Leader Education

Are leaders born or made is an often debated question by leadership students and practitioners. Like many, I’ve always thought the answer is simply yes, leaders are born and made. I believe these two processes for making a leader are not mutually exclusive. A leader will be challenged to succeed without some measure of innate attributes such as charisma or a values system instilled during early formative years.

However, the same leader with the great genes and optimal upbringing will also be challenged to succeed without formal leadership training and education. Simply put, while just about anyone can lead, those who possess innate leader attributes along with good leader education are best positioned to succeed.

The military is very adept at breaking down a citizen and rebuilding them into a Soldier, Airman, Sailor or Marine. The military’s model for developing leaders is no exception. In fact, making leaders is an absolutely critical task for the profession. Fundamentally based on an up or out structure, if the military is not well designed to educate and inspire leaders it will surely fail.

It is military leader education I want to examine for a few moments in the last installment of my three part blog on leadership.  As you’ve probably already guessed, I am a very big fan of military leader development! I think there is much to be learned about leader education by looking at how the military gets after it.

Like most things in the military, leader development is centrally managed but decentralized in execution. While there are Joint Chiefs of Staff Instructions covering Professional Military Education Policy, each service has its own model for educating leaders. For the sake of brevity and to stay with what I know, we’ll look at the leader education of an Army officer.

Important to note upfront, Army leader education and training manifests itself in many forms. Leaders are provided numerous training opportunities to increase technical or tactical proficiency and thusly develop as a leader. Ranger, Airborne and the Air Defense Artillery Fire Control Officers course are just three of literally hundreds of offerings.

These training opportunities are an absolutely critical piece of Army leader development however, I’d assert Professional Military Education (PME) and civilian schooling are the primary means for Army leader education.

PME is a required baseline of education for every Army officer and consists of a primary, intermediate, and senior level. Each level prepares the officer to think critically, analyze complex problems, communicate effectively and most importantly, successfully conduct military operations at the tactical, operational and strategic levels. As it relates to leadership though, Professional Military Education teaches the officer, at the appropriate stage in their career, how to become an effective direct, organizational and strategic leader.

The primary level of PME focuses on Company Grade officers who the Army relies upon for direct or task oriented leadership. This level begins during a cadet or officer candidates’ commissioning source- Officer Candidate School (OCS), Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), and the United States Military Academy. Education for direct leaders continues as a Second Lieutenant immediately following the officer’s commissioning, during Army branch specific Basic Officer Leader’s Course (BOLC).

After a Lieutenant gains operational experience at one or occasionally two assignments over the next 3-4 years, they attend the Captain’s Career Course (CCC). Both BOLC and CCC use the tactical knowledge required for a specific branch to refine and hone the direct leadership skills taught at the officer’s commissioning source and learned during on the job experiences. Upon graduation from CCC, the officer is expected to be highly proficient in direct leadership, ready to lead company sized elements on the toughest tactical missions.

At about ten years of service, successful officers are promoted to the Field Grade officer ranks. Here the officer is expected to develop skills to become a master of organizational planning and processes. The Field Grade officer must influence larger Army formations containing multiple sub organizations towards a common purpose. Almost immediately after promotion to Major, an Army officer will complete required Intermediate Level Education (ILE).

The Army’s ILE is delivered in a manner commensurate with an organizational leader’s level of importance and of the officer’s personal career journey. ILE is a ten month graduate level experience conducted in one of two formats, the “resident” course at the Command General Staff School in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas or a “blended” ILE experience provided partially through distance learning as well as attendance at one of four satellite campuses. Additionally, a few select officers may meet Army ILE professional military education requirements through attending a sister service or allied partner schools.

At around the twenty year mark and based on an officer’s performance during battalion level command, they are considered for promotion Colonel and attendance at strategic level professional military education. The strategic level of PME is called the Senior Service College (SSC) and is the premier military educational opportunity during an officer’s career. Officers selected to attend the Senior Service College may meet the requirement not only at their own service SSC but also at sister service “War Colleges” or numerous strategically focused civilian academic programs and fellowships.

We have reviewed briefly the required Professional Military Education for Army officer leader development. Now, let’s take a look at a bit squishier leader education requirements, civilian education.

While it is required by law for Army officers to earn a Bachelor’s degree before or shortly after commissioning, you will find no hard and fast regulation requiring a Master Degree for continued service and promotion. That being said, it is certainly an unwritten rule officers should earn a Master Degree. While there are a few officers who achieve the rank of Lieutenant Colonel or even Colonel without a Master’s, these officers are certainly exceptions to the unwritten rule.

Fortunately, the Army does a pretty good job at offering several opportunities to earn an Army funded graduate level degree over the course of a career. In some cases, the PME School itself is a regionally or nationally accredited degree granting institution. In the case of Intermediate Level Education and the Senior Service College, a Master’s Degree in “Strategic Studies” or a similar major is commonly awarded upon completion. Still another way for the officer to earn a Master’s degree, is Advanced Civil Schooling (ACS). The Army fully funds selected officers for an advanced degree in a particular area of study (graduate level or in some cases, doctorate) at a civilian university. Upon graduation, the officer is assigned to a utilization tour where the specialized degree is put to good use.  Lastly, Army tuition assistance is available to cover graduate school tuition fees for officers who choose to pursue a degree on their own.

Of course there are exceptions to every Army rule. Nurses, lawyers, chaplains, and doctors have a different set of Professional Military Education and civilian education requirements. What I’ve just briefly outlined is the leader education model for most “M1A1” Army officers.

So why should anyone care about this? First, our military spends A LOT of treasure on leader education and training. My assumption is vastly more, proportionally, than the private sector. In 2016 the Army budgeted nearly a quarter of a billion dollars on professional military education, a 21% increase over the previous year.   Multiply by four services and you’ve got a significant (and steadily increasing) outlay annually for military leader development.

Just in my own career, taxpayers paid for one bachelor’s degree, two Master’s degrees and a certification! Over the course of a 24 year active duty Army career, I spent nearly four years serving in academic environments learning how to lead all while collecting a military salary.

Second, the military’s approach to leader education and training just plain works. I don’t have a lot of scientific evidence to back this assertion up and there are of course, a very few notable failures, but speaking on a personal level, I see how military leader education impacted my life.  On the born or made scale, I definitely lean more on the made side of the spectrum. I was the first person from my immediate family to graduate college and came from a solidly working class family with not a lot of leadership experience.

Just looking at my background, some would probably have predicted a low probability for success as a leader. But thanks to the Army leader education model, I beat the odds! This backwards country boy was transformed into a leader able to perform successfully at the strategic level. Many of the leaders I respect the most were similarly transformed from unlikely beginnings to competent and skilled leaders.

Don’t infer by my exclusion, that I believe other leadership models and education processes are not effective. In the year since I’ve returned back to the civilian workplace, I’ve been very impressed by the leaders I have encountered and how well trained they are. As stated, I assume industry invests much less in leader education than the military proportionally, yet leaders remain highly effective. I can only speak on what I know and honestly haven’t had enough time back in the civilian workplace to make many comparisons.  I am looking forward to learning about and experiencing civilian leader education.  

The military’s challenging leader education model was so impactful in my life, I wrote a book about it! I think a lot of people might be interested and even a little surprised to learn how much our nation’s military invests in developing leaders. “Writing to Lead, A Look at Military Leader Development through Academic Writings” explores the direct to strategic levels of leadership through the lens of academic work required for some of the education gates we’ve just briefly covered.

Best of all, the e-book is only $2.99! Buy now! Amazon reviews are greatly appreciated!

I am looking forward to exploring interesting topics to include leadership and more during future blogs! Use the links in the about section below to follow on Facebook or subscribe for emails to receive updates on the latest weekly blog at www.normspivey.com!     

The views, opinions and biases expressed are the authors and do not reflect those of the U.S. Army or the Department of Defense.