Mentoring Junior Leaders: Leadership Tools For Our 21st Century Army

Abstract

Abstract : This study provides a how-to manual for current U.S. Army battalion commanders. It is designed to promote successful mentorship for junior officers. As our Army transitions into the XXI century, we cannot afford to continue the leadership practices that have dominated our Army over the past ten years. Ineffective leadership, attributed in part to a lack of successful mentoring, has been one of the factors that have led to unusually high attrition of junior officers. Senior leadership has determined that ineffective mentoring is one of the causes for this extraordinarily high attrition rate. This study describes effective mentoring, tells how to do it, and shows its benefits for the mentor, junior officers, and the Army. It serves as a supplement to FM 22-100, Army Leadership. Combined with other proven leadership principles, time-tested in this country's business community, effective mentoring will aid our Army in the total transformation process that our Chief of Staff of the Army, General Shinseki, initiated in 1999.