The Leadership Doctrine, which was published in 2016, is described as “a handrail” by Major General Paul Nanson, commandant of Sandhurst and British Army director of leadership, to guide actions and decisions. The two dovetail: the doctrine codifies what the Army does, and the CAL institutionalises and underpins the doctrine. This insight led to two actions: the writing of the British Army’s Leadership Doctrine and the establishment of the Centre for Army Leadership (CAL). While everyone had a vested interest in leadership, there was no one individual to write the policy, nobody with ultimate responsibility for specifically developing leadership and no place in which the discussion could be had. It was such a commonplace – the Army just ‘did’ leadership – that the concept had not been accorded that sort of focus. Nor did it have an individual point of contact, or specific place, for its leadership thinking. Recalling Henry Kissinger’s famous (if apocryphal) question – “Who do I call if I want to speak to Europe?” – the Army did not have an agreed definition of what it meant to be an Army leader. Whichever challenge was considered by the review, the answer always came back to leadership – and a fundamental insight emerged. How did the diversity and inclusion agenda map with the Army’s recruitment and retention strategies? Defence cuts meant that the Army was continuing to shrink. Soldiers had to cope with being back in barracks. As chief of the defence staff General Sir Nicholas Carter put it, in an era of cyberwarfare and fake news there were “no longer two clear and distinct states of ‘peace’ and ‘war’”. Its operating environment was changing, uncertain and complex. More pressingly, the Army needed to look hard at how it should adapt to future challenges. After prolonged and intense campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, it seemed the right time to reflect on mistakes and failures – and learn from them. The words ‘army’ and ‘leadership’ may seem an obvious combination, but back in 2015 the British Army commissioned a leadership review. He would be pleasantly surprised to learn that the Army he headed has taken him at his word – exercising that little bit of thought and practice is now being actively encouraged among sappers and surgeons, technicians and tank crew. “There is nobody who cannot vastly improve his powers of leadership by a little thought and practice,” said Britain’s great military leader Field Marshal William Slim.
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