Re: Leadership Training
LCol Gary T. Hook (ghook_at_vulcan.achq.dnd.ca)
Wed, 3 Mar 1999 21:19:04 -0600
I have a lot of difficulty with the discussion going on here. On one hand
we are discussing CRM and on the other we are talking about leadership
training. Captaincy requirement for the civilian airline industry, the same
as is required in the fighter force for a mass attack lead, is not CRM! Yes
a good leader must have effective CRM skills as part of his tool kit BUT
leadership training and CRM are not the same. Do we not send all the First
Officers on the same CRM courses???
A lot of good ideas have been proffered. Perhaps the most valuable is that
leadership is not a skill set that can be taught like addition. One can
teach and teach the basics, the principles and the advanced but regardless
of the investment, some folks do not develop into effective leaders. We can
have effective administrators that are empowered with leadership roles.
They do a commendable job with the administration but on the personnel side
they can fail miserably.
Yes leadership is an art. It does require basic skill sets that can and
must be taught. But like everything else in life when we send individuals
off for training but there are varying levels of success.
So what do we do? We continue to teach and emphasize the basics, the
principles of what makes a good leader. My personal number one
characteristics are trustworthiness and credibility.
What are we looking for in CRM? I would suggest it is an effective decision
making strategy for an individual, the capability to identify the high level
goal, i.e. what is important right now. Out of our huge class of successful
CRM class graduates though will also emerge the leaders, those select few
that can embody the skill sets of CRM and decision making but have that
unique ability to foster trust from their subordinates, a sound decision
making making skill set AND the talents to foster a sense of credibility.