Jakob Rømer Barfod

Session Type: PDW WorkshopProgram Session: 67 | Submission: 11373 | Sponsor(s): (MC, ODC)Scheduled: Friday, Aug 5 2016 10:00AM - 11:30AM at Anaheim Marriott in Desert SpringsMilitary leaders often have success in private companies (Groysberg et al, 2010). During their training, they learn how to build trust and nurture relationships. To obtain followership emotional competencies are essential. To make wise choices in business, emotional intelligence is key. In particular, this is the ability to reality test, to establish and maintain mutually satisfying relationships with others, to handle stress and to be optimistic among other things (Stein & Book, 2006). A military organization such as the Danish Army has a structured and a very unique training program to train various parts of emotional intelligence in staff. The Danish Army Leader Development Program is a field of training using ‘real people’ and ‘real situations’, where emotional competencies can be trained in a structured way to turn them into real competencies. The PDW will look into the indicators of success of this program. The Danish Army has more than ten years of experience working with developing emotional intelligence in the Royal Danish Army Officers’ Academy, and the Academy has developed leaders who have benefitted from emotional intelligence training, who are now better at understanding themselves as well as their ability to build relationships whilst under great pressure e.g. during combat operations. On the basis of field experience, qualitative research and quantitative data from MHS the effects of working with emotional intelligence in a structured way is presented and discussed using a social constructionism approach – how does using the words ‘emotional intelligence’ affect and give meaning in organizations?

The latest revision of the Norwegian Joint Operational Doctrine has stated that Mission Command is the basis for Command and Control in the Norwegian Armed Forces, that is; Mission Command with a caveat. The caveat is that “… Mission Command can therefore also encompass the use of detailed orders and control.” There will always be a tension between freedom of action and the need for control in military operations, ant that tension is a key element in this year’s Doctrine Conference.

Military leadership with an operational effect in asymmetric operations - A new military leadership training concept in a new world.Until the fall of the Berlin Wall the Danish Defence was primarily trained in conducting symmetric military operations. With the change of Danish foreign politics and following participating in international operations, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, the patterns of operations changed. Suddenly, it was extremely important that the Danish Defence transformed to a more expeditionary force capable of conducting asymmetric operations in different environments far away from Denmark. This is not done overnight but demands a new situational awareness in proportion to the need for leadership. As tactics, doctrines, technologies and procedures had to be developed and changed, there was also a need for developing the approach to leadership. Suddenly the challenges in the operations were not only IEDs, ambushes, shootings and deprivation of families, but also leadership challenges in military staffs and units, which in many cases acted and commanded based on a mindset of linear and symmetric warfare with great emphasis on analysis of primarily cause and effect.On that basis, the Danish Defence around mid-2000 developed a new operational leadership concept with a changed and different leadership focus, which should help deploying units at battalion level to counter the increased complexity of leadership in asymmetric operations. Much attention is in this concept given to the preparation of teams performing these missions. The teams consist of leaders and personnel from very different organizational cultures and backgrounds who must work together under great pressure: if necessary, they must take the life of others and risk their own lives in order to achieve specific goals. An important part of the preparation is a process of creating a common language and shared concepts between team members.The presentation shows how this is achieved through the successful program called ‘Leadership with an operational effect’. The sum of the team members’ experiences with the program shows that it improves their decision making, coordination of actions, and fighting capability.The presenter is a reflective practitioner with an operational background as commanding officer of a reconnaissance squadron with first-hand experience with the concept from his work as a consultant in Afghanistan and at the Royal Danish Army Officers’ Academy and the Royal Danish Defence Academy.