Several members of the Noncommissioned Officer Leadership Center of Excellence staff and instructors from the Sergeant Major Academy took part in a professional leadership development class known as “Academy Leadership.”
The instructor was Eric Gonzalez, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who brought his experience from the Air Force and from the airline industry.
“The material I teach in this class is similar to what is taught at Annapolis and West Point.” Said Gonzalez of the class that was developed by a former Naval officer. “One good thing about a group of people like we have in this class is that they get it, they already understand the value of leadership. They have military experience and really understand the importance of leadership and training, a lot of organizations and companies in the civilian world don’t have the same level of understanding.”
The class centered on teaching about leadership through better understanding of the leader’s own mindset by examining individual strengths and how to compensate for shortcomings. After performing this self examination the students can this use this knowledge to better understand their leadership skills and how to apply them.
The class hosted numerous discussions about topics related to education and leadership. One of the central points of the class was the idea that individuals often lack specific skills and varied groups of people with differing skills are important to creating a more effective organization. Leaders must then be able to recognize strengths and weaknesses and ways to balance these aspects of skill and personality.
Among the eight students who were able to attend the training session most were classroom instructors from the Sergeants Major Academy, who themselves are retired Sergeants Major and thus former students of the academy.
“I think it was a very instructive and useful class,” said Galen Thomas, an instructor of leadership in the Department of Command Leadership. “The class contained a lot of information I can use in the classroom but also ideas about leadership I can pass on to students.”