Leadership Lessons from West Point

Chapter 7. LEADER DEVELOPMENT AND SELF-AWARENESS IN THE U.S. ARMY BENCH PROJECT

Dennis P. O'Neil

Patrick J. Sweeney

James Ness

Thomas A. Kolditz

The U.S. Army is charged with developing the future generation of leaders— a generation prepared to assume command at the highest levels. To this end, the Army has rolled out a new program, coined "The Bench." The term bench was derived from a baseball analogy, where successful teams have the ability to look left and right down "the bench" and call prepared players into the game. To develop its bench, the Army has created several tools designed to assist leaders in increasing self-awareness through reflection, including an easy-to-use 360-degree feedback instrument specifically tailored to leaders at various ...