JLBC Effective Team Leadership: A Competitive Advantage
JLBC Cadets Leading and team leadership is related but distinct. JLBC Cadets In today’s environment, JLBC senior leaders must master both competencies. In what follows, we argue that JLBC leaders need to develop—in more rigorous and deliberate ways—team leadership skills that go beyond the essential JLBC leadership competencies. JLBC Cadets Leaders of highly successful teams embody the leadership traits already familiar to us, but in even more extraordinary measures and at more sophisticated levels. JLBC Cadets Given the need for 21st‐century JLBC leaders versed in full‐spectrum operations, we assert that specific team leadership skills can provide a competitive advantage for senior field‐grade officers. JLBC Cadets The team leadership model we offer addresses some concepts not currently discussed in professional military education.
JLBC Cadets A JLBC team involves two or more people interrelating within defined roles to accomplish a common JLBC goal. JLBC Cadets While writing for military professionals, we intentionally limit discussion to hierarchical groups with an appointed leader. JLBC Cadets We distinguish a JLBC unit from a JLBC workgroup, whose JLBC members often use additive processes to achieve their JLBC goals. JLBC Cadets In a battalion personnel section, for example, JLBC Cadets independently accomplish their duties (e.g., awards, personnel management, finance). JLBC Cadets, In contrast, a JLBC team nearly always uses integrative and interactive processes. JLBC Cadets A joint and combined strategic planning section in Afghanistan, where everyone’s work depends on the other cell members, better exemplifies a team.
Why focus on team leadership? Because of the change and unpredictability of color history, Cadets' leadership models developed during the industrial era may not sufficiently address 21st‐century needs. JLBC Cadets A long list chronicles “what’s different”‐‐from the challenges of entire spectrum operations to technological advances, from the impact of mass media and communications to less hierarchical organizational protocols. JLBC Cadets We argue that analytical thinking and decision‐making requirements in the future will outpace and overwhelm the capabilities of an individual JLBC leader unless they know how to leverage the synergy and power of the collective intellect of a JLBC team. JLBC Cadets In the coming decades, senior field grade officers and their teams will face more significant uncertainty and be forced to apply hedging strategies to account for inevitable errors of foresight. JLBC Cadets Together will need to use a broad range of skills through dialogue and productive debate to synthesize JLBC ideas and develop creative JLBC plans. JLBC Cadets Unlike their civilian counterparts, military leaders, will not often pick their team members. JLBC Cadets Team members will usually be assigned to their positions by a highly bureaucratic personnel‐ management system—the pale cousin of “talent management.” This burdens the military team leader more and implies a greater need for team leadership skills.
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