Be - Know - Do
Study.
How much do you work on your own development?
Borrow One Idea: Be - Know - Do
Attributes and competencies. Who you are and what you do.
Who we are and what we do defines us as an individual. As managers. As leaders. As parents. As community members. As citizens.
Who we are is defined by attributes: what we need to be as an individual (the personal characteristics we should reflect) and what we need to know in order to excel. What we do is defined by competencies: the actions and outcomes that we must take in order to excel.
The US Army combines these into their leadership requirements model: who you need to be, what you need to know, what you need to do.
Reflect on this model and extend it beyond the military.
What makes sense?
Where do you match, or fall short?
What might be missing?
Since we’re not born with all these attributes and competencies, they must be developed.
Development depends on having clear purpose for why, what, when and how to develop. Good leader development is purposeful and goal oriented. A clearly established purpose enables leaders to guide, assess, and accomplish development.
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A clear leadership requirements framework provides leaders the basis to assess their strengths and developmental needs and to determine goals for improvement. The Army’s leadership requirements model specifically provides leaders with enduring attributes and competencies. The model provides a consistent reference point throughout professional and personal development progression. Leaders must improve in all the leader competencies, become more knowledgeable about the way the military operates, and understand how to operate in complex geopolitical situations.
FM 6-22, Sections 1-10 and 1-13, PDF pages 16-17
Do you have a clear leadership requirements model for yourself?
This week, borrow with pride and spend thirty minutes developing your own personal requirements model based on the Be-Know-Do framework. Who do you want and need to be? What do you want and need to know? What actions and outcomes do you want and need to create? Are your definitions enduring or situational? How will you develop yourself?
Get Familiar With: Developing Leaders and Being Developed
Leadership development, just like any other journey of development, should be considered a continuous, life-long journey. It’s hard work.
Developing leaders and being developed by others requires mutual understanding between leaders and subordinates—both about the work involved in developing others and work needed to become a good leader.
The developmental experience can be challenging and requires openness and a willingness to take risks and learn from experiences (both successes and failures). Those who lead and develop other leaders must treat experiences as lessons learned sources.
FM 6-22, Section 1-5, PDF page 15
Education, training, and experiences to develop leaders are delivered, according to the US Army, via ‘three mutually supported domains’: institutional, operational, and self-development.
Institutional: what the organization paying you wants you to develop.
Operational: what the world (or school of hard knocks, if you prefer) forces you to develop.
Self-development: what you identify you want and need to develop.
The common thread between all three domains is that they support, but are not individually sufficient, for our development. They need each other and they need us to do the hard work.
How much do you work on your own development? Are you waiting for institutions to develop you? Do you have a framework for your own development or are you relying entirely on others?
The Guided Discovery for this week will explore the tenets and strategies of Developing Leaders, the US Army’s leadership requirements model, and the evolution of expectations and actions in leadership development through career transitions.
Learn More: Suggested Reading
FM 6-22, Developing Leaders
Pages 1-1 through 1-7 based on printed document (PDF pages 15-21)
An overview of the US Army’s leader development tenets, definitions, and expected evolution over a career
These materials will be the focus of Thursday’s Guided Discovery
Catch Up: Last Week’s Content
Study: Are We Doing the Right Things?
Guided Discovery: The Operations Process - Assessment
Always be asking:
1. What is the connection with my leadership development?
2. How does this change my thinking on management?
3. How does this influence planning for life?
4. What can I borrow with pride to use this week?