Leadership and West Point

My eighteen-year old nephew started basic training at West Point this week, so yesterday I watched a documentary called “Surviving West Point”, especially the part about the summer initiation, known there as “beast.” I simply couldn’t believe what they have to endure.  Some are eliminated during the summer because they just can’t get through it.

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As tough as the military can be, I can’t help thinking the business world could use a page or two out of the army training manual. West Point has been focused on training leaders since 1802 and no doubt has learned a thing or two about leadership. In fact the reason the cadets are put through excruciating physical challenges is not to strengthen them physically, but to reveal to them the power of mind over matter. They are deliberately pushed over and over again beyond their limits, so that their concept of what their limits are is continuously extended. This includes their ideas about their capacity for endurance, but even more so for functioning under fear and extreme stress.
    
Above all, however, it teaches them they must rely on each other to make it through. West Point takes students who have proven themselves as individuals in their own worlds, puts them on another (pretty extreme) planet, and breaks them down so they can understand the need for cooperation and teamwork. Granted, the army is preparing them to be soldiers as well, who may find themselves needing each other in very dangerous circumstances. But it doesn’t take a life and death scenario for well-functioning teams to have value, and leaders need to know how to work with each other, not just those under their power.

West Point wants these young people to emerge as disciplined, responsible, honest, courageous leaders who can be relied upon to make good decisions and deliver the best solutions, even in extremely difficult conditions. Couldn’t we use more of that with our leaders in corporations? The teachers at West Point acknowledge that they can’t reproduce the situations these soldiers may find themselves in once they’ve graduated, but say that they try to put them through arduous experiences that will teach them to trust themselves as leaders and stay clear-headed in a crisis. More than anything, they are training them to deal with the unexpected. And we certainly need that our world as well.