Military leadership training : development of leadership behavior in the Finnish Defence Forces

Abstract

Leadership training has a special position in a military organization. When the training is successful, it has an effect not only on the changing comprehensive capabilities, but on the organization itself through the changing leadership culture. Due to a large training volume, change is reflected on the surrounding society as well. Therefore it is necessary to take leadership training and its foundation seriously enough. Discussion must be open and continuous. The objective of this book is to create preconditions for critical study of and open discussion about leadership training . The book takes quite an extensive look into the new leadership training program, starting from the metascience of leadership and finishing with concrete training examples and persona! development as a leader. lt is a prerequisite of constructive discussion that the subject area in question is known with sufficient precision.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part covers the theoretical foundation of the leadership training program from the viewpoint of research and educational planning. The second part covers the contents and methods of the leadership training program, as well as a description of the process of developing leadership training in a military organization. The second part is supplemented by instructions on how to interpret a deep leadership questionnaire. The instructions have been placed in the appendix.

The first part of the book is meant especially for those readers who are doing research on the same subject area or are otherwise interested in current development of the study of leadership as a part of leadership behavior. The first part also provides a foundation for scientific evaluation on a limited scale that is outside the program: the actual scientific basic study concerning the practicality of the deep leadership model is still being worked on.

The second part of the book is for general use. The part can be used as teaching materia! for the basic, advanced and continuing education of military leaders, in which case the actual teaching materia!, the booklet "Sotilasjohtajien johtaja- ja kouluttajakoulutus. Johtajaksi kasvaminen" (Leadership and lnstructor Training of Military Leaders. Growing to Be a Leader.), published by the Training Division of the Defence Staff, must be handed out to the students. The second part of this book also gives practical advice on and application examples of the use of teaching methods for those individuals who apply the leadership training program in their own training events in the Defence Forces as well as elsewhere. The second part provides a foundation for the development of persona! leadership behavior and replaces as teaching materia! the earlier (1997) research report "Varusmiesten johtajakoulutuksen perusteet".

Although the second part of the book includes a great deal of material related to the application of the leadership training program, the book is nevertheless a basic study in nature. ln order to preserve readability, the number of references has been limited. Books worth consulting are mentioned in the references to each chapter. Further information concerning the application of the leadership training program can be obtained from the books "Uuteen johtajakoulutukseen" (Towards the New Leadership Training)(2000) and "Johtajakoulutus murroksessa" (Leadership Training in Transition) (2000), which are recommended to be read together with this book especially in institutions of military education.

Professor Jarmo Toiskallio, Colonel Reijo Vainio, Colonel Tapio Partanen and Lieutenant Colonel Kari-Pekka Rannikko read the first draft of this book and provided significant suggestions for improvement. 1 would like to thank them and the entire staff of the National Defence College's Department of Management and Leadership for the support and help I have received in the past few years when the new leadership training program has been studied, improved and applied to practice. The final revision of the book was made by Chief of the Training Division, Colonel Kalle Liesinen. During his time as the Chief of the Training Division, Colonel Erkki Nordberg also created significant preconditions for the realization of the new leadership training program. A well-deserved but rarely expressed thanks goes to the many pioneers of the new leadership training program, who with their own work all over the Defence Forces have helped to get the change started.

As the reader will notice, the new leadership training program is not contents-wise in conflict with the books Sotilasjohtaja I and II, published in 1990; the entity of military leadership and the "characteristics" of a good military leader have not changed. Remembering a list of the qualities of leadership in an exam is not development as a leader, though - training must have an impact. ln this book I will show how it is possible to proceed from the theory of leadership to practice and to the level of individual learning and development.