Defence

Defence Personnel Executive

Shaping our future leaders

Defence needs people who are well prepared to lead in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous situations. CMDR Peter Kelly explains the role of a small team based at the Australian Defence College...

The Centre for Defence Leadership Studies (CDLS) reflects Defence's ongoing commitment to develop and encourage excellence in command, leadership and management.

The Centre does not aim to direct or duplicate existing command, leadership and management activities. Rather, it acts as a central Defence point of contact, providing a framework for sharing information and tabling concepts. An example of this coordination work is the current production of the Joint Leadership Doctrine, due out for comment in July 2006.

The Centre also assists with command, leadership and management activities, both within and outside the ADC. For example, the Centre is engaged in delivering the Leadership module for Navy's CO/XO Designate Course as well as refining command, leadership and management modules of courses at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) and the Australian Defence College.

Other functions of the Centre include research on command, leadership and management issues of interest to Defence and the subsequent production of relevant papers and articles. Publications produced by the Centre include research papers by staff and students at the Centre, conference proceedings and speeches by senior Defence leaders or visiting officials.

The Centre has developed a series of Australian-centric command, leadership, management and ethics case studies. These include studies on the RAAF F-111 deseal/reseal program; the Army Black Hawk disaster; the fire on HMAS Westralia; the Certain Maritime Incident ("children overboard") affair; and Operation Bali Assist.

Case studies currently under development include the Senate inquiry into military justice; the use of torture in the war on terror; United Nations command failure at Srebrenica; and the Tarnak Farm friendly fire incident in Afghanistan.

The Centre runs a Visiting Fellows program where specialists in leadership, management and military ethics spend time at Weston Creek conducting research, and delivering presentations on their work to Defence College students.

Visiting fellows in 2006 include:

• Dr Hugh Smith, Dr James Warn and Dr Keith Thomas from the University of NSW at ADFA;
• Dr Nick Jans and
• Professor Martin Cook from the United States Air Force Academy.

The Centre aims to build and share a comprehensive body of professional knowledge on command, leadership and management. To this end, formal links have been made with a number of countries. The United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Singapore all have similar agencies and the Centre is networking with them to share global experiences and developments. The Centre has also been providing support to Malaysia and New Zealand as they examine options for establishing their own leadership centres. This is significant work in improving understanding and cooperation in an increasingly international operating environment. The Centre also conducts environmental scans of leadership developments in academia and in industry.

In 2006 the Centre will continue to work with the Services in examining options for Senior Non-Commissioned Officer (SNCO) joint education. Seminars planned for 2006 include such diverse topics as women in leadership; joint professional military education; military ethics; and military sociology.

In its early years, the Centre has played an important role in raising visibility of a wide range of current command, leadership and management issues through the distribution of papers and hosting seminars. Issues that have generated the most discussion include military ethics, strategic leadership culture, the utility of self-awareness tools (such as 360 degree feedback) and the value of structured mentoring programs as a leader development process.

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