Sources: General Service Administration, Dept of the Army Historical Summary FY89, OMF, USMA Graduate File Retention Organizations: Leadership Cultivation Psychology of Leadership March 2006

Why are you here?... today?... in Psychology of Leadership?... at Harvard College?... on this planet?

“The West Point Story” or What kind of leaders have we developed? and What kind of leaders will we need? The World Changed Now What? The World Changed Now What?

Biggest Barrier to Learning/Change?

VIDEO v v. ?

VIDEO v v. ?

To educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country; professional growth throughout a career as an officer in the United States Army; and a lifetime of selfless service to the Nation. USMA Mission

To educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country; professional growth throughout a career as an officer in the United States Army; and a lifetime of selfless service to the Nation. USMA Mission

Planned Change: People Development (Who you ARE) Education (What you KNOW) BE KNOWDO Training (What you DO) ?

“Schwarzkopf on Leadership”

VIDEO

“Competence & Character”

VIDEO

Even in War, Under the worst of conditions... People can be creative and have some fun!

Even in War, Under the worst of conditions... People can be creative and have some fun!

Can you TRAIN this?

Mike Krzyzewski (aka: Coach “K”)

“The largest developmental impact was raising the positive beliefs of followers, instilling in them the conviction that they were better at a performance task than they thought.” (Avolio & Luthans, 2006) Gallup Leadership Institute Study: Meta-analysis of all leadership development intervention Studies published in the past 100 years.

Conventional Wisdom: self-awareness is a good thing; people who have a realistic assessment of their strengths and weaknesses outperform those whose assessments are inflated; in short, unrealistic self-confidence leads to a fall. (Buckingham, 2005)

Current Research: suggests that accurate self- awareness rarely drives performance, and that in many circumstances, it actively retards performance. Only self-assurance drives performance, even when this self-assurance turns out to be unrealistic. (Buckingham, 2005)

Your job is NOT to provide your people with a realistic picture of the limits of their strengths and the liabilities of their weaknesses—you’re a manager, not a therapist. Your job is to get them to perform. (Buckingham, 2005)

In short, the state of mind you should try to create in them is one where they have a fully realistic assessment of the difficulty of the challenge ahead of them, and, at the same time, an unrealistically optimistic belief in their ability to overcome it. (Buckingham, 2005)

Coach K

Coach “K” at West Point

1992 Regional Championship Game