What Is Leadership?

Leadership is all about emotions and feelings. Leadership is something you are—not something you do. There are no such things as leadership positions… only positions of power and authority. Whether someone demonstrates leadership while in those positions is an entirely different question. Leadership is always the employment  of Douglas McGregor’s Theory-Y and never the use of Theory-X. Of all the leadership theorists to date, no one has come closer to describing the true nature of leadership than James MacGregor Burns, the “father” of Transformational Leadership.

Army leadership doctrine has not significantly changed since the 1950s. Why? Because the Army has failed to understand the true differences between leadership and management as well as the differences between education and training. My analysis of the evolution of leadership doctrine is HERE (An Analysis of US Army Leadership Doctrinal Manuals 1946-2006 ).

U.S. Army Leadership Doctrinal Manuals

1946   FM 22-5 Leadership Courtesy and Drill
1953   FM 22-100 Command and Leadership for the Small Unit Leader
1965   FM 22-100 Military Leadership 
1973   FM 22-100 Military Leadership
1983   FM 22-100 Military Leadership
1990   FM 22-100 Military Leadership
1999   FM 22-100 Army Leadership: Be, Know, Do
2006   FM 6-22 Army Leadership: Competent, Confident, and Agile
2015   FM 6-22 Leader Development

The table below is my construct depicting how little the Army has incorporated the rich research in organizational psychology and leadership in its doctrine since the 1950s.  I firmly believe that Transformational and Servant Leadership are the only theories that can create an effective leadership climate in the Army today (because the Millennial and Generation Z generations have almost no propensity to serve):