United States Navy Leadership

The United States Navy Leadership Development

Of the three dimensions of leadership—moral, physical and intellectual—the most difficult to harvest is moral development. The physical attributes of leadership—courage, bearing, endurance, and even appearance, can be cultivated through disciplined training. The intellectual aspect of leadership can be cultivated through intensive study of human nature, crisis management, leadership and managerial technique, philosophy, logic, and so on.

The moral aspect of leadership—personally understanding, embracing, and inculcating ethical conduct in others is far more difficult to develop in leaders and can be far more time consuming. In spite of decades of highly publicized moral/ethical failures on the part of its military members, the DoD has not achieved a satisfactory method for addressing the moral development of service men and women (Dutton, 2003).

Compliance

Compliance is more about simple behavior modification than it is about some deeper, existential understanding of the role of the leader and the meaning of life. Every moral development program, whether it is associated with acculturating an individual to the military service, a religious order, or a new family, begins with an expectation that behavior may indeed have to be modified. Because the regimented demands of military life are so drastically different from life in the civilian world, this first step—fashioning a soldier, sailor or Marine capable of complying with critical orders quickly and unfailingly—is typically quite harsh. The more demanding and exacting the organization, the more demanding and exacting this introduction. Thucydides words of 404 BCE apply equally today, "We must remember that one man is much the same as another, and that he is best who is trained in the severest school (Gall, 2003, 45)."

For those with a background and preparation suited to the new calling, achieving compliance may be a minimally intrusive process. For those requiring serious behavior modification, the paradigm shift may be long and painful. Some willingly comply with a new set of rules, standards, and beliefs. Some fight the process and are incapable of ever living “within the system.” Some avoid complete compliance and still manage to succeed within the organization—with both negative and positive results.

Moral Understanding

The leap between compliance and understanding is never made by some individuals. For reasons of attitude or intellect, some are incapable of reflection on the purpose of rules, standards, and beliefs. Others simply reject the concepts underlying those organizational rules and standards. The most important transitory step from the role of follower to that of leader is the step from compliance to moral understanding (Gibson, 2004).

Moral Maturity

Prussian soldiers distinguished between loyalty, compliance, and faith in superiors and loyalty to and faith in their country. Soldiers who failed their loyalty or compliance with the directives of their immediate superiors were guilty of hochverrat—a form of treasonous disobedience punished with a beating. While soldiers who failed the very concepts and principles their country was based upon were guilty of Landesverrat—a very serious form of treason punishable by death. Their moral development demanded not only a disciplined response to immediate superiors, but also ...