Joint Leadership Doctrine for the Strategic Leader

摘要

Civilian and military literature is replete with material addressing the familiartopic of leadership. The vast majority of that material focuses on the skills, attributes, competencies and characteristics essential for leaders involved in organizational or direct leadership positions. While the topic of senior or executive leadership has been addressed through the biographies of senior leaders and other anecdotal works, there is surprisingly very little in print, and virtually no Joint military doctrine, that addresses the realm of the strategic leader. The strategic leader will be considered to be that officer serving as a CINC of a Unified or Specified command. The question of a third dimension of leadership, the realm and environment of the strategic leader, above the operational and tactical will be addressed. In view of the dearth of JCS leadership doctrine, the origins of the problem of this doctrinal void will be examined and available service literature on strategic or executive leadership will be assessed for possible inclusion in future Joint doctrine. Recent research of active duty general officers by the Army Research Institute, as well as contemporary thinking from the world of business, will be appraised for its utility and suitability. A proposal for future Joint doctrine on the subject of strategic leadership will be presented.