|
Learn to Lead
learntolead@earthlink.net
|
|
|
-
Leadership for Intelligence Professionals
Suggested Syllabus
March 2009
-
This course is leadership education. It does not pretend to “teach” students to become Leaders. Only the students can teach themselves to become Leaders through self-assessment, personal development, continuous learning, practice and experience. Rather, this course is intended to provide a foundation for that career-long effort by the students. In order to provide the motivation and understanding required for the student to undertake the effort; the course teaches “what” Leadership is and “what” it requires from the Leader, “why” it is important and “when” it is useful. In order to assist the student in continuing the development of their leadership potential, the course also offers some suggestions for the “how” of Leadership. With that support it is hoped that the students will continue the development of their own personal, professional leadership talent in the performance of their daily work as the front-line of America’s defense.
Leadership is a talent that professional intelligence officers require as the basis for their own continued professional growth and success; but more importantly, to motivate the continued outstanding professional performance of Intelligence Community personnel; and to maintain the highest quality staff work, facilitate the highly coordinated intelligence process, and assure outstanding management of the organizations within the intelligence and national security communities.
To that end, the course begins by clarifying how a person can become a Leader, differentiating Leadership from management, defining Leadership as it pertains to the Intelligence Community, and identifying the basis for Leadership. It, then, emphasizes the core traits and other personal qualities required by successful Leaders. But, even more importantly, the course focuses on the importance of a Leader's character as the basis for Leading and for ethical decisionmaking in an organizational context.
Next, the various types of Leaders and styles of Leadership are introduced and the requirement for a Leader to develop the personal traits, qualities and skills to be any type of Leader and use any style of Leadership is emphasized. Then, specific competencies and skills required by all Leaders are discussed.
As a mid-term exam or exercise, the course suggests that the students undertake a Self-Assessment to identify their personal strengths and weaknesses for Leadership to guide them in identifying the traits, qualities and skills in which they need further development by training and mentoring. Guidance is provided for the student to follow in doing so. After review and comment on that Self-assessment by the Professor or other qualified Advisor, the student is encouraged to undertake the development of a Personal Leadership Development Plan as a final exam or exercise. Again guidance is provided and examples provided. Each organization in the Military Services, the Intelligence Community or other Department has its own training establishment that will provide practical courses in leadership skills and its own career advancement program to offer mentoring and practice for leadership development as well as select individuals for initial leadership experience. The Self-Assessment and Personal Leadership Development Plan are key to the students making the most of those career development opportunities.
Finally, the course focuses on the role of Leadership in meeting the practical leadership requirements of an intelligence professional’s career in staff positions, in coordinating intelligence activities and products by Leading teams and in senior-level management positions within the Intelligence Community.
During the course students are encouraged to read several leadership books and prepare a critical review of the leadership aspects of those books, relating the relevance or utility of the author's concept, recommendations or advice to their real world personal experiences and career requirements.
|
|
-
-
COURSE OBJECTIVES
The overall course objective is to emphasize to the students their future role as mid- and senior-level Leaders who will be primarily responsible for the continued outstanding professional performance of Intelligence Community personnel, and the excellent staff work, highly coordinated functioning and management of the organizations comprising the intelligence and national security communities. It aims to stimulate their enthusiasm, interest and preparations for assuming that role by providing the background, understanding and knowledge of Leadership and the self-understanding necessary to continue the development of their own leadership talent. The course covers eight broad topics.
Topic Objectives: Introduction to Leadership
-
To introduce the importance of Leadership and its value to the organization.
-
To consider how Leaders are created.
-
To recognize the difference and relationship between Leadership and management.
-
To define "Leadership" in terms of the intelligence and national security communities.
-
To develop an understanding of the basis for Leadership and what is required to achieve it.
Go There____
Topic Objectives: Leadership Traits and Qualities.
-
To highlight the widespread consensus that certain "core traits" or personal qualities are required as a necessary, but not sufficient, basis for successful Leadership.
-
To identify those core traits and discuss each one in detail, indicating its vital contribution to leadership success.
Go There____
Topic Objectives: The Leader's Character
-
To emphasize the need for the personal character and professional activities of a Leader to be grounded on personal integrity derived from strong personal values and well-developed principles drawn from those values.
-
To encourage students to review and prioritize their own personal values, develop some principles for action reflecting those values, and make acting on those principles a habit.
-
To introduce the students to some broad principles upon which Leadership can be based.
-
To emphasize the difficulty of making ethical decisions and, therefore, the use of strong personal values and principles as the basis for those decisions and the need to continually prepare and practice.
Go There____
Topic Objectives :Types of Leaders and Styles of Leadership.
-
To introduce the various theoretical "types" of Leaders and indicate the the core traits and personal qualities that each type of Leader relies on for success.
-
To indicate how, in the real world, organizations require one or another of those types of Leaders to meet the major task facing that organization.
-
To introduce the concept of leadership "styles" and how those styles can be used.
-
To emphasize the need for a Leader to develop the talent to be any type of Leader and use any style of Leadership that may be required.
Go There____
Topic Objectives: Leadership Competencies
-
To introduce the concept of Emotional Intelligence and highlight the importance of a Leader developing and demonstrating a high level of social awareness and social skills.
-
To identify those professional leadership competencies and skills that any Leader of the Intelligence Community will need to assure a success.
Go There____
Topic Objectives: Followership, Leadership and the Staff Officer.
-
To clarify the role of the staff officer as both a follower and Leader.
-
To identify the value and utility of such a position as the basis for developing leadership talent.
-
To provide the student with practical advice for serving in a staff position.
Go there____
Topic Objectives: Leadership in Intelligence Coordination: Leading Teams.
-
To describe the various types of groups or "teams" used to accomplish coordination in the Intelligence Community.
-
To highlight their differences.
-
To describe the role and functions of a team leader and suggest some qualities and skills that are needed to be successful..
Go there____
Topic Objectives: Leadership and Management
-
To insure that students understand the dual role of being both a Leader and Manager.
-
To indicate the requirements and responsibilities of that position and to describe the inherent difficulties and suggest how they can be reduced.
-
To highlight the key roles of assessing the problems or need for improvement in an organization, selecting the management concepts or practices needed to solve the problem or bring about the improvement, and then to pave the way for the introduction of those management concepts or practices.
-
To mention some of the newer management concepts introduced into use within the military and government and discuss their applicability.
-
To emphasize the importance of understanding the nature of organizations and organizational culture.
Go there____
|
|
-
COURSE MATERIALS
Given that this course is not a general leadership course, but rather a leadership course directed at a specific group of military and civilian intelligence professionals, the course texts and supplemental reading materials, as well as the quotes and examples used in the topic texts, have, in so far as possible, been drawn from military and civilian public service leadership and intelligence books and articles. Unfortunately, that literature is not as extensive as business leadership literature and it has been necessary to use academic and business literature as well. Whenever possible, when doing so, leadership classics and material by authors having government and public service background has been used.
The Leader’s Companion: Insights on Leadership Through the Ages (New York: The Free Press; 1995).
-“This book…had its genesis as a collection of readings for an introductory course on leadership…. It serves as a guided introduction to the rich and diverse perspectives on leadership through the ages and throughout the world.”
-It contains excerpts from writings by authors of the all the classic leadership concepts.
Desmond D. Martin and Richard L. Shell, Management of Professionals: Insights for Maximizing Cooperation, 1st Edition (Marcel Dekker: 1988).
-“This on-the-job reference provides a compact overview of tested management practices and the latest concepts for people trained as professionals who are, or suddenly find themselves, thrust into a management position.”
-An older but useful book because it is intended as an introduction to both management and leadership for professionals newly promoted to management positions. While titled “management” the book covers both the classically defined functions of management ( in 4 chapters and 121 pages) and much of what this course defines as Leadership (in 6 chapters and 145 pages) plus several related topics.
-!Caution, the 2nd Edition is heavily revised specifically for food service professionals and is not suitable for this course!
Montgomery Van Wart, The Dynamics of Leadership in Public Service: Theory and Practice. (M.E. Sharpe, 2005).
-“This book addresses leadership in public organizations….it offers a comparative review of the theoretical literature on leadership from a public service perspective….The book is written for practitioners, students, academics and instructor. Practitioners and students will find the plan of the book very easy to follow because a leadership action cycle provides a single heuristic model of the leadership process.”
-A newer and more advanced book devoted entirely to a deeper and more thorough coverage of leadership theory and its application for public organizations.
Joseph S. Nye, The Powers to Lead (Harvard Univ Press: 2008).
-This book is "intended to be a “short analytical primer” to “tell people about power and leadership” so that they have the “tools to assess and judge their leaders, whether past or present, public or private.”
-A new book by an academic who has also been a senior national security and intelligence professional (Under Secretary of State, Assistant Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the National Intelligence Council) now teaching Leadership.
-The text is replete with examples of the use of different kinds of power by Leaders in the broader context of high-level national, political, social, military and professional affairs. His discussion of Leadership and power in that broader context should be of interest and, perhaps, valuable for national security and intelligence professionals who are routinely required to assess the use of power by foreign Leaders. More importantly, for aspiring national security and intelligence professional Leaders, Nye's book provides valuable insights and guidance based on experience in Leading in the type of organizations in which they work.
Supplemental Readings
For each topic, a number of articles from various journals are listed as useful supplemental reading. Most of the articles can be downloaded free via the internet using the Proquest or EBSCO, or similar data bases which can be accessed from most university and public libraries. Many of those libraries will also provide a user ID and password so that those data bases can also be accessed from home. Harvard Business Review articles are not on those data bases but can be accessed directly at www.harvardbusinessreview.com.
Materials for undertaking a Self-Assessment.
-Pamphlet: Introduction to Type in Organizations, Susan Krebs Hirsch and Jean M. Kummerow (Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press; 1998).
-Pamphlet, Introduction to Type, Sixth Edition, Isabel Briggs Myers (Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press; 1998).
-Pamphlet: Leadership , Temperament and Talent, David Keirsey, (Del Mar CA: Prometheus Nemesis Book Co; 1998).
-Pamphlet: The Sixteen Types, David Keirsey (Del Mar CA: Prometheus Nemesis Book Co; 1998).
-Scorable Form: MBTI, Katharine C. Briggs, and Isabel Briggs Myers (Mountain View, CA: 2000).
Website-based materials
-Guidance for Self-Assessment.
-Worksheet for Self-Assessment
-Guidance for a Personal Leadership Plan.
-Examples of Personal Leadership Development Plans
-Guidance for a Personal Leadership Philosophy
-Examples of a Personal Leadership Philosophy.
When this course was give as a Masters-level semester-long course, students were required to:
-As a mid-term exam, submit a Self-Assessment based on the guidance provided. The review of the Self-Assessments was made based on adherence to the guidance, the extent to which the materials provided were exploited and grades were based on the amount of thought and work apparent from the effort. Extensive feedback was given, drawing from the materials provided and the Professor's experience.
-As a final exam, develop and submit a Personal Leadership Development Plan based on the Professor's feedback on the Self-Assessment and guidance provided. Extra credit was available for developing a Personal Leadership Philosophy. Again, grades were based on adherence to the guidance and apparent thought and effort put into the Plan. Encouragement to implement the plan was given.
-Provide proof of reading one or more leadership books from an extensive reading list by submitting one or more papers of varying lengths depending on the number of books written. The papers were not to be book reviews, but rather critical reviews of the author's concept, recommendations or advice keyed to the student's experience in the real world and the relavancy and utility for the students career leadership development.
|
|
|
|
