For each competency area, there are links to related resources.
This list is not all inclusive, and it will continually evolve.
See also the competency models below with their development tips.

• Collaboration and Self Assessment: How to Combine 360 Assessments to Increase Self-Understanding (local copy), by Psotka et al, ARI Report, Mar 2007
• Army Excellence in Leadership (AXL): A Multimedia Approach to Building Tacit Knowledge and Cultural Reasoning (local copy), by Zyblut et al, ARI Report, Jan 2007

• Principles of Leadership (local copy), by Hon. Gordon England, Dep. Sec. of Def.
  1. Provide an environment for every person to excel
  2. Treat every person with dignity and respect - nobody is more important than anyone else
  3. Be forthright, honest and direct with every person and in every circumstance
  4. Improve effectiveness to gain efficiency
  5. Cherish your time and the time of others - it is not renewable
  6. Identify the critical problems that need solution for the organization to succeed
  7. Describe complex issues and problems simply so every person can understand
  8. Never stop learning - depth and breadth of knowledge are equally important
  9. Encourage constructive criticism
  10. Surround yourself with great people and delegate to them full authority and responsibility
  11. Make ethical standards more important than legal requirements
  12. Strive for team-based wins, not individual
  13. Emphasize capability - not organization
  14. Incorporate measures and metrics everywhere
  15. Concentrate on core functions and outsource all other

• Leadership Competencies: Are we all saying the same thing? by Horey and Fallesen, presented at 45th annual conference of the International Military Testing Association (IMTA), Nov 2003

• Mind Tools - variety of tools to build competencies and skills

  management of attention management of meaning

  management of trust management of self

• The Secrets of Great Groups, by Warren Bennis - "In short, despite their differences in style, the leaders of Great Groups share four behavioral traits. Without exception, the leaders of Great Groups:"
  • Provide direction and meaning
  • Generate and sustain trust
  • Display a bias toward action, risk taking, and curiosity
  • Are purveyors of hope

• Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership
• 10 Principles of Servant-Leadership, by Spears

  Listening Empathy Healing Awareness

  Persuasion Conceptualization Foresight

  Stewardship Commitment Community

• Strategic Leadership Competencies (local copy), by Wong et al, Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), Sep 2003

• Moral Reasoning as a Strategic Leader Competency (local copy), by Martin Cook, Professor of Ethics, US Army War College

• Leadership Behaviors at Air War College, ACSC research paper,
  a study of leadership behaviors needed at the strategic level in the Air Force
  • Appendix A - Yukl’s Taxonomy of Leadership Behaviors
  • Appendix B - Correlation of Leadership Behavior Taxonomies - comparison between Yukl, Mintzberg, Stogdill, Page, and others
  • Appendix C - Strategic Leader Development Inventory - from T. Owen Jacobs

• Critical Thinking Training for Army Schoolhouse and Distance Learning (local copy), ARI Newsletter, August 2003 - includes a diagram of Conceptual Model of Critical Thinking and expansion on the following "High Pay-off Critical Thinking Skills for Army Battle Command"
  • Seek a clear statement of the problem.
  • Recognize main point in a message.
  • Visualize plans to see if they achieve goals.
  • Construct a plausible story that ties all incidents together. ("...uncovering relationships, exploring alternative explanations of the information and keeping an open mind to detecting patterns")
  • Recognize fallibility and bias in own opinion.
  • Generalize from specific instances to broader classes.
  • Adopt multiple perspectives in interpreting events.
  • Determine when to seek more information.

• SBA Leadership Development (local copy) - short articles on leadership traits, mentoring, networking, roundtables, change management, differences between managing and leading, staying informed, and ethics

• Look for ways to capture and pass along the expertise and knowledge of the exiting commander. Build upon the knowledge of those who have gone before, instead of continually rediscovering (if you're lucky) the same knowledge.

• Change of Command - Leader Succession in the Military Organization, by Coye, in AU Review

• Human Capital - Succession Planning and Management Is Critical Driver of Organizational Transformation (local copy), GAO report, Oct 2003

• Next in Line: Five Steps for Successful Succession Planning, by Mamprin, for the Center for Association Leadership

• U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) guidance includes the following
  • Establish an Executive Succession Program - Agencies that have not already done so should consider succession planning as a systematic process for increasing the general level of executive effectiveness and assuring continuity of leadership. Many major private sector corporations already have succession programs linked to their business plan and to their leadership development programs. Increasingly, government agencies are turning to succession programs to address shortfalls in leadership.

• Succession Planning Slip sheet, from OPM, with some key items to consider and steps to take

• Executive Potential Program, NASA
  • NASA's Executive Potential Program is in an effort to identify high-potential candidates to take part in the Agency’s succession planning process. The Executive Potential Program is a leadership development program designed to broaden the participants' knowledge and understanding of the Agency through a combination of expanded work experiences and formal training. This expansion is designed to meet the needs identified by NASA leadership including:
    • Greater breath of experience and an increased understanding of government-wide issues and NASA’s role;
    • Greater integration of a one-NASA approach to problem solving and decision-making;
    • Greater number of developmental opportunities;
    • Utilization of Agency-wide programs as an integrated tool for strategic succession planning;
    • A way to enable more Agency-wide mobility; and
    • The incorporation of an Agency-wide selection process that includes NASA Enterprises.

• Leadership Succession Planning, TVA - includes identifying and developing candidates

• Leadership Potential Seminar, offered by the Federal Executive Institute and Management Deveopment Center - "assists agencies in their leadership succession planning through early development of current and future managers and leaders"

• Succession Planning for Key Positions, EPA workshop review - includes a brief case study of the US Navy's Port Hueneme Division succession problem and how they solved it - using MBTI, developing nomination process, interviewing, etc.

• Succession Planning- Building Leadership Capacity , Minnesota Dept of Transportation - includes developing and recruiting routes for succession

• Leadership and Succession Planning Model (local copy), Department of Education - diagrams out the process

• The Secrets of Great Groups, by Warren Bennis

• Best Practices, from GovLeaders.org - "how government managers can help make their work units more effective. Some of the articles are about leadership, while others discuss common sense management practices that tend not to be very common" - especially focused on hiring and developing key personnel

• Organizational and Leadership Principles for Senior Leaders, by Creech, in AU-24
  • Creech's 15 organizational principles

• Learning Organization Doctrine: Roadmap for Transformation (local copy), US Army Corps of Engineers - definitions, models, outcomes, etc.

• A Prescription for Systemic Learning Management, by Martin, in FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Dec 2005 - discusses Senge's five key interventions for continuous learning in an organization
  • mental models
  • personal mastery
  • team learning
  • shared vision
  • systems thinking

• A Model of Strategic Human Capital Management (local copy), GAO report
• Strategic Human Capital Management - the Key to Organizational Performance (local copy), GAO briefing

• Aptitude for Destruction, Volume 1 - Organizational Learning in Terrorist Groups and Its Implications for Combating Terrorism , by Jackson et al, RAND report, 2005

• Motivation (local copy), Army ROTC manual - discusses Maslow and 14 principles of motivation

• Motivation Theory - syllabus (local copy), (DOC version) - Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) - includes discussion of
  • Maslow' theory
    • limits in cross-cultural settings
    • Maslow’s esteem and self-actualization needs are highly personal and individualistic in nature, whereas societies that are collectivistic in nature define esteem and self-actualization in terms of one’s service to the group, community, and the whole nation. Therefore, the application of Maslow’s linear approach is limited in cross-cultural settings.
  • McClelland's Needs Model
  • Reinforcement Theory

• Basic Needs and Human Behavior - Navy Petty Officers Course
  • Student Guide (local copy)
  • Instructor Guide (local copy)

• How Linguistic Frames Affect Motivational Profiles and the Roles of Quantitative versus Qualitative Research Strategies, by Yeager and Sommer, in The Qualitative Report, vol. 10, number 3, Sep 2005

• See also consensus building - at Center for Negotiation Studies

• See also lessons learned - for instance, interagency - at AWC Gateway to Internet

• See also groupthink at AWC Gateway to Internet

• See also mentoring - at AWC Gateway to Internet

• See also working with difficult people - at AWC Gateway to Internet

• Teams - Air University bibliography

• Predicting Group Performance Using Cohesion and Social Network Density: a Comparative Analysis (local copy), by Peterson, AFIT, Mar 2007

• Cognitive-Based Metrics to Evaluate Collaboration Effectiveness (local copy), by Noble and Letsky, originally posted by the Office of Naval Research - including discussion of the Teamwork/Taskwork Model

• Leading Teams: Ten Top Tips (local copy), by Nelson, in Defense AT& L, Jul-Aug 2006 [AT & L = Acquisition, Technology & Logistics]

• Raising the Ante on Building Teams (local copy), by Jones, in Military Review, Jul-Aug 2004 - mentions ATLD study below

• Metaphors and Paradigms of Team Cognition: a Twenty Year Perspective, by McNeese, Penn. State Univ., in Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 47th Annual Meeting, 2003, posted by Office of Naval Research

• Personnel Turnover and Team Performance (local copy), by Levine et al, Army Research Institute (ARI) technical report, Mar 2005
• Toward an Understanding of Team Performance and Team Cohesion Over Time Through the Lens of Time Series Analysis (local copy), by McIntyre et al, Army Research Institute (ARI) Research Note 2003-07

• Structural Model of Team Collaboration (local copy, PDF), by Warner et al, posted by Office of Naval Research, 2003 - (local copy, DOC)

• Team Building: Developing a Productive Team, U. of Nebraska

• Team Building and Consensus Decisions - an Air War College lesson plan, relating to the movie 13 Days and a variety of books, articles, and models

• Team Building, a collection of articles

• Consensus Team Decision Making, chapter 11 in Strategic Leadership and Decision Making

• Team Building - ideas for developing the competency, from BLM expansion of OPM leadership competency model

• Team Building and Team Leadership, course offered from the Federal Executive Institute

• Advanced Team Decision Making: A Developmental Model (local copy), by Zsambok, Klein et al, ARI publication of research done for ICAF, Aug 1992
  • Based on our observations of numerous tactical and strategic decision making teams, and on a review of relevant literature, Klein Associates derived three key components of advanced team decision making: team self identity, team conceptual level, and team self monitoring. The model contains ten key behaviors critical to team development in these components.

• See also the models and tools section above

• See also the leadership research page

• To Build Resilience: Leader Influence on Mental Hardiness (local copy), by Bartone et al, Defense Horizons, Number 69, Nov 2009
  • In work groups such as the military, where individuals are regu­larly exposed to a range of stressors and hazards, leaders are in a unique position to shape how stressful experiences are processed, interpreted, and understood by members of the group. The leader who by example, discussion, and established policies communicates a posi­tive construction of shared stressful experiences exerts a positive influ­ence on the entire group in the direction of his or her interpretation of experience—toward more resilient and hardy sensemaking.

• Developing Strategic Leaders for the 21st Century (local copy), by McCausland, SSI, Feb 2008

• Senior Leader Perspective: Lorenz on Leadership, by the Air University Commander, in Air and Space Power Journal, Summer 2005 - discusses 13 personal leadership principles

• Officership in the Iraqi Armed Forces (local copy), by Nqshbande, in Military Review, May-June, 2006

• Agile Leaders, Agile Institutions: Educating Adaptive and Innovative Leaders for Today and Tomorrow, by Gehler, SSI, Aug 2005 (local copy)

• The Agile Organization: from Informal Networks to Complex Effects and Agility (local copy, 3 Mb), by Atkinson and Moffat, CCRP

• Arts and The Man, by Harlan, in Air University Review
  • Unfortunately, most people who believed that war is an art also believed that artistic talent cannot be acquired: some generals, like some dancers, are just more talented than others. Fortunately, the truth is otherwise. A person's intuition can be improved just as readily as his skill at cause-and-effect reasoning. Improvement appears difficult only because most people approach it backwards. Those who believe that strategy is an art, when asked how to acquire skill in it, usually recommend the study of earlier wars. Study is a rational activity: one takes a campaign apart, one piece at a time, to isolate the critical events and determine their effects. But art does not proceed bit by bit; it seizes things whole. Studying may sharpen one's eye for the painstaking detail needed to work out an operations plan. It does not teach how to conceive the strategy underlying the plan. A person improves his logical faculties by practicing logical thinking; he improves his artistic creativity by creating art!

• Mapping the Route of Leadership Education: Caution Ahead, by Reed et al, in Parameters, Autumn 2004

• Toxic Leadership (local copy), by Reed, in Military Review, Jul-Aug 2004

• The Education of "a Modern Major General" (local copy) by MGen Burns, in Naval War College Review, Winter 2004

• Preparing Leaders for Nationbuilding (local copy), by Donahoe, Military Review, May-Jun 2004

• Fourth Anton Myrer Strategic Leadership Conference: A “Leadership During Crisis” Workshop (local copy), Center for Strategic Leadership (CSL), July 2002 - with summaries of conclusions by various breakout panels
  • from one panel:
    All leaders need to be adept at strategic communications, especially media relations. Participating in the war of ideas is essential. Effective leaders must design and conduct outreach to help form opinions within the public sector. The group very strongly recommended against any retrenchment in outreach efforts by either civil government or the military.

• Humility As a Leadership Attribute (local copy), by Doty, Military Review, Sep-Oct 2000

• Emotional Intelligence
  • Emotional Intelligence - Implications for All U.S. Air Force Leaders, by Latour and Hosmer, in Air & Space Power Journal
  • Other resources on emotional intelligence for military leaders
  • Dynamic Followership: The Prerequisite for Effective Leadership, by Latour

• Transformation Begins With Leadership (local copy) - report on 11 Feb 04 speech by DoD's director of force transformation
  • "One of the great rules for transformation," he [Cebrowski] said, "is if you want to transform go where the money is and on arrival, change the rules. That's what we have to do.
  • Leaders must be willing to "devalue" things, said Cebrowski.
  • First and foremost, cultural change is a leadership issue, said the transformation chief. "Culture is what leaders believe and how leaders behave."

• Strategic Leader Readiness and Competencies for Asymmetric Warfare, by Williams, in Parameters, Summer 03

• Senior Officers and Strategic Leader Development (local copy), by McGuire, in Joint Force Quarterly, Autumn-Winter, 2001-2002 - compares the services and research results, including ranking by senior officers of the following five developmental processes, with respect to criticality to success
  • operational assignments
  • mentorship
  • institutional education
  • self-development
  • other developmental experiences

• Competency-Based Leadership for the 21st Century (local copy), by Pritchard, in Military Review, May-June, 1999

• Quotations from Chairman Powell: A Leadership Primer - actions which describe competencies and characteristics

• Preparation for battlefield leadership and principles for a leader's conduct in battle (local copy), by Lt Gen Harold "Hal" Moore, co-author of We Were Soldiers Once... and Young: Ia Drang--The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam
  - see also Landing Zone X-Ray website

• MajGen Perry M. Smith, USAF(Ret)
  • Learning To Lead, Part I - "30 common sense, often-forgotten tips for good leadership"
  • Learning To Lead, Part II - "additional 30 common sense leadership tips"

• The Mark of Strategic Genius, by Metz, in Parameters, Autumn 1991

• The "Staff Experience" and Leadership Development, by Gen John Shaud, in Airpower Journal

• Whispers of Warriors - The Importance of History to the Military Professional (local copy), by Congressman Ike Skelton, in Naval War College Review

• Clark will leave legacy of progress, article about Navy CNO and covenant leadership
  (more on covenant leadership in the Navy)

• Human Resource Competencies for the New Century, from Schoonover Associates

• Generalship: Qualities, Instincts, and Character, by Meigs, in Parameters, Summer 2001 -- developed from a presentation given by the author to the Brigadier General Training Course at Fort Leavenworth
  • "... generals, like athletes, are made not born, despite the fact that some are born with a natural ability that gives them more promise than the rest of us. But all of us need development to progress to the level of competence and character our potential allows."
  • discusses the "list of essential characteristics of generalship" - intellect, energy, selflessness, and humanity

• Jackie's Nine : Jackie Robinson's Values to Live By, book by Sharon Robinson
  • nine principles -- courage, determination, teamwork, persistence, integrity, citizenship, justice, commitment and excellence

• The Digital General: Reflections on Leadership in the Post-Information Age, by Harig, in Parameters, Autumn 1996
  • One of the particular ironies of the Information Age is that the shifts in expectations and perceptions cataloged here may create and support superb battle staff officers, because these men and women of the future will know how to leverage powerful analytical tools for tremendous advantages in speed, precision, and effect. Yet, these transformations also could supply a hubris for the digital general because they make it more difficult to shift from the operational to the strategic level of leadership.

    In the worst case, an officer corps mesmerized by high technology could produce a generation of senior leaders that is so insecure without their computer models and decision systems that they could not step beyond them. That could have dire consequences:

    Reluctance to "break out of the box." When any formal data system becomes a leader's primary commodity for strategic decisions, the demand for hard evidence can become the enemy of hunches, eventually suppressing new perspectives on a situation. A senior leader's experience shouldn't be entrapped by rigid analytical systems that force a choice from options in all of which ambiguity is a common circumstance. In fact, strategic leaders need some personal distance from hard data in order to sample other channels of reality, such as having face-to-face discussions to sound out the feelings behind the pros and cons of an issue.

    Death of the metaphor. Just as there are plentiful examples where critical scientific breakthroughs have occurred while the right brain (our intuitive, pre-verbal cognitive resource) was operating ahead of the pack, strategic vision requires an ability to think in metaphors, to seek related patterns in unrelated objects, situations, and events. True, our future senior leaders will have access to more information. The successful ones will be those who are best able to sort out the important from the interesting. The development and testing of analogies--the patterns that allow leaders to see the important under data overload, is a skill that could waste away under a sterile diet of expert systems and virtual reality simulations.

    Fear of risk and error. I doubt that the best microchip will ever exceed the value of "Kentucky windage" in decisionmaking, but the illusion of omniscience from multisensory information systems might make our leaders fear the "guesstimate," preferring to avoid risking mistakes by substituting certainty models for their intuition.

• Military Leaders’ Obligation to Justify Killing in War (local copy), paper by Kilner, presented at Joint Services Conference on Professional Ethics (JSCOPE), Jan 2000