Draft:The Centre for Army Leadership

Centre for Army Leadership Logo, 2024

The Centre for Army Leadership (CAL) is the United Kingdom's centre of excellence and the British Army's Professional Standards Authority for leadership and leader development. Leadership is a core function of the moral component of fighting power, preeminent in generating the fighting power the British Army needs to fight and win wars on land.

The CAL is the guardian of the British Army's institutional development of leadership as a capability in its own right, as well as supporting the advancement of exceptional leaders for the Army; it does so through the medium of 'Project Bramall', its internal leadership development strategy. It also provides thought-leadership, advice, and engagements for a broad range of public sector organisations, allied armies, and occasionally professional sports teams and veterans networks.

Location

The CAL is based in Robertson House at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS). Whilst adjacent to the British Army's officer training academy, the CAL is a 'Whole Force' asset, spanning leaders and leadership at all ranks, from Private soldier to General, for the Regular, Reserve, and Civil Service components.

Robertson House, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

History

Leadership has been a central topic in British Army thinking for over 300 years. However, a permanent team studying, researching, writing on, and developing it was not formed until 2015 with the generation of a nascent Centre for Army Leadership.

In 2015, Professor Lloyd Clark, subsequently Director of Research at the CAL, was asked to write a scoping paper for a leadership 'thinktank' for the British Army by Major General Stuart Skeates, then Commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. The motivation for the paper was the read-out from the 'Army Leadership Review', conducted as the Army began to reflect on leadership decisions and the future of leadership following the drawdown of the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Professor Clark spent several months researching how other armies and organisations, such as the police, Home Office, and private businesses, went about their leadership development.

The clearest recommendation from Professor Clark's paper was that a CAL should be formed; the recommendation was accepted and whilst the team was sourced the first Army Leadership Doctrine (ALD) was written, in 2016. It aimed to provide a baseline on leadership for the British Army, drawing on its history and reflecting some of the structure of the US Army's leadership doctrine, contextualised with British perspective and experiences. It aimed to be accessible and understood at all ranks and was launched at 'The Leadership Event', held at the RMAS, in 2016, strongly supported by the then Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Nick Carter.

With its rich history of generating leaders for the Army and the nation (and many other nations), the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst was identified as the natural home for the Centre for Army Leadership. The RMAS motto 'Serve to Lead' also played well to the Army leadership doctrine's mantra on the importance of servant leadership. In 2016, the CAL was established in Robertson House and by 2017 had formalised personnel and tasks. After an initial period of consultation, exchanges, and engagements, the CAL began to gain momentum and generate further material and outreach events. The CAL established a drumbeat of annual conferences and a routine of publishing of 'CAL Insights' – short essays on leadership – began.

The CAL diversified and bolstered its team with the addition of Reservists, UOTC student placements, and additional staff, and was championed by the then Commandant of the RMAS (with the twinned appointment as the first 'Director Leadership') Major General Paul Nanson. It has subsequently developed an 'Activists' network, comprised of hundreds of personnel, at all ranks, inside the Army, who provide a sounding board for CAL developments and publications, and who champion CAL products to their peers and organisations.

Publications

The credibility and reputation of the CAL developed quickly, and it evolved to begin having discernible impact on Army leadership development and Army leaders. Version 2 of Army Leadership Doctrine was published in 2021, accompanied by 'The Habit of Excellence' , written by the then Head of the CAL Lieutenant Colonel Langley Sharp MBE, which expanded on and contextualised the doctrine, in a public-facing book. 'Mission Command and Leadership on Operations' followed in 2024, a book on how ''intent-based leadership'' has been employed by the Army on operational tours since 1991.

The CAL has continued to build the foundations of professionalising leadership development for the British Army, most notably through the development of specific policy (Army Command Standing Order 1110) for the Army's leader and leadership development, accompanied by the Leader Competency Framework, which for the first time details the character, knowledge, and actions expected of exceptional Army leaders. The CAL has also delivered the first military doctrine on Followership, explaining how a focus on developing individuals' roles as followers – complementary to leaders – generates benefits to organisations.

The CAL has also published thematic leadership papers to support both the Army and external organisations, such as 'Leading in the Digital Age', and 'Leading Through Crisis' , which was written in response to the NHS and Army's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Army Leadership Code, derived through the blending of academic and sports science research, describes seven Army leadership behaviours: Lead by example; encourage thinking; apply reward and discipline; demand high performance; encourage confidence in the team; recognise individual strengths and weaknesses; strive for team goals.

Research Institute

The CAL's Research Institute is a multi-disciplinary body bringing together the CAL's Research Fellows, the wider UK Defence network, allied armies, academia, cross-sector organisations, and practitioners to build a greater wealth of knowledge about the art and science of leadership. The CAL's Research Institute hosts a Fellowship programme, with Honorary, Senior Research, and Post-Doctoral Fellows. The Research Institute generates the CAL's annual conferences, which invite, alongside British Army attendees, cross-Defence, cross-sector, international audiences.

The CAL Research Institute is the custodian of the Richard Holmes Library, named after military historian Richard Holmes. The library is located in Robertson House and, whilst predominantly the home for leadership books and resources, also houses books from the Centre for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research, the Army Medical Services, and the Royal Gurkha Regiment (each conducive with shared residence in Robertson House).

The Richard Holmes ‘Leadership Library’, Robertson House, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

Podcasts

The CAL operates two podcast channels . The Centre for Army Leadership Podcast hosts diverse-sector leaders (industry, sport, education, as well as senior military) and communicates their leadership experiences. The Human Advantage podcast hears more specifically from junior non-commissioned officers to middle-ranking officers on their experiences of leadership in the Army, giving tactical examples from in barracks, training, and on operations.

Organisation

Director Leadership:

July 2022- Present - Major General Zachary Stenning OBE.