Developing 21st Century Department of Defense Senior Executive Service Leaders. Thought Leadership Forum, Washington, DC., April 10, 2007

摘要

The mission of the Department of Defense (DoD) is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and protect the security of the United States. This mission is executed by maintaining an unmatched high-quality military and civilian force, deterring war in the most dynamic environments known, and protecting the interests of the United States in domains previously unimagined. For such an essential mission and in such times of challenge, the quality and caliber of executive leadership can be the difference between organizational success and failure. Therefore, it is the responsibility of enlightened leadership to see that systems and processes are designed, implemented, managed and continuously transformed to create the quality and caliber of executive leaders needed to overcome the challenges facing the organization. The DoD Senior Executive Service (SES) leaders are a key and valued leadership resource for the Department. They bring to bear extraordinary abilities and skills in executing the mission of the Department of Defense. However, at times the SES leaders are an underutilized executive resource. Their career path can be arbitrarily segmented and unpredictable, without clear, continuous and systematic approaches that would maximize their potential.