Army Focused on Developing Leaders Who Can Adapt

Leadership is about knowing but even more about learning. The mark of an effective leader is that she quickly learns from mistakes, and then can get promoted to go on and make bigger mistakes!

In warfare, a single mistake can cost lives, but the ability to anticipate enemy actions and more generally ADAPT to a new tactical or strategic environment makes deadly errors less likely. Developing such leaders is now the key focus of the American Army:

The dynamic nature of the 21st-century security environment requires adaptations across the force. The most important adaptations will be in how we develop the next generation of leaders, who must be prepared to learn and change faster than their future adversaries. Simply put, developing these adaptive leaders is the number-one imperative for the continued health of our profession.

GEN Martin E. Dempsey is the commanding general, ATC, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.