to be the Commander, DeWitt Army Community

Hospital, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, in the summer of 2008.

COL Martin is Chief, Allergy Immunology

Department, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and

the Allergy Immunology Specialty Consultant to The

Army Surgeon General.

SUGGESTED READING

Wong L. Generations apart. Xers and Boomers in the

Officer Corps. Strategic Studies Center U.S. Army War

College. October 2000. Available at: http://www.

strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?

PubID=281.

Lewis MR. Time to regenerate. A genX response to Dr

Wong’s monograph. November 2000. Available at:

http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/lewis_gen-x.htm.

Goleman D. Leadership that gets results. Harv Bus Rev.

2000;78(2):78-87.

Goleman D. What makes a leader? Harv Bus Rev. 2004;82

(1):82-91.

Goleman D. Emotional Intelligence. Why it Can Matter

More than IQ. Bantam Books; New York, NY: 1995.
October – December 2007 57

Chinese military philosophers are responsible for the

foundation for much of today’s military tactics and

strategy. Ever since Sun Tzu’s The Art of War was

translated into English over 200 years ago, Chinese

military thought has furnished and continues to

underlie many of the fundamental concepts and

essential tactics of modern warfare throughout the

world. Many current publications simply represent

vernacular language translations of the ancient

classics. However, other authors have selectively

reorganized and reformatted the material to focus on

critical problems and lessons in life. The most popular

current versions of the Chinese military classics

selectively apply principles and concepts from Chinese

military thought to the world of business.* Several

authors have transcended the common tendency to

conceive of business activities as warfare, to apply

these classics in the individual’s quest to survive and

flourish within corporate culture.1(ppx-xi)

Although Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is the most

famous work on military operations and is the oldest

military treatise in the world, Chinese military thought

is much more extensive. The seven books preserved in

the Seven Military Classics, as traditionally arranged

since the Sung dynasty, are Sun Tzu’s Art of War, Wutzu, Methods of the Ssu-ma (Ssu-ma Fa), Questions

and Replies between T’and T’ai-tsung and Li Weikung, Wei Liao-tzu, Three Strategies of Huang Shihkung, and T’ai Kung’s Six Secret Teachings. In

addition, the recently rediscovered Sun Pin’s Military

Methods, another Warring States text, essentially

constitutes an eighth military classic. Of the Seven

Military Classics, only Sun-Tzu’s Ping-fa,

traditionally known as The Art of War, has received

much exposure in the west. Ralph Sawyer has recently

translated and edited The Art of the Warrior:

Leadership and Strategy from the Chinese Military

Classics, arranging these writings thematically to give

the reader a comprehensive introduction to the Eastern

way of strategy.1(ppx-xi) According to Sun Tzu,

“Warfare is the greatest affair of state, the basis for life

... it must be thoroughly pondered and analyzed.”1(p73)

Effective leadership will continue to be critically

important. Physician leaders and healthcare

administrators will be forced to deal with increasing

challenges, generally “doing more with less” in typical

military fashion. We can glean examples from

Sawyer’s recent publication, reminding our modern

healthcare executives and medical leaders of

leadership principles from ancient China that are

equally applicable today.

Leadership Insights of the Chinese Military

Classics for Physician Leaders and

Healthcare Administrators

COL Robert W. Enzenaue, MC, ANG

ABSTRACT

Trite sayings from Chinese military classics often find their way into after-dinner fortune cookies in many

Chinese restaurants in America. However, no one should underestimate the lessons from those Chinese military

classics, and they certainly should never be trivialized. Leaders at all levels of healthcare management can learn

timeless lessons spanning three millennia from the wisdom of ancient Chinese military writings.

LEADERS ARE IMPORTANT

The general is the supporting pillar of state. If his talents are all-encompassing, the state will invariably

be strong. If the supporting pillar is marked by fissures, the state will invariably grow weak.

The Art of War1(p150)

*A sample of these works is presented in a suggested reading list at the end of this article.
58 Army Medical Department Journal

Leadership Insights of the Chinese Military Classics

LEADERS PROVIDE A VISION FOR THE ORGANIZATION

Li Ching said, “The successful employment of the masses lies in their being of one mind.

Unification of mind lies in prohibiting omens and dispelling doubts. Should the commanding

general have anything of which he is doubtful or fearful, emotions will waver.”

Questions and Replies1(p117)

LEADERS PLAN FOR THE FUTURE

If the leader of the army and commander of the masses does not first establish his plans, the

proper equipment will not be prepared.

Six Secret Teachings1(p88)

If the general doesn’t carefully contemplate his course of action, his strategists will abandon

him.

Huang Shih-kung1(p161)

LEADERS PROMOTE PROPER VALUES

When a ruler’s actions are cruelly violent, his subordinates will be hasty to implement harsh

measures.

Huang Shih-kung1(p81)

In general, to govern the state and order the army you must instruct them with the forms of

propriety, stimulate them with righteousness, and cause them to have a sense of shame. For

when men have a sense of shame, in the greatest degree it will be sufficient to wage war, while

in the least degree it will suffice to preserve the state.

Wu-tzu1(p172)

LEADERS KNOW WHEN TO REACT

If it is not advantageous, do not move. If objectives cannot be attained, do not employ the army. Unless

endangered, do not engage in warfare.

The Art of War1(p75)

Mount a sudden strike on their doubts. Attack their haste. Force them to constrict their deployment.

Launch a sudden strike against their order. Take advantage of their failure to avoid harm. Obstruct their

strategy. Seize their thoughts. Capitalize on their fears.

Ssu-ma Fa1(p222)

In general, whoever occupies the battleground first and awaits the enemy will be at ease; whoever

occupies the battleground afterward and must race to the conflict will be fatigued. Thus one who excels

at warfare compels men and is not compelled by other men.

The Art of War1(p214)
October – December 2007 59

LEADERS TAKE RESPONSIBILITY

If you failed to direct them to victory, accept the blame yourself.

Ssu-ma Fa1(p171)

LEADERS SHOW INITIATIVE

Thus the highest realization of warfare is to attack the enemy’s plans; next is to attack their alliances;

next to attack their army; and the lowest is to attack their fortified cities.

The Art of War1(p105)

If the enemy opens the door, you must race in. Attack what they love first. Do not fix any time for battle,

assess and react to the enemy in order to determine the strategy for battle.

The Art of War1(p107)

LEADERS HAVE INSIGHT

Thus it is said that one who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred

engagements. One who does not know the enemy but knows himself will sometimes be victorious,

sometimes meet with defeat. One who knows neither the enemy nor himself will invariably be defeated

in every engagement.

The Art of War1(p106)

King Wu asked the T’ai Kung, “Before engaging in battle I want to first know the enemy’s strengths and

weaknesses, to foresee indications of victory or defeat. How can this be done?”

The T’ai Kung replied, “Indications of victory or defeat will be first manifest in their spirit. The

enlightened general will investigate them, for they will be evidenced in the men.”

Six Secret Teachings1(p225)

LEADERS ARE CREATIVE

It is the nature of the army to stress speed, to take advantage of the enemy’s absence, to travel

unanticipated roads, and to attack when they are not alert.

The Art of War1(p107)

LEADERS ARE SINCERE

King Wei said, “How can we cause the people to always listen to orders?”

Sun Pin said, “Always be sincere.”

Military Methods1(p140)

If the general can think of his officers as if thirsty, his plans will be followed.

Huang Shih-kung1(p161)
60 Army Medical Department Journal

Leadership Insights of the Chinese Military Classics

LEADERS ARE CONSISTENT

If orders are consistently implemented to instruct the people, then the people will submit. If

orders are not consistently implemented to instruct the people, then the people will not submit.

One whose orders are consistently carried out has established a mutual relationship with the

people.

The Art of War1(p138)

If the laws and orders are not clear, rewards and punishments not trusted, when sounding the

gongs will not cause them to halt, nor beating the drum to advance—then even if you had a

million men, of what use would they be?

Wu-tzu1(p139)

LEADERS PROVIDE CLEAR EXPECTATIONS OF PERFORMANCE

If his instructions are not precise and trusted, the officers and men will not be trained.

Six Secret Teachings1(p88)

LEADERS ARE HONEST, TRUSTWORTHY, AND FAIR

Accordingly, when righteousness overcomes desire, one will flourish; when desire overcomes

righteousness, one will perish.

Six Secret Teachings1(p78)

In general, with regard to the people: rescue them with benevolence, engage in battle with

righteousness, make decisions through wisdom, fight with courage, exercise sole authority

through credibility, encourage them with profits, and gain victory through achievements. Thus

the mind must embody benevolence and actions should incorporate righteousness.

Ssu-ma Fa1(p103)

The general cannot be without credibility. If he is not trusted then his orders will not be

implemented. If his orders are not implemented, then the army will not be unified. If the army is

not unified then it will not attain fame. The credibility is the feet of the army.

Military Methods1(p160)

Only benevolence can attract people. However, if one is benevolent but not trustworthy, then on

the contrary he will vanquish himself. Treat men as men, be upright with the upright, employ

appropriate language, and use fire only where it should be used.

Ssu-ma Fa1(p137)

The Military Pronouncements states, “The exemplary general, in his command of the army,

governs men as he would want to be treated himself. Spreading his kindness and extending his

beneficence, the strength of his officers is daily renewed. In battle they are like the wind arising,

their attack is like the release of a pent-up river.”

Huang Shih-kung1(p146)

If he transfers his anger to the innocent, the whole army will be afraid.

Huang Shih-kung1(p161)
October – December 2007 61

The general cannot but be righteous. If he is not righteous then he will not be severe. If he is not

severe then he will not be awesome. If he is not awesome then the troops will not die for him.

Thus righteousness is the head of the army.

The general cannot but be benevolent. If he is not benevolent then the army will not conquer. If

the army does not conquer, it will lack achievement. Thus benevolence is the belly of the army.

The general cannot be without Virtue. If he lacks Virtue then he will not have any strength. If he

lacks strength the advantages of the Three Armies will not be realized. Thus Virtue is the hands

of the army.

Military Methods1(p160)

LEADERS PROVIDE TIMELY REWARD AND PUNISHMENT

When the bestowing of rewards does not extend past the day, the imposition of punishments is

as quick as turning the face, and they are not affected by the man nor subject to external threats,

this is the general of the army’s virtue.

Military Methods1(p183)

In general, in employing rewards one values credibility. In employing punishments one values

certainty. When rewards are trusted and punishments inevitable wherever the eye sees and the

ear hears, then even where they do not see or hear there is no one who will not be transformed in

their secrecy. Since the ruler’s sincerity extends to Heaven and Earth, and penetrates to the

spirits, how much the more so to men?

Six Secret Teachings1(p181)

Victory in war lies in establishing awesomeness. Establishing awesomeness lies in uniting

strength. Uniting strength lies in rectifying punishments. By rectifying punishments, rewards are

illuminated.

Wei Liao-tsu1(p183)

Rewards should not be delayed beyond the appropriate time, for you want the people to quickly

profit from doing good. When you punish someone do not change his position, for you want the

people to quickly see the harm of doing what is not good.

Ssu-ma Fa1(p182)

If good and evil are treated alike, the meritorious officers will grow weary.

Huang Shih-kung1(p161)

The general creates awesomeness by executing the great, and becomes enlightened by rewarding

the small. Prohibitions are made effective and laws implemented by careful scrutiny in the use

of punishments. Therefore, if by executing one man the entire army will quake, kill him. If by

rewarding one man the masses will be pleased, reward him. In executing, value the great; in

rewarding, value the small. When you kill the powerful and the honored, this is punishment that

reaches the pinnacle. When rewards extend down to the cowherds, grooms, and stablemen, these

are rewards penetrating downward to the lowest. When punishments reach the pinnacle, and

rewards penetrate to the lowest, then your awesomeness has been effected.

Six Secret Teachings1(p181)

(Continued )
62 Army Medical Department Journal

Leadership Insights of the Chinese Military Classics

LEADERS UPHOLD THE HIGHEST STANDARDS OF ETHICAL BEHAVIOR

The T’ai Kung said, “If the ruler lacks moral worth, then the state will be in danger and the

people in turbulence. If the ruler is a Worthy or Sage, then the state will be at peace and the

people well ordered.”

Six Secret Teachings1(p129)

If he is greedy, treachery will be unchecked. If he is preoccupied with women, then the officers

and troops will become licentious.

Huang Shih-kung1(p161)

LEADERS SELECT GOOD SUBORDINATES AND ASSOCIATES

If the general relies solely upon himself, his subordinates will shirk all responsibility.

Huang Shih-kung1(p161)

When Worthy ministers are brought inside the government, depraved ones will be outside.

When depraved ministers are inside, Worthy ministers will perish. When within and without

lose what is appropriate, disaster and disorder will last through generations.

Huanh Shih-kung1(p135)

King Wen asked the T’ai Kung, “How does the ruler of the state and leader of the people come

to lose his position?”

The T’ai Kung said, “He is not cautious about whom he has as associates.”

Six Secret Teachings1(p134)

LEADERS HAVE LOYAL FOLLOWERS

Now one who is not loved and cherished in the minds of his men cannot be employed by me;

one who is not respected and feared in the minds of his men cannot be appointed by me. Love

follows from below, awesomeness is established from above. If they love their general they will

not have divided minds; if they are awestruck by their general they will not be rebellious. Thus

excelling at generalship is merely a question of love and awesomeness.

Wei Liao-tzu1(p143)

When the general regards his troops as young children, they will advance into the deepest

valleys with him. When he regards the troops as his beloved children, they will be willing to die

with him.

The Art of War1(p186)

T’ien Chi said, “Are not rewards and punishments the most urgent matters for the military?”

Sun Pin said, “They are not. Now rewards are the means by which to give happiness to the

masses and cause soldiers to forget death. Punishments are the means by which to rectify the

chaotic and cause the people to fear their superiors. They can be employed to facilitate victory,

but they are not urgent matters.”

Military Methods1(p183)
October – December 2007 63

LEADERS INSPIRE THEIR FOLLOWERS

Now what I term governing well means causing the people not to have any selfish interests. If

the people do not have selfish interests, then All under Heaven will be one family.

Wei Liao-tzu1(p93)

In general, on the battlefield, soon to become a graveyard, if the soldiers are committed to fight

to the death they will live, whereas if they seek to stay alive they will die.

Wu-tzu1(p115)

If you treat them deferentially, then the officers will die for you; the officers will die, but their

names will be transmitted. If you encourage them with fundamental pleasures, they will die for

their native places. If you importune them with family relationships, they will die for the

ancestral graves. If you honor them with feasts, they will die for food and drink. If you have

them dwell in tranquility, they will die in the urgency of defense. If you inquire about their

febrile diseases, they will die for your solicitude.

Military Methods1(pp172-173)

If one can cause his men themselves to want to fight, then no one will be able to oppose their

ardor.

Questions and Replies1(180)

The general creates awesomeness by executing the great.

Six Secret Teachings1(p181)

(Continued )

LEADERS REWARD SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE

Now the essence of employing the army lies in respecting the forms of propriety and making

salaries generous. When the proper forms of propriety are followed, wise officers will be

attracted. When salaries are generous, righteous officers will regard death lightly. Thus, if when

granting salaries to the Worthy you do not begrudge the expense, and when rewarding the able

are not dilatory, then the strength of your subordinates will be united, while your enemy’s state

will be reduced as the capable abandon him.

The way to employ men is to honor them with rank and supply them generously with material

goods, for then the officers will come of their own accord. Welcome them according to the

forms of propriety, stimulate them with righteousness, and then the officers will die for the state.

Huang Shih-kung1(p173)

When the ruler regards the good as good but doesn’t advance them, while he hates the evil but

doesn’t dismiss them; when the worthy are hidden and covered, while the unworthy hold

positions, then the state will suffer harm.”

Huang Shih-kung1(p82)

In general, if in warfare you are victorious, share the achievement and praise with the troops.

Ssu-ma Fa1(p171)
64 Army Medical Department Journal

LEADERS TAKE CARE OF THEIR FOLLOWERS

King Wen said to the T’ai Kung, “I would like to learn about the affairs of administering the

state. If I want to have the ruler honored and the people settled, how should I proceed?”

T’ai Kung, “Just love the people.”

King Wen, “How does one love the people?”

T’ai Kung, “Profit them, do not harm them. Help them to succeed, not defeat them. Give them

life, do not slay them. Grant, do not take away. Give them pleasure, do not cause them to suffer.

Make them happy, do not cause them to be angry.”

Six Secret Teachings1(p84)

In order to stimulate the soldiers, the people’s material welfare cannot but be ample. The ranks

of nobility, the degree of relationship in death and mourning, the activities by which the people

live, cannot but be made evident. One must govern the people in accord with their means to life,

and make distinctions clear in accord with the people’s activities. The fruits of the field and their

salaries, the feasting of relatives through the rites of eating and drinking, the mutual

encouragement in the village ceremonies, mutual assistance in death and the rites of mourning,

sending off and greeting the troops—these are what stimulate the people.

Wei Liao-tzu1(p173)

In general, with regard to the people: rescue them with benevolence.

Ssu-ma Fa1(p103)

When bestowing your beneficence upon the people you cannot begrudge the expense. The

people are like cows and horses. Frequently make gifts of food and clothing, and follow up by

loving them.

Six Secret Teachings1(p132)

The commander-in-chief’s method focuses upon winning the minds of the valiant; rewarding

and providing salaries to the meritorious; and having his will penetrate to the masses.

Huang Shih-kung1(p144)

The hegemons governed their officers by virtue of authority, bonding them through trust,

motivating them with rewards. When that trust declined the officers grew distant, and when

rewards became inadequate they would not submit to orders.

Huang Shih-kung1(p97)

Now the essence of employing the army lies in respecting the forms of propriety and making

salaries generous. When the proper forms of propriety are followed, wise officers will be

attracted. When salaries are generous, righteous officers will regard death lightly. Thus if when

granting salaries to the Worthy you do not begrudge the expense, and when rewarding the able

are not dilatory, then the strength of your subordinates will be united, while your enemy’s state

will be reduced as the capable abandon him.

Huang Shih-kung1(p173)

Leadership Insights of the Chinese Military Classics
October – December 2007 65

LEADERS SET THE EXAMPLE AND LEAD FROM THE FRONT

If you lead the men in person your soldiers will become the most valiant under Heaven.

Huang Shih-kung1(p146)

Now when the army is toiling on the march the general must establish himself as an example. In

the heat he does not set up an umbrella; in the cold he doesn’t wear heavier clothes. On difficult

terrain he must dismount and walk. Only after the army’s well is finished does he drink. Only

after the army’s food is cooked does he eat. Only after the army’s ramparts are complete does he

rest. He must personally experience the same toil and respite. In this fashion even through the

army is in the field for a long time, it will be neither old nor exhausted.

Wei Liao-tzu1(p153)

When Wu Ch’I engaged Sh’in in battle, wherever he encamped the army did not flatten the

paths between the fields. Young saplings provided protective covering against the frost and dew.

Why did he act like this? Because he didn’t place himself higher than other men. If you want

men to die you don’t require them to perform perfunctory acts of respect. If you want men to

exhaust their strength you don’t hold them responsible for performing the rites. Thus in antiquity

an officer wearing a helmet and armor didn’t bow, showing people that he is not troubled by

anything. To annoy people yet require them to die, to exhaust their strength, from antiquity until

today has never been heard of.

Wei Liao-tzu1(p153)

Now those who command the army must share tastes and attitudes with the officers and men,

and confront both safety and danger with them, for then the enemy can be attacked. Thus the

army will attain full victory, and the enemy will be completely destroyed.

He is with them in safety, he is united with them in danger. Thus his troops can be combined but

cannot be forced apart. They can be employed but cannot be tired out. With his beneficence he

ceaselessly gathers them together, with his plans he constantly unites them. Thus it is said that

when you cultivate beneficence tirelessly, with one you can take ten thousand.

Huang Shih-kung1(p154)

In antiquity, when outstanding generals commanded armies, there was once a case where the

commander was presented with a cask of sweet wine. The general had it poured into the river

and shared the drinking of the wine with the officers and men as it flowed downstream. Now a

cask of wine is unable to flavor a river of water, but the officers of the Three Armies were all

motivated to fight to the death because the flavor and taste reached them personally.

Huang Shih-kung1(p153)

The Military Pronouncements states, “When the army’s wells have not yet been completed, the

general does not mention thirst. When the encampment has not yet been secured, the general

does not speak about fatigue. When the army’s cook stoves have not yet been lit, the general

does not speak about hunger. In the winter he doesn’t wear a fur robe; in the summer he doesn’t

use a fan; and in the rain he doesn’t set up an umbrella.” This is termed the proper form of

behavior for a general.

Huang Shih-kung1(p154)

(Continued )
66 Army Medical Department Journal

Leadership Insights of the Chinese Military Classics

If you must fight again, swear an oath and assume a forward position.

Ssu-ma Fa1(p171)

If the general isn’t courageous, the officers and troops will be terrified.

Huang Shih-kung1(p161)

If you are respectful the troops will be satisfied. If you lead in person they will follow. When

orders are annoying they will be ignored. When Commands are issued in proper measure they

will be seriously regarded. When the drumbeat is rapid they will move quickly; when the

drumbeat is more measured they will move accordingly. When their uniforms are light they will

feel quick; if lustrous they will feel stalwart.

Ssu-ma Fa1(p138)

Thus those who engage in combat must take leading in person as their foundation in order to

incite the masses and officers, just as the mind controls the four limbs. If their minds are not

incited, then the officers will not die for honor. When the officers will not die for honor, then the

masses will not do battle.

Wei Liao-tzu1(p142)

The general shares heat and cold, labor and suffering, hunger and satiety with the officers and

men. Therefore, when the masses of the Three Armies hear the sound of the drum they are

happy, and then they hear the sound of the gong they are angry. When attacking a high wall or

crossing a deep lake under a hail of arrows and stones, the officers will compete to be first to

scale the wall. When the naked blades clash, the officers will compete to be the first to go

forward. It’s not because they like death and take pleasure in being wounded, but because the

general knows their feelings of heat and cold, hunger and satiety, and clearly displays his

knowledge of their labor and suffering.

Six Secret Teachings1(p171)

REFERENCES

1. The Art of the Warrior: Leadership and Strategy from the Chinese Military Classics. Sawyer RD, trans-ed. Boston,

MA: Shambhala Publications, Inc; 1996.

AUTHOR

COL Enzenauer is an active member of the Reserve Component as a Senior Flight Surgeon with the Colorado Army

National Guard. He served in Baghdad in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and prior to that in Afghanistan with a

Special Forces battalion in Operation Enduring Freedom. He is a Professor of Ophthalmology and an Associate

Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis, Tennessee. He is also a

practicing pediatric ophthalmologist at the Hamilton Eye Institute with the UT Medical Group, Inc.
October – December 2007 67

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SUGGESTED READING

領導 Leadership

指導力 Leadership Ability

主動 Leadership Initiative
68 Army Medical Department Journal

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