The recognition that leadership is a special skill
is nothing new. Indeed, Sun Tzu, an ancient Chinese
warrior, identified 5 key traits that leadersmust have:
intelligence, credibility, humaneness, courage, and discipline.
8 Millennia later, these characteristics remain
essential in any leader, no matter the organization or
profession. In a similar way, the US Army7 has also
identified core leadership competencies, along with
specific behaviors that are essential for each competency.
For example, for the competency ‘‘leads,’’ specific
behaviors include leads others, extends influence
beyond immediate chain of command, and leads by
example.7 The Army core leader competencies are
grounded in the Army values of loyalty, duty, respect,
selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage.
These competencies emerged from a detailed selfexamination
of the way leaders were being trained,9
resulting in changes in the Army leadership component
of their field manual.7 Other service branches
have slightly different core values, but the leadership
competencies are similar