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• v.35(2); 2023
• PMC10013525

Being and becoming beginning military leaders: Implications for leadership learning

Daniel hoi kok siew.

a Division of Leadership, Management, & Organization, Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Joyce Hwee Ling Koh

b Higher Education Development Center, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Associated Data

This data set is not publicly available. Please contact the corresponding author.

The purpose of the study is to describe junior military officers’ leadership development experiences and to draw implications for leadership learning in their professional development. The research uses a systematic grounded theory design. Through in-depth interviews of 19 military officers, the data were coded and analyzed with a paradigm model that was developed to describe the development of military officers’ experiences as leaders. The findings show that military leadership development is a process that is defined by the experiences of establishing oneself as a vocational leader, developing confidence in leadership skills, and leading with mission clarity and genuine concern for their “subordinates.” The results reinforce the notion that leadership development is a continuous learning process beyond formal program and other transient events. Results also imply that fundamental assumptions for formal leadership development programs must be conceptualized and conceived as a process of “being, becoming, and belonging.” This non-positivist empirical study answers the call for more qualitative and interpretive approaches in leadership development research and contribute to the body of knowledge of leadership learning in military leadership development.

What is the public significance of this article?— This study suggests that leadership development for junior military officers should be a continuous learning process beyond formal program and other transient events. Although leadership development has traditionally been emphasizing pre-defined skills/competencies to be developed, knowing that professional skill development involves individuals' variation in understanding, and is embodied and enacted in their leadership identity and professional practice is critical.

Introduction

Military leaders frequently face challenges and are forced to make difficult decisions in their formative years as a military professional (Snider, 2003 ). Therefore, developing effective military leaders, particularly junior leaders, who are adaptable and capable of making tough decisions is a key priority for the military. Leadership development is a commonly discussed topic (Andersson, 2010 ) but there is a general dearth of empirical studies about the processes whereby professionals learn to become leaders (Avolio & Chan, 2008 ), even more so in the context of military leadership. Better empirical understanding about the developmental process of novice leaders is an important consideration for designing early leadership learning and development programs because as Karaevli and Hall ( 2003 ) argue, the beginning stage of leadership represents a critical period for deep learning as “attitudes towards self and work, as well as skills and performances, are learned more easily at early stages” (p. 74). Organizations such as the military view leadership as the foundation of professionalism (Dempsey, 2012 ) that prepares their junior leaders (Dongen, 2014 ). These organizations seek to better understand how leaders learn and grow from their professional experience during their formative years so that they can better support junior leaders to develop successful leadership traits and characteristics (DeRue & Myers, 2014 ; Karaevli & Hall, 2003 , 2006 ). Nevertheless, how a novice transforms from a subordinate to “being and becoming” a leader is generally not well-understood especially in terms of how an individual’s lived leadership experiences contribute to their leadership development (Day & Halpin, 2004 ). The “being and becoming” of leaders can be defined as the continuous social construction process of one’s professional identity (Andersson, 2010 ; Antonacopoulou & Bento, 2011 ; Chee, 2011 ). It is asking the question of “who am I” (Andersson, 2010 , p. 169) and the “becoming” (Scanlon, 2011 ) of oneself within a professional context. It is important for organizations to go beyond using pre-determined attributes to frame leadership development programs (Cunliffe & Sadler-Smith, 2010 ; Turnbull James & Denyer, 2009 ). Viewing leadership development as a process that is situated within workplace practices is one way of doing so (Raelin, 2011 ). This study therefore, aims to examine military leaders’ perceptions of how they develop and how this could influence the ways that they can learn to become leaders through two research questions:

1. What are the key factors that junior officers perceive to influence their leadership strategies and their development as military leaders?

2. How do junior officers learn to become leaders at the early stages of their military career?

Literature review

In military organizations, commissioned officers are expected to be the leaders in accomplishing military missions (Department of the Army, 2014 , 2017 ). Military leadership is the embodiment of one’s professional identity, knowledge, and practice. This embodiment is central to the U.S. Army’s leadership and the profession doctrinal framework of “Be, Know, Do” (Department of the Army, 2019 ; Hesselbein & Shinseki, 2004 ) that outlines “what a leader must be [emphasis added] in terms of values, attributes, and character; what a leader must know [emphasis added] in terms of leadership competence; and what a leader must do [emphasis added] in exercising leadership with regard to influencing, operating, and improving” (Day et al., 2009 , p. 9). Therefore, leaders not only need to develop knowledge, skills, and abilities for their job roles (Day, 2000 ) that are most often provided by organizations through formal professional, vocational, and leadership skills programs for leadership development but they also need to foster a sense of “being and becoming” leaders (Kempster, 2009 ), which is more often developed through their day-to-day experiences as leaders. This form of informal learning appears critical in the development of beginning military leaders because Kempster and Parry ( 2014 ) propose that leadership learning in early careers is contextualized through observing and engaging others. However, in extant leadership development literature, there is a general dearth of studies about how this occurs through the situated contexts of day-to-day organizational practice (Conger, 2004 ; Day, 2000 ; Kempster, 2006 ; Kempster & Stewart, 2010 ; Lowe & Gardner, 2000 ). In fact, research of leadership development has largely focused on articulating the attributes of leaders. For example, a common approach to leadership development in the military is to create leadership frameworks with a compiled list of specific leadership knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies (Avolio & Chan, 2008 ; Fallesen et al., 2011 ; Wong et al., 2003 ). Studies have shown that these programs improved individual performance by encouraging self-awareness and self-evaluation (Conger, 2010 ) and clarified essential developmental priorities for organizations (Day & O’Connor, 2017 ). On the other hand, Hollenbeck et al. ( 2006 ) argue that the problematic assumptions behind competency models and their adoption result in a “return to the ‘great person’ view of leadership,” (p. 398) while disregarding the outcomes of leadership. Too much focus on the end-state leader qualities also detracts one from understanding the underlying developmental processes of leaders (Larsson et al., 2006 ).

The multilevel systems model of leadership development suggests the need to look beyond leaders’ attributes to consider how this is constituted from their leadership experiences at different levels of the organization such as within their departmental work teams and at the level of their business unit or organization (Day et al., 2014 ). Therefore, leadership development is not just brought about by enhancing “the traits or behaviors of particular individuals [leaders]” (Raelin, 2011 , p. 196) but is also determined by “what people may accomplish together” (p. 198). Therefore, one’s development as a leader cannot be divorced from how one sees oneself as a leader and how one learns to be a leader through the day-to-day processes of leading (Antonacopoulou & Bento, 2011 ; Day & Harrison, 2007 ; Van Velsor et al., 2010 ). For example, junior managers “began to act like a manager” as they assumed a generalist manager’s identity by changing their “perception of themselves and the world around them” (Hill, 2003 , p. 84). Leadership practices are highly intertwined with one’s identity as a leader (Reicher et al., 2005 ). This leadership being is not only individual but may also be shaped by collective identities and the social contexts of specific professions. Kwok et al. ( 2021 ) agree with Day et al.’s ( 2014 ) summary that by examining individuals and their developmental trajectories more thoroughly, a typology could be devised to better understand and more accurately envisage how leaders develop and change over time.

To fully understand leadership development, one cannot ignore the complexities of a situated learning process. There is however, insufficient focus placed on conceptualizing, explaining, and theorizing the highly contextualized and dynamic processes underlying leaders’ development (Day & Zaccaro, 2004 ), more so for beginning leaders. In reviewing the literature on military leadership, Wong et al. ( 2003 ) suggest that using a context specific approach better captures “the true essence of what constitutes military leadership [development]” (Wong et al., 2003 , p. 658) and create more in-depth knowledge of the military and the issues faced during military leadership development. The need for greater contextualized appreciation of the phenomenon of leadership learning and practice through the developmental trajectory of military leaders answers the calls for the use of qualitative research approaches (Bryman, 2004 ; Day, 2000 ; Gardner et al., 2020 ; Kempster & Stewart, 2010 ). A grounded, qualitative approach, instead of a quantitative positivist approach which emphasizes static structure (Kempster & Parry, 2011 ), would offer better understanding of the relational (Parry, 1998 ; Uhl-Bien, 2006 ) and processual (Kempster, 2006 ; Lowe & Gardner, 2000 ) issues of leadership development within different social contexts (Bryman, 2004 ; Bryman et al., 1996 ; Kempster & Parry, 2011 ). Therefore, it is the aim of this study to better understand the developmental and leadership learning process of junior military officers through using a non-positivist grounded theory approach. This allows their developmental trajectory to be understood from the real-world contextual and social complexities that they are facing (Chee et al., 2011 ). This also addresses the general dearth of such kinds of research with respect to beginning leaders.

To understand junior military leaders’ contextualized development trajectory, a systematic grounded theory design (Creswell, 2012 ) was used. This design enabled the interpretation of common factors and their interrelationships (Creswell, 2013 ) that arose from the lived leadership experiences of the study participants. Parry ( 1998 ) finds that leadership as a social influence process is not easily observed and argues for the “use of interviewing over observation as the predominant source of data” (p. 96). Interview was selected as the key method for this study since leadership development process is also social in nature and is difficult to discern. The study thus comprises in-depth interviews with 19 experienced military officers. All the officers consented to participate in writing and the University’s Ethics Committee approved the research study.

Participants

Mid-level military officers who had completed a command and staff course (with leadership development as a main module) were recruited to participate in this research. They were recruited because their similar military leadership, leadership development and professional learning experiences served as a “common context” (Kempster, 2006 , p. 8) for the study. With an average of at least 12 years of leadership experience in their past operational or staff appointments, the participants would be able to provide a personal view of their initial leadership experiences in a military context. Compared to more junior officers, they were at a higher developmental level (Day et al., 2009 ) and better at finding greater numbers and more sophisticated lessons from their developmental experiences (p. 134). These “self-reflections” (Day et al., 2009 ) from their leadership development experiences when they began their leadership journey during military service provided the data for this study.

Data collection and analysis

Nineteen face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted for the research participants. The sampling aim for this study was according to grounded theory sampling “aimed toward theory construction, [and] not for population representativeness” (Charmaz, 2006 , p. 6). Sampling of the participants attending the command and staff course was purposefully selected based on their leadership experience (i.e., participants must have led teams comprising substantive number of personnel). The period starting from their cadet training, getting commissioned as officers, to their first appointment postings is defined as the beginning phase of their military leadership. During this phase of their military career, the officers interviewed were commissioned according to their vocation (e.g., infantry officer, artillery officer, naval combat officer, pilot, etc.) and would assume “leadership positions” in the initial postings to the units, typically holding ranks ranging from second lieutenants to lieutenants (or junior captain) with less than two to three years of service. As per the suggestions of Parry ( 1998 ) for grounded analysis of leadership data, theoretical sampling frame, critical incidents, and introductory questions were used to overcome potential validity problem and achieve possible replicative study. Prior to the interview, the participants were asked to develop the critical timeline events (based on constructive-development theory, see, Kuhnert & Russell, 1990 ) that shaped their understanding of “how to lead” in the beginning stage. The initial questions during the interviews only served as guidelines for the discovery of the leaders’ developmental and leadership learning experiences during their beginning professional life in the military (see interview protocol in Appendix A). When necessary, further questions to elucidate the participants’ personal developmental experience were added. The interviewees were encouraged to speak at will, discuss issues important to them, and support their responses, when necessary, with examples from their learning and professional experience. All the interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim by the first author.

Approximately 23 hours of interviews recording were collected from the officers. The “trustworthiness” standard (Lincoln & Guba, 1985 ) of the naturalistic investigation was enforced during the data collection and analysis of the study through prolonged engagement by the first author with the participants. Prolonged engagement with the participants and context was achieved by having the first author as one of the Armed Forces’ leadership development practitioner and his personal leadership development experience in the Armed Forces. He also followed the content delivery of the leadership development module closely during the participants’ command and staff course. Data triangulation from interviews, memoing, and the participants’ reflection were employed to make the study “credible” (Lincoln & Guba, 1985 , p. 296). Finally, verbatim transcripts and interpretations were made available to the participants for “member checking” (Lincoln & Guba, 1985 , p. 301) after their interviews.

The research questions were answered through grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998 ) coding and analysis that was done according to the three-phase systematic procedure (Creswell, 2012 ). The first author completed the coding and analysis using the MS Excel spreadsheet. The first phase involved open coding where each transcript was “analyzed in sentences or groups of sentences reflecting single ideas” (Komives et al., 2005 , p. 595) (see Appendix B for sample open coding) that were identified as “labelled items.” In this phase, line-by-line open coding and analysis were performed immediately after each interview and became the guides for further data gathering. A total of 801 lines of codes (data) and 1,383 labeled items were coded. Main categories identified were then compared across codes and extant concepts. Sub-categories, known as properties, were identified and dimensionalized on a continuum located within the main categories. The dimensionalized properties represented “the extremes on this continuum” (Creswell, 2012 , p. 426) within the data. In phase two, axial coding was done to combine the open codes into coded categories using the grounded theory paradigm model (Strauss & Corbin, 1990 ). This process was guided by the coding paradigm diagram by Strauss and Corbin ( 1990 ) whereby the relationships among the labeled items derived from open coding could be interpreted by examining a core phenomenon (central category), its causal conditions (factors that influence the core phenomenon), the strategies that are being adopted (actions/interactions taken in response to the core phenomenon), how these strategies are being influenced by contextual and intervening conditions (specific and general situational factors), as well as the consequences (outcomes from using the strategies; Creswell, 2012 , p. 426). Appendix C shows the summary of the axial coding categories with 12 “categories” and 18 “properties,” and their corresponding open coding (line of codes). Finally, in phase three, selective coding through using a storyline to examine the “factors that influence the phenomenon leading to the use of the specific strategies with certain outcomes” (Creswell, 2012 , p. 428) was done.

Although the data collection for open coding was planned for 21 volunteers from all three services (from different vocations of the Army, Navy, and Air Force) in the same cohort to “uncover as many potentially relevant categories as possible” (Strauss & Corbin, 1990 , p. 181), theoretical saturation was achieved with the 19 th participant when no more new insight could be derived. Coding occurred as the interviews took place. As new data was gathered through each interview, the researcher constantly returned to all the interview scripts, coded paradigms/categories/properties, researcher’s memo to “recode them in light of additional knowledge” (Strauss & Corbin, 1990 , p. 181), developing theoretical sensitivity and new insights throughout the study.

The storyline of the military officers’ first experiences as leaders was constructed by referencing the structures outlined in Strauss and Corbin’s ( 1990 ) coding paradigm diagram (see, Figure 1 ). In this beginning phase, becoming professional military leaders at the junior level is a process that is marked by the struggle toward establishing themselves as vocational leaders (core phenomenon), and becoming confident and willing leaders (consequence) who are able to lead with mission clarity and genuine concern for the people under their charge.

Coding paradigm diagram for beginning leaders.

Causal condition and core phenomenon

The respondents were confronted with the need to take charge in different contexts of their beginning appointments as junior officers. This is the causal condition described in Strauss and Corbin’s ( 1990 ) coding paradigm that trigger the core phenomenon or central issue confronting the respondents. Their vocational responsibilities as well as secondary tasks such as organizing unit cohesion events, and the need to show themselves as vocationally competent are the different properties or aspects that drive the need for them to take charge. The vocational responsibilities were typically linked to the technical training that “qualified” the respondents for their military vocations. For some of them, they would be the commander of an army platoon known as the “PC” (platoon commander). Respondent Howard 1 (Army Officer) reported: “ When you talk about PC, it’s the role and the responsibility. So, first, you need to know your role as a PC .” As part of their professional training within the units and from the officer cadet school, the vocational competency of the respondents was developed so that they could take charge of soldiers to fulfill the military mission of their assigned units. Taking charge as junior officers also encompassed the secondary tasking assigned to the respondents. However, the respondents typically considered these secondary tasking as “ non-core ” to the military vocation.

According to the respondents, their primary concern, or the core phenomenon (Strauss & Corbin, 1990 ) of the early stages of their leadership development is about establishing themselves as vocational leaders. Two aspects characterized what it meant to be established as vocational leaders, firstly in terms of the respondents’ confidence to lead. The respondents shared that their beginnings as leaders were characterized by fluctuating levels of leadership confidence where they sometimes experienced fear, anxiety, and self-doubt over whether they were leading the “ correct way .”

Fear. Fear is one, because you don’t [know] how you did. … Anxiety, because you don’t know what you don’t know. … fear is also because whether my people will listen to me if there really is a crisis. Because I’m still so junior. (Respondent Peter, Naval Officer)

Their fluctuating levels of confidence was reflected in the stress and apprehension they felt as highlighted by Respondent Charlie (Air Force Officer): “ … it’s like apprehension (sic), the first time kind of apprehension (sic). Whether I can do it or not .”

The second aspect characterizing what being established as a vocational leader means is about the respondents’ leadership identity . At this beginning phase, this was largely “vague” and vocational-based, for example, Respondent Alfred (Naval Officer) reported that: “ At that phase, I would say that I’m just a naval combat officer … [an] officer under training to learn my stuff .” Given the struggle in establishing themselves as leaders and their first leadership experiences, the respondents shared that they could only identify themselves as “ amateur leaders ” who lack “ practical experience ” or as “ managers ” getting their “ job done ” but without “ influencing ” their followers. Despite this, all the respondents were driven by a sense of “taking charge” and all of them “wanted to lead” even though they did not feel entirely comfortable and confident in doing so. They also felt the need to use every opportunity they had to lead such that what they said as leaders “ count .”

So, that’s my first [leadership experience]. And whatever I say, count. So, in a way, as a leader, you need to [start with the] first smallest leadership role you can [have] … (Respondent Alfred, Naval Officer)

The three causal conditions of vocational responsibility, competency, and secondary tasking impacted both the leadership confidence and identity of the respondents. In turn, the level of their leadership confidence and identity influenced the leadership strategy they adopted.

Strategy – Managing transaction

Strategy refers to actions arising out of the core phenomenon (Strauss & Corbin, 1990 ). In these early phases of leadership, the respondents cope with their need to establish themselves as vocational leaders by focusing on operations and getting the “ job done ,” rendering their leadership strategy as largely “ transactional ” (Kuhnert & Lewis, 1987 ).

The respondents led by managing transaction in three ways. Some of them focused on transactional execution whereby leading meant issuing commands that they expected their subordinates to follow and each task was treated as a unique transaction. Respondent Derek (Army Officer) remembered: “ So I have a number of teams, and they just take the instructions … [if] it is a wrong instruction (sic), you just give a re-direction order, [and] they just have to take it .” Nevertheless, some of these junior officers focused on task execution by going beyond the task at hand and focusing on leading their subordinates to accomplish a “common goal.” This would involve them approaching task execution with an aim of doing “ something that is very significant to influence or [to] inspire their [subordinates’] commitment .” In contrast to the transactional execution that is more “piecemeal,” a task execution approach is more well-planned and executed after the respondents have thought through the work and contingencies as a whole task.

However, both the transactional and task focus in managing execution meant that many of the respondents’ actions did not really encompass efforts to inspire or influence their followers. Nevertheless, five of the respondents had already started to think about leading and influencing people toward a “ common goal .” This involved approaching managing execution with the aim of trying to influence their group of followers as they established themselves as beginning leaders. Respondents started to develop some realization of relational influencing in that leaders need to value relationships and not just focus on task completion.

… it’s still more about taking care of the people. As leader? Probably I’m more of a (sic) people-oriented. Yes, people-oriented. (Respondent Charlie, Air Force Officer)

Contextual and intervening conditions

The intervening conditions, together with the causal and contextual conditions, influence the strategies adopted (Strauss & Corbin, 1990 ). The contextual conditions are the specific sets of conditions that intersect the time and space dimensions in setting the circumstances for the respondents’ leadership strategy. In this study, the contextual conditions refer to organization-specific factors such as the beginning appointments the respondents were appointed to, the profile of their subordinates and the level of professional training required in their vocation. These factors interact with the intervening conditions or situational factors specific to the respondents’ work context to influence the leadership strategies used. The first significant intervening condition was the opportunities given for the respondents to lead within their units. When these kinds of opportunities were perceived to be extensive, respondents’ leadership confidence was enhanced which in turn encouraged them to adopt task execution or relational influencing strategies. The second significant intervening condition was whether the respondents felt that they had encouragement to lead . When the encouragement to lead was perceived to be strong, their leadership identity became clearer, resulting in them adopting the task execution approach of leading. The third significant intervening condition was how the respondents handled the work pressure triggered by their vocational responsibility and professional training as they took charge as junior officers. High work pressure forced the respondents to learn to handle their vocational responsibility, which helped strengthen their leadership identity and led to them adopting the task execution strategy in accomplishing their missions.

Consequence – Becoming a confident and willing leader

Different outcomes arise from the use of strategies (Strauss & Corbin, 1990 ). The different leadership strategies used by the respondents support them to become confident and willing leaders. This was firstly evidenced in them leading with clarity of mission, which, to the respondents meant that they led their subordinates by demonstrating their vocational competencies and systems knowledge. Respondent Zane (Naval Officer) felt that he “ became a more competent leader ” by the end of this beginning phase of leadership, attributing it to the strategy of task execution which allowed him to demonstrate himself as a confident and willing leader, “ in terms of my skill sets, in terms of leading my department ” onboard the ship.

The respondents also felt that their confidence and willingness to lead is demonstrated through them showing genuine concern for people . This meant that they were people- oriented, listening to their subordinates and trying to understand their concerns. By doing so, respondents made decisions by not just considering the mission’s requirement but also made effort to take the perspectives and concerns of their subordinates into consideration. This was embodied in Respondent Charlie (Air Force Officer) who used the relational influencing strategy.

It’s really listen[ing] to the people. Make sure that their concerns are being heard. And, less of jumping to the missions type. … Although you must meet all the minimum requirements. That’s the focus. (Respondent Charlie, Air Force Officer)

Leadership learning in the beginning phase

In the beginning phase, respondents’ leadership learning was primarily “ gained ” informally through the different kinds of personal experiences that they had within the units. They learned to avoid “negative leadership” through observing their superiors and seeing how they led. Respondent Brendon (Army Officer) reflected that his superior was not approachable and always “ kept to himself ” inside his office. On the other hand, respondents whose superiors displayed “positive leadership” helped build their leadership confidence. Respondent Juliet (Air Force Officer) shared that he built his leadership confidence in leading small team from his “ very demanding ” officer commanding (OC). Similarly, Respondent Yogi (Army Officer) felt that his “ mafia boss ” OC showed that “ he cares for the men ,” which “ probably … shaped how I was being people-oriented as well .”

Role modeling “positive leaders” was how the respondents learnt to lead as beginning leaders. Respondent Leon (Air Force Officer) remembered it was more like “ you see, you like, you follow. So, I look at what my CO (commanding officer) does, I like it, so I followed .” He noticed that his superior “ made himself very accessible to the ground ” and “ doesn’t throw rank around (sic), he comes to the ground and talk to the specialists .” Likewise, for Respondent Kenny (Air Force Officer), whenever he served under any superiors, he would “ take the good points, you see his bad points, you try not to emulate his bad points .” And that was how he role modeled after “positive leaders.”

Besides learning and role modeling their superiors, the respondents also learnt from observing their seniors and peers in the units. One of them reflected that in this phase, leadership is “ more of seeing what the senior is doing .” Even though the respondents were of higher rank than the seniors, they still found at times, they had to learn leadership from the seniors, as reported by Respondent Charlie (Air Force Officer): “ because I am one of the new guys there, since I’m [the] officer, most of the time they will look to you [for decision]. … [But] you have to also learn from them .” Respondent Noel (Army Officer), however, indicated that he gained his leadership learning from peers: “ I would say at that point in time, I learned pretty much from the peers .” He learned from his peers, “ how they manage the top, [and] how they manage the bottom .” Observing their peers also allowed the respondents to differentiate various situations that they themselves might encounter.

Beyond observing and role modeling others informally , the respondents’ leadership learning was also gained from their experience through the various appointments that they held in the beginning phase. It was another way the respondents learned “ on-the-job ” especially in “ the early days ” as reported by Respondent Howard (Army Officer): “ it’s more learned on-the- job, less of the theory .” Respondent Zane (Naval Officer) also felt that it was a combination based “ on experiences I had from leading, from observing other people, [and] there was also a lot [that was] based on my temperament .” Respondent Teddy (Naval Officer) agreed with Respondent Juliet (Air Force Officer) that “ leading people, influencing people, … how you take charge of people ,” were all learned “ more like on-the-job ” for them.

One of the key leadership learning practices of the respondents was “ leadership by example ,” which entails demonstrating leadership by being an example of how things can and should be done in the Armed Forces. Respondent Gabriel (Army Officer) thought that “ as a young officer, leadership is to be with the men, to be present, to lead by example .” Both Respondent Wilson (Army Officer) and Respondent Steve (Army Officer) also agreed that “ leadership by example ” was what they learnt and practiced throughout the beginning phase. In fact, for Respondent Noel (Army Officer), he did not “ feel it so strongly until” he was posted to the commando unit that the “idea of leadership by example is very, very (sic) important ” for him when leading his men.

Respondent Noel (Army Officer) shared that “ leadership by example ” was the key leadership learning that he gained formally from his cadet training: “ the leadership training within OCS (officer cadet school), what I picked up was pretty much lead by example .” This was also echoed by many of the respondents as it was also one of the espoused core values of the organization, as observed by Respondent Zane (Naval Officer): “ certain values, like ‘leadership by example,’ so this thing has been ingrained in me .”

Another source of leadership learning was from training, but the respondents’ recollection of the leadership theories covered in these formal training was nevertheless limited. Respondent Charlie (Air Force Officer) only had a vague notion of how the definition of leadership connected to his leadership practice in the workplace: “ All this influence [definition of leadership, which I have] never really thought about [during the training] .” Most of the respondents could not remember a lot on “leadership” from their professional training in the beginning phase, as reported by Respondent Peter (Naval Officer): “ [Although now] I have a clearer picture on [the] leadership doctrine with the competencies and the skills sets, [I] didn’t really give much thought [to them then] .” Respondent Eric (Army Officer) also could not remember much “leadership theory”: “ Back then, I don’t remember much. I can’t recall much. Maybe [during] that time, you are a soldier, you’re grounded to do tasks, you don’t focus on theory .”

As the professional training was largely focused on imparting vocational skills to the junior officers, the respondents became very confident in their vocational knowledge, as shared by Respondent Juliet (Air Force Officer): “ professionally, we were always very good in our tactical role, our task competency role, will always [be] there .” These professional trainings also prepared the respondents to fulfill operational mission when they get posted to the units. When it comes to professional training, Respondent Noel (Army Officer) thought that “ it was adequate because we were put through the required training to do the job. I thought that part there was no problem. We are tasked to do certain mission, I think we can do the job .”

The beginning trajectory of the junior officers uncovered the various development pathways (Dall’Alba, 2009 ) toward them becoming military leaders which is dissimilar to the Dreyfus and Dreyfus and Dreyfus ( 1986 ) five-level “horizontal” (Dall’Alba & Sandberg, 2006 , p. 399) skill acquisition stage. The junior officers’ beginning trajectory showed that leadership development needs to be directed at “what is being developed” (Dall’Alba & Sandberg, 2006 , p. 399), instead of adding leadership competencies (Yukl, 2010 ) “block by block or building incrementally on existing strengths” (McCall, 2010 , p. 5), or “via a rationalist construction of best practice competencies” (Smolović Jones et al., 2016 , p. 439). This is congruent with leadership studies that try to gain clarity on what gets developed in the leadership development process (Day & Halpin, 2004 ; McCauley et al., 2010 ). In the findings, the beginning leaders’ professional skill development seems to corroborate with Dall’Alba and Sandberg’s “vertical dimension” (Dall’Alba & Sandberg, 2006 , p. 400) of variation in understanding, embodied and enacted in their leadership identity and “professional practice” (Dall’Alba & Sandberg, 2006 , p. 400). The essence of the junior officers’ development was the development of their professional identity that characterized the core phenomenon (within the paradigm model) of their conception of who they were being and becoming as military leaders in their developmental trajectory.

When junior officers are developed to be professionals in this way, “integration of knowing, doing[,] and being is promoted so that learning professional ways of being is foregrounded” (Dall’Alba, 2009 , p. 69). And when professional learning is conceptualized as becoming, professional becoming goes beyond knowledge and skills acquisition. The process of becoming then goes beyond “being” the professional that “denotes the notion of arriving at a static point of expertise” (Scanlon, 2011 , p. 14). Scanlon ( 2011 ) argues that conceptualizing being professional as “becoming” goes beyond the typical lineal professional development that proceeds in a stepwise manner through a fixed sequence of stages (see, Berliner, 1986 , for example, within the education community; Dall’Alba & Sandberg, 2006 ; cf., Lord & Hall, 2005 ).

Besides being influenced by their leadership identity, beginning leaders’ professional practice is also influenced by the use of “leadership models” learned in the context of their first leadership experiences. Similar to Dall’Alba’s longitudinal study of medical professionals, the beginning military officers “construct, enact, and embody” the professional “knowledge and skills in various ways and to differing ends” (Dall’Alba, 2009 , p. 137). Depending on their vocations, the junior officers would develop their practice “ on-the-job ,” and less from their “formal leadership training.” The findings also support the same longitudinal study that leadership knowledge and skills relating to professional practice cannot simply “be transferred” (Dall’Alba, 2009 , p. 137) to beginning professionals in formal leadership development programs. Though meta-analyses on formal leadership programs indicate positive impact on leaders’ acquisition of new knowledge, behavior change, and performance (Burke & Day, 1986 ; Collins & Holton, 2004 ), a stronger positive effect on knowledge outcomes in comparison to behavior or performance outcomes is noted (Collins & Holton, 2004 ; DeRue & Myers, 2014 ). The junior officers were very confident in their vocational knowledge as the professional training primarily focused on imparting vocational skills. However, besides “ leadership by example ,” most of them only had a vague notion of how the definition of leadership connected to their leadership practice in the workplace. This study’s grounded approach to understanding leaders’ developmental trajectory indicates the struggle of beginning leaders as they attempted to establish themselves as vocational leaders who were becoming confident and willing leaders that went beyond what they had been taught in formal learning within the organization.

There are three practical implications for the development of beginning military leaders. First, the philosophical assumptions for formal leadership development program have to be challenged and re-conceptualized (Webster-Wright, 2010 ). Conceiving the program as a “process of becoming” (Dall’Alba, 2009 , p. 53) emphasizing inquiry-directed to professional practice could help move away from viewing knowledge as a “transferable object” (Webster-Wright, 2009 , p. 713) and turn toward the ontological (being, becoming, and belonging) and praxiological dimensions of human “learning, growth, and change” (Van Velsor et al., 2010 , p. 18). A curriculum that encourages “letting learn” (Dall’Alba, 2009 , p. 68) and “letting go to develop” (Day et al., 2009 , p. 241) would allow beginning leaders to pursue the questions related to their profession, who they are becoming, and “which possible and provisional selves are helpful in adapting to new roles” (Markus & Nurius, 1986 , p. 43) as they complete the formal program. The findings in this study show that the beginning leaders typically adapted leadership theories from formal training as they had vague notions of how the leadership theories connected to their leadership practice. Indeed, research suggests that seeing oneself as a leader not only enhances one’s motivation to lead and engage in the leadership process, but also promotes the seeking out of leadership responsibilities and opportunities to develop their leadership skills (DeRue & Ashford, 2010 ) at the workplace. In fact, individuals, especially beginning leaders, actively co-construct their own careers by choosing between “taking advantage of or disregarding certain learning opportunities” within their workplace “situated curriculum” (Gherardi et al., 1998 , p. 30).

However, Webster-Wright ( 2009 ) finds that most professional development literature implicitly assume an “objectivist epistemology that views knowledge as a transferable object” and a “dualist ontology that implies professionals can be studied in meaningful ways that are separate from their professional practice” (p. 704). Hager and Hodkinson ( 2011 ) conclude, after their critical analysis of the various metaphors for learning, that “becoming” has major advantages over alternatives as “acquisition” and “transfer,” “participation” and “construction.” Through concrete examples of professional learning drawn from their empirical research, they show that the learning as “becoming” metaphor helps overcome the problematic dichotomies of mind and body, individual and social, and between structure and agency. Chee ( 2011 ) also agrees that learning conceived as a trajectory of becoming that is oriented toward professional participation necessarily entails the development of “enactive expertise that is deeply embodied, highly adaptive, and closely aligned to” (p. 107) professional practice. But, Dall’Alba ( 2009 ) states that in “becoming” professionals, knowing, acting, and being are integrated into professional ways of being that unfold over time, not simply just coming to know through doing. She argues that for professional education programs to enhance the process of becoming, the interrelation of epistemology and ontology must be nurtured (p. 58).

Second, leadership development should be a continuous learning process within a workplace “situated curriculum,” beyond formal program and other transient events (e.g., lectures, journals, conferences) that failed to result in changes to professional practice (Yip & Wilson, 2010 ). Despite the lack of empirical evidence and agreement on its origin, the 70:20:10 model has been employed extensively by organizations through the learning and development community subscribing to its principles that learning takes place through a combination of formal (10%) and informal situations (70%), and through others (20%; Kajewski & Madsen, 2013 ; McCall, 2010 ). However, the key is not whether the learning is formal or informal, but rather for the beginning leaders to focus their attention on learning from the experience and not just having it (McCall, 2010 ). For example, in this study, the beginning leaders learned to follow “positive leadership” and avoid “negative leadership” from their personal experience through constantly observing their superiors, seniors and instructors, and seeing how they led. “Developmental trigger experience” (Avolio & Hannah, 2008 , p. 339) that prompt beginning leaders to focus attention on the need to learn and develop from it would be important to leadership development. Sequencing of a variety of these developmental experiences, both formal (during professional or leadership programs) and informal, should be a major consideration in leadership development of beginning leaders (DeRue & Myers, 2014 ; Karaevli & Hall, 2006 ). Finally, the notion of “continuing professional learning” (Webster-Wright, 2009 , p. 704) needs to be embraced for beginning leaders as they learn about being and becoming practitioners of leadership (Riggio, 2008 ).

Third, for beginning leadership practitioners, leadership learning must be seen in the context of praxis, or of practice. Since according to Gherardi ( 2000 ), practice connects “knowing” with “doing,” consideration of praxis is needed to situate leadership learning within leadership practice. From a better understanding of the military leaders’ beginning trajectory in this naturalistic study, it seems to suggest that “on-the-job experience and contact with key people in the workplace” (Kempster & Stewart, 2010 , p. 207) are the primary sources of beginning leaders’ development, and development of their leadership practice. The notion of being and becoming similarly relates to the developmental trajectory through which leadership practice is developed as a result of participative engagement by belonging to a profession, where a “beginning leaders progresses from a novice to a master through involvement in a community’s practice” (Kempster & Stewart, 2010 , p. 208). For novice leaders that are starting to experiment with their own leadership skills and style in the process of influencing their followers, they need to be shown examples of leadership behaviors and gain external leadership knowledge (Dongen, 2014 ). By performing the “situated military curriculum” tasks, the beginning leaders learned more than specific skills of the military profession, and gained the “local criteria of accountability, the specific set of values sustained by the community, and the local pattern of power relations, together with the proper strategies to cope with them” (Gherardi et al., 1998 , p. 28). Although better understanding of the process of socialization at work focuses efforts and resources on facilitating and fostering the natural processes of co-constructing and acquiring working competences, overly formalizing the novices’ socialization path could produce unintended consequences (Gherardi et al., 1998 , p. 30). Ultimately, the leadership practice of beginning leaders must impact their professional performance beyond their learning within the “living curriculum” as they go through their “apprenticeship” (Wenger & Trayner, 2015 , p. 4).

Limitations and future research

It is acknowledged that the number of interviewees were not sufficient to generalize the findings, which was never the intent of the study. Instead, better understanding of the relational and processual issues of beginning leaders’ development trajectory within substantive discrete contexts of the interviewees’ military organization was the focus. A qualitative approach promises the possibility of understanding the developmental process “bottom-up” from the leaders’ lived experiences, instead of the typical “top-down” approach of hypothesis testing with a priori conceptions. The contribution is in giving a “better conceptual grasp” (Parry, 1998 , p. 91) of the basic social processes of leadership development. This professional leadership development study using the qualitative and non – positivist lens answers the call for more qualitative (Gardner et al., 2020 ; Parry et al., 2014 ) and interpretive (Mabey, 2013 ) approaches beyond leadership research based on large quantitative surveys located in narrow perspectives, which are “uncritical and can, at best, report statistical information” (Ford et al., 2008 , p. 7). In the current study, the research participants came from the commissioned officers’ corps, but only represented less than half of the military population in the studied organization. Adding participants from another corps, such as the noncommissioned officers will certainly add a different perspective to the understanding of military leadership development.

Another limitation of the study was the lack of theorizing of the leadership development experiences of the interviewees beyond the beginning phase and toward more longitudinal investigations (Day et al., 2014 ; DeRue & Myers, 2014 ). The study was also limited to specific leadership experience of military leaders. Continuing from this study, future research could derive the implications for designing military leadership development beyond formal programs by developing a grounded theory of their development. A wider variation of respondents’ military leadership experiences could also be sampled for future studies. This will contribute to the body of knowledge of designing professional military leadership development, since there are more leader development practices than their scientific understanding (Day, 2000 ; Day & Zaccaro, 2004 ). Serving as an attempt to understand how it occurs in practice, the results of this study could also be used to inform future attempts at deriving propositions (Strauss & Corbin, 1998 ) for leadership development.

This empirical study explored the developmental trajectory of beginning leaders in becoming military professionals, using the grounded approach of interviewing experienced military officers. The theoretical contribution of this study is the examination of the ontological and praxiological dimensions that impact these beginning leaders in becoming military professionals and how these factors contributed to the beginning leaders’ learning of their leadership practice. By challenging and re-conceptualizing the philosophical assumptions of formal leadership development programs, it suggests that the sequencing of both formal and informal variety of developmental experiences, and situating leadership learning in the context of leadership practice, leadership development of beginning leaders could be made more complete. Continued research on understanding the processual and contextual leadership developmental experiences using qualitative and interpretative approaches should be conducted to advance further understanding of leadership learning and development of novice leaders as their being, becoming and belonging to a profession.

Appendix A. Interview Protocol

Time of Interview:

Interviewer:

Position of interviewee:

(Briefly describe the study) Questions 2

• Interviewee asked to prepare a timeline diagram (Kuhnert & Russell, 1990 ) of the critical events or influences that had shaped their learning how to lead, starting from their earliest memories to the present day?
• How were you encourage to lead? What kind of opportunities were there for you to lead?
• Did you use any professional leadership model? Were they from training or learned on the job?
• How did you take charge? What were the job demand and how did you handled the work pressure?
• How confident were you? How clear you were about your leader and professional identity?
• Were you focusing on task, relationship, people or what did you value?

Appendix B. Sample of Open Coding

Appendix C. Summary of Axial Coding Coded Category using Paradigm Model

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

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• DOI: 10.26666/rmp.ijbm.2019.1.2
• Corpus ID: 221130214

Military leadership: A systematic literature review of current research

• Mohammad Nazri , Mohamad Rudi
• Published in International journal of… 2019
• Political Science

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Military Leadership and Resilience

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• First Online: 08 February 2024
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• MAJ Danny Boga 2  

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Military service exposes personnel to a variety of stressors and potentially traumatic events, ranging from combat through to common occupational demands found in any job. Military personnel frequently face demands such as extended time away from family and friends, exposure to ambiguous and potentially lethal situations, restrictions on personal freedoms, increased legal powers from supervisors, and the constant need to maintain “operational readiness.” The stressors faced during military service can have significant repercussions on operational effectiveness and force sustainment. How personnel respond to these demands while maintaining effective performance over time is often considered to be a matter of resilience. Resilience involves the ability to bounce back with minimal impact from adversity. Military leaders at all levels have become increasingly concerned about how the resilience of their personnel might impact or enhance operational capability. Commanders are increasingly recognizing the important roles leadership and organizational support play in the development of resilience.

This chapter aims to provide a broad overview of some of the research, concepts, and practices being employed by modern militaries to foster resilience. It examines what is meant by resilience, then looks at how different concepts have been used at both individual and organizational levels to encourage greater resilience among military personnel. Overall, the development of resilience is a multifaceted process which leaders need to be aware of if they are to get the best out of their personnel. The promotion of adaptive “resilient” behaviors is particularly important in high-performance/high-stress organizations such as the military.

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• Personality
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• Mental health

Introduction

Mental ill-health and the burden of mental disorders are increasing worldwide, disrupting lives and bringing an estimated cost to the global economy of US$16 trillion between 2010 and 2030 (Patel et al. 2018 ). The economic costs of mental health problems are now estimated to be greater than those associated with chronic somatic diseases such as cancer and diabetes, and these coasts are exponentially increasing (Trautmann et al. 2016 ). For example, the economic impact of mental health problems across the European Union in 2018 has been estimated at more than €600 billion, largely attributed to lost productivity and the cost of medical support (OECD/European Union 2018 ). Even when mental health issues are not severe enough to be labeled a “disorder,” the impacts on quality of life, productivity, motivation, and wellbeing can have serious repercussions on individuals and organizations (WHO 2007 ). Sustaining good mental health and reducing the impacts of workplace stress have become a growing concern for leaders, managers, and employees at all levels. Particularly in organizations such as the military where high-stress situations are common and the costs of mistakes can cause significant physical injury and political damage.

Unfortunately, stressors are practically unavoidable in our daily lives with the causes of stress inherent in just about every activity in which humans engage. It may be no surprise to learn that military personnel are more likely to be exposed to traumatic and stressful life events compared to civilians (Van Hooff et al. 2012 ), or that cumulative exposure to stressors and trauma promotes greater risk of mental disorders (Del Gaizo et al. 2011 ).

While there is a well-established link between exposure to combat and adverse outcomes such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (e.g., Eekhout et al. 2015 ; Fear et al. 2010 ; Iversen et al. 2008 ), operational service is not the only source of significant stress for members of the military. Military personnel are also exposed to the same life stressors found in civilian work settings (e.g., interpersonal conflict, family demands, daily commuting between work and home, etc.; Almeida 2005 ). “Routine” or non-warlike military service often exasperates these stressors beyond the levels commonly experienced in typical civilian settings. For example, military personnel frequently face demands such as extended time away from family and friends, unpredictable work hours (military culture traditionally holds that being a soldier is a 24 h a day, 7 days a week role), situationally ambiguous stressors (e.g., reactive/high urgency tasks), restrictions on personal freedoms, increased legal powers from supervisors, and the constant need to maintain “operational readiness” (Adler et al. 2004 ; Campbell and Nobel 2009 ). The impact of stressors on military effectiveness should not be understated, with diagnoses for mental health disorders being identified as the leading cause for hospitalization in the US Armed Forces (Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center 2012 ).

For these reasons, military commanders have become increasingly concerned with the development and maintenance of resilience within their forces. While it is natural to think of resilience as largely depended on the personal qualities of an individual, commanders are now recognizing that leadership and organizational support are also important to promoting resilience – not only at the individual level, but also at the team and organizational levels. (e.g., ADF COMD FORCOMD Directive 2015 ).

This chapter aims to provide a broad overview of some of the research, concepts, and practices being employed by modern militaries to foster resilience. It will start by examining what is meant by resilience, and then look at how different concepts have been used at both individual and organizational levels to encourage greater resilience among military personnel.

Understanding Stress

While stress is generally seen as something to manage through minimization or avoidance, this approach is not practical in high-performance or inherently contested environments such as the military. Furthermore, a certain amount of stress is required for competent performance to be achieved. Labeled the Yerkes-Dodson principle, performance can be demonstrated as following an inverted U shape, where performance will suffer if stress or arousal is either too high or too low (Yerkes and Dodson 1908 ). Both high and low stress can adversely impact mental health. When stress is deemed too high, physical complaints (e.g., headaches and illness, etc.) and mental health problems increase (commonly called “burnout”). Inversely, when stress is deemed too low, people experience reduced motivation and can often suffer increased anxiety or depression (Hesketh et al. 2019 ).

Modern warfare has been described by soldiers and commanders alike as “months of boredom punctuated by moments of extreme terror.” Thus, military personnel are often exposed to the extreme ends of both high and low stress. The capacity for military personnel to tolerate these shifts between boredom, sustained readiness, and “terror” has often been attributed to personal resilience (Maddi 2007 ). But if resilience is important for military personnel, the next question is “what is resilience and can it be trained?”

What Is Resilience?

While the term “resilience” is used often in modern workplaces, many military commanders are still uncertain what resilience actually “is” (despite knowing that they want their personnel to have more of it). This uncertainty is understandable as there is no universal definition of resilience within the public vernacular or in the empirical literature of the last century (Aburn et al. 2015 ). To many, resilience is considered to be a static trait within an individual; however, this is a misconception. It is more accurate to think of resilience as a dynamic process, which changes over time and with context (Gartland et al. 2011 ). For example, a soldier might display sound resilience under the stress of operations, but cope poorly when dealing with romantic or interpersonal relationships. A person’s ability to cope with the same stressors can also change over time; that is, a person might manage a particular stressor adaptively one day, but poorly the next. There are many possible reasons for this variability. For example, prolonged stress may have a cumulative impact, or previously utilized support might become unavailable (e.g., increased time pressures, absent friends/family, and fatigue/illness).

So, what is resilience? Is it a personality trait, a trained ability, or a resource that needs to be managed? The simplest, yet unsatisfying, answer is that resilience is a product of all these things.

A review of the empirical literature on resilience conducted by Aburn et al. ( 2015 ), concluded that resilience relates to adaption to adversity , resulting in good mental health and ability to recover or bounce back. Furthermore, resilience was found to be a common attribute inherent in all people, rather than some unique or unusual characteristic held by a special few. Summarizing the plethora of literature on the subject, a generally accepted definition of resilience is the capacity for an individual to adapt effectively to adversity and trauma with a short-term downturn in functioning and mental health (Crane 2017 ; see also, Southwick et al. 2014 ). Therefore, resilience is less of a static individual characteristic, but rather an outcome predicted by the dynamic interplay between characteristics unique to each individual within a given situation. However, there are some characteristics which seem to promote more resilient outcomes across situations.

Personality and Resilience

How does personality contribute to resilient outcomes? One of the most well-known frameworks for conceptualizing personality is the five-factor model, which categorizes personality into five broad categories: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (Costa and McRae 1992 ). Authors Sinclair, Waitsman, Oliver, and Deese ( 2013 ) offer a comprehensive review of how different personality traits relate to resilience. To briefly summarize their work, evidence shows that people high in neuroticism (i.e., low emotional stability, moody, and emotionally sensitive to stimuli) are more likely to experience reduced mental health and stress-related disorders (Sinclair et al.). Whereas, higher trait levels of conscientiousness and extraversion have been linked to more positive emotions and favorable mental health outcomes.

Extending our knowledge on how personality links to resilience, Sinclair and Cheung ( 2017 ) reviewed several models of personality and identified five core themes commonly linked to resilience: purpose (the ability to find meaning in life events), optimism (the tendency to see negative events as situational rather than enduring), willpower (self-discipline and drive to succeed), emotional stability (poised under pressure), and resourcefulness (self-efficacy and intrinsic locus of control). Understanding how personality characteristics predict resilience is fundamental in selecting the right people for organizations like the military.

A leading researcher in the field of resilience in the military context, Bartone ( 1999 ) proposed that individuals high in a personality construct labeled “hardiness” experience fewer mental health problems under stress. Bartone identified three key characteristics displayed by highly hardy people: commitment, challenge, and control. Commitment involves looking at difficult experiences as interesting and useful; challenge relates to enjoying variety and seeing change/disruptions as interesting opportunities for personal growth; and control is a belief that one’s actions make a real difference in the results that follow. When working together these facets of hardiness create a mindset predictive of better health and higher performance across the lifespan, despite exposure to stressors (Stein and Bartone 2020 ). There have been several studies which have supported the idea that those high in hardiness are more likely to have better levels of mental and physical health (e.g., Bartone 1999 ; Britt et al. 2001 ; Dolan and Adler 2006 ). Hardiness has also been found to be a unique predictor of positive health outcomes distinct from those associated with the more common personality constructs such as the five-factor model (Eschleman et al. 2010 ; Skomorovsky and Sudom 2011 ).

While there is sound evidence to support the linking of personality factors to stress tolerance and subsequent resilience, this approach is not without contention. The central source of debate is that resilience has not been found to be a fixed or stable trait resulting in resilience across time and situations (unlike personality, which is a highly stable construct; Windle 2011 ). Furthermore, researchers caution that representing resilience as a product of personality implies that a person lacking these essential characteristics is condemned to failure (Windle). The personality-based focus on resilience has scientific merit, but imposes substantial barriers when viewed from a training perspective; for example, military members commonly self-identify as being resilient. As such, it can be hard to motivate personnel to invest in training that aims to develop something which they believe they already possess and is intangible except when facing significant adversity. From a clinical perspective, the idea of personality-based resilience has great relevance to therapy, but is often viewed as too individualistic for effective use in guiding group-based interventions as individuals can have very different reasons for seeking to engage in or avoid different (potentially stressful) activities (Holtforth 2008 ).

Finally, although there is an extensive body of research demonstrating that aspects of personality offer a protective moderating effect against the detrimental effects of stress, the role personality plays in buffering stress is not completely clear. For example, it has been argued that hardiness may actually represent more of a motivational attitude toward how an individual engages with stressors rather than represent a true personality characteristic (Bartone 2012 ; Maddi 2007 ). Supporting this perspective, there is evidence that hardiness is itself mediated by motivation, with approach and avoidance motivation explaining much of the beneficial outcomes of hardiness onto mental health (Wang et al. 2019 ). From this perspective, many of the resilience-based effects of hardiness can be considered from a motivational perspective rather than a true personality construct. This highlights that motivation for service is an important personal quality when looking to establish a resilient organization, an important consideration for leaders and recruiters alike.

Resilience Through Selection

Understanding the personality and motivational underpinnings of resilience is an important consideration when assessing candidates for potential service in high-stress environments. For this reason, the first step for maintaining good mental health and developing resilience in the military comes from establishing good selection practices.

How well a person can perform their job plays an important role in predicting how effectively they will respond to the demands of military service. Accordingly, a common practice in military selection processes is to apply a person-job fit criterion. Job fit criteria is usually established based upon analysis of the demands and requirements of the job for which the candidate is being assessed, and commonly assessed in terms of facets such as intellectual ability, education, and job knowledge (Edwards 1991 ). This approach has been used in Western militaries for over a century, with militaries such as the UK, USA, and Australia initiating the use of cognitive ability testing for selection during World War I (e.g., Snow and Snell 1993 ). The aim of selection is to find people with the right combinations of abilities to meet the demands of training and then apply those skills under challenging and changing conditions.

While job competence contributes to reducing workplace stress, task-specific demands are not the sole source of stress within the military. Research has shown that performance over time, motivation, and wellbeing are more likely to be influenced by a person’s organizational fit rather than just job skill (Kristof-Brown et al. 2005 ). Organisational fit relates to the alignment of personal/professional values, beliefs, and team orientation between an individual and the organization they work for. It has been found that a poor alignment between the person and their organization’s values predicts reduced job satisfaction as well as declines in mental health (Roczniewska 2014 ).

In selection, militaries often focus on how well a potential recruit will “fit” within the military environment as opposed to their level of preexisting job knowledge or qualifications (Sørlie et al. 2020 ; Johnston and Farley 2013 ). This is because the nature of military service is such that finding ab initio “job ready” recruits is all but impossible. As such, upon entry into the military, all new personnel can expect to undertake a range of intensive training programs to teach them the job knowledge and skills required to fulfill their specific roles. In this way, military selection can be considered as an assessment of “potential” rather than the more typical job fit assessments conducted by civilian employers. On the other hand, aspects relating to person-organizational fit, motivation, and “character” are far harder to train and therefore generally considered more important in potential military recruits than “job skills.” Good military candidates ideally possess the required cognitive ability, motivation, and personal characteristics predictive of meeting the demands of military service (e.g., low neuroticism, high hardiness, realistic expectations, mastery motivations, organizational fit, etc.). These attributes are important not only for building job competence, but provide the bases for resilience.

While understanding intrapersonal differences provides a sound place to start when seeking to establish an individual’s potential for resilience, more is required to turn good “potential” into highly resilient behaviors. The next step is to identify what resources are required to develop and maintain individual and organizational resilience. This becomes the domain of good leadership and organizational support.

Resilience as a Product of Leadership

Leaders are not only responsible for the planning and execution of missions. They also have direct responsibility for the wellbeing, morale, and motivation of their teams. No one likes working for a poor quality leader, but in the context of resilience, good leadership has tangible effects. For example, perceptions of good leadership, team cohesion, and high morale have been found to predict lower levels of self-reported PTSD symptoms from UK personnel returning from deployment in Afghanistan (Jones et al. 2012 ).

Militaries typically favor a “warrior” culture, which values ideals of physical and mental strength, stoicism under pressure, and an ability persist in the face of adversity. So, concerns among military personnel about being seen as “weak” or lacking the “mental fortitude” often result in hesitation or avoidance of proactive help-seeking behaviors (Hoge et al. 2004 ).

Leaders play a critical role in establishing a climate that supports military personnel to seek support in response to mental health problems. For example, Zinzow et al. ( 2013 ) conducted qualitative research with operationally deployed military personnel and found problems with leadership were frequently cited by soldiers as a concern that inhibited them from seeking support. Key issues identified included concerns that leaders were too busy with operational matters to recognize or support soldiers with their problems, concerns over a lack of confidentiality in how their personal issues would be handled, and uncertainty regarding how treatment would impact their performance and ability to contribute to mission objectives. By contrast, Britt, Wright, and Moore ( 2012 ) found that when military leaders, where perceived to be fair, displayed an interest in their members’ wellbeing, or an interest in seeing their subordinates getting mental health support, then soldiers reported fewer concerns regarding mental health stigma or ability to access support. These authors also found that the immediate supervisor (e.g., often non-commissioned officers) had a stronger effect on stigma and support-seeking behaviors than those higher up the chain of command (e.g., commanding officers).

Training to improve leaders’ understanding of mental health and educating them in the promotion of mental health support has been found to be an effective means for promoting resilience; for example, a Canadian program, called the Mental Health Awareness Training (MHAT), was found to improve both leaders and staffs knowledge and attitudes toward supporting mental health, as well as demonstrated a reduction in the average duration of mental health claims by 27% in the nine-month period following the implementation of the program (Dimoff et al. 2016 ). The MHAT program itself represents a fairly brief intervention, consisting of a single 3-hour session focusing on educating leaders in the early identification, engagement, support, and monitoring of mental health and wellbeing in their staff. This demonstrates how much of an effect the attitudes of leaders can have on how personnel respond to mental health problems, and subsequently promoting improved resilience within their teams.

Further highlighting the importance of leadership buy-in for the effective application of military resilience training, is the “Special Operations Mental Agility Program” sponsored and run by Canadian Special Operations Command (CSOC). While quantifiable outcomes of this program have not been published, CSOC reports that the program has been well received by personnel across the command. Critically, CSOC and the program developers emphasize that the success of the program is based largely upon the co-facilitated delivery model involving a technical expert (i.e., sports psychologist/mental health specialist) and a respected member of the unit who brings relevant operational experience to the training (Mattie et al. 2017 ). The positive reputation and endorsement of the co-facilitating unit member has been identified as pivotal in creating buy-in to the program.

Leaders also play a key role in shaping how personnel respond directly to stressful situations. Research has found that the mindset (i.e., motivation, attitude, and beliefs) people hold toward stress is an important predictor of resilience. Specifically, when stressful situations are appraised as a threat, then negative effects such as avoidance and reduced mental health are more likely to occur. By contrast, if a situation is appraised as a challenge (i.e., opportunity for meaningful personal growth), then outcomes such as increased performance, persistence, and wellbeing are likely to occur in the face of adversity (Jamieson et al. 2018 ). Furthermore, the “stress as benefit” mindset appears to be open to external influence, with leaders and role models having an important role to play in encouraging “cognitive reappraisals” of stressors as nonthreatening and beneficial (Crane and Boga 2017 ; Jamieson et al.). Put simply, leaders who are adapt at finding meaning in stressful situations, and are effective in facilitating this mindset within their teams, are more likely to foster an adaptive mindset toward stress and thus encourage resilient outcomes.

In this context, it is a key leadership challenge to strike an appropriate balance between the values of perseverance and “grit” in the face of adversity (in which militaries pride themselves) and promoting a culture that encourages proactive mental health support to sustain good self-care and long-term operational effectiveness.

In summary, the attitude of the leader toward stress and mental health is a critical organizational element to fostering resilience. However, there is still more involved in providing the foundations of resilience. Leaders also need to understand how job demands create strain and what resources their personnel require in order to thrive.

Job Characteristics and Resilience

Every occupation has its own unique demands and stressors. The job demands-resource (JD-R) model offers a flexible approach to conceptualizing the workplace characteristics associated with job stress and allows for predictions to be made regarding staff burnout, commitment, and performance (Bakker and Demerouti 2007 ). The JD-R model proposes that factors associated with job stress can be classified into two general domains: job demands and job resources .

Job demands refer to the physical, psychological, social, or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical, psychological, cognitive, and emotional effort. This effort is associated with certain physiological and/or psychological costs (e.g., adverse physical environment, performance demands, interpersonal conflict, etc.). While job demands are not by default a negative experience, they do represent a stressor, which needs to be met with the expenditure of energy and effort. If insufficient recovery time is available, previously manageable demands can become significant sources of stress.

Job resources refer to those aspects of a job that directly contribute to the achievement of work goals and stimulate personal growth, learning, and development (e.g., quality leadership, autonomy, feedback, support, relevant equipment, etc.).

Fundamentally, job demands put an individual under pressure and job resources buffer the impact and help individuals in effectively responding to those pressures. If the job demands outweigh the job resources, then burnout and reduced commitment/performance is likely to be the result. Alternatively, if job resources exceed the demands, personnel are likely to become more engaged, happier, healthier, and more committed to their work. While it would be an oversimplification to simply tally up all the job demands and job resources in order to see which one outweighs the other (there are too many unique combinations of demands and resources for simple comparisons to work), the JD-R model is a useful tool for identifying key demands and resources which in turn assists efforts to predict burnout, impaired morale, and performance issues within workplaces.

The JD-R model has been used within militaries as a framework to assist commanders in identifying potential issues within their command. For example, the “Profile of Unit Leadership Satisfaction and Effectiveness” (PULSE) survey is a unit-level climate survey which was developed collaboratively between the Australian and Canadian Forces in the mid-1990s and has since been refined into a standardized tool. The PULSE is a four-page questionnaire, which measures a range of human factors within a unit that can impact performance and has relevance to resilience. Key areas measured include: job stressors, perceived organizational support, leadership effectiveness, job satisfaction, work motivation, and communication.

The PULSE assists military psychologists to work with unit commanders in order to better understand the “perceived reality” of unit members and help identify and manage areas contributing to burnout or reduced motivation/morale. Understanding the climate and perceptions of “healthy” or “struggling” units allow commanders to take proactive steps to reinforce or enhance resilience at an organizational level. For example, many leaders feel the need to monitor their personnel closely to meet the expected performance demands, or engage in “micromanagement” under the mistaken belief that they are providing valued “mentoring”; however, outcomes from successive PULSE surveys underscore the perception that micromanagement is a significant job demand which directly undermines feelings of competency and autonomy (both important resources and motivational antecedents; Deci and Ryan 2000 ). Micromanagement and double standards represent some of the biggest criticisms leveled against leaders and can have significant negative impacts on the morale, motivation, and wellbeing. The JD-R model and unit climate surveys allow for issues like these to be identified and addressed.

In terms of job resources, the perceived cohesion, purpose, and morale within a unit can have significant effects on how closely an individual identifies with the group or unit they are working in. There is strong evidence that perceived job value and shared respect is just as important for individuals’ health and wellbeing as it is for productivity and performance (Steffens et al. 2017 ). Stated simply, when individuals feel valued and supported by their organization, they are more likely to respond better to organizational stressors and display long-term resilience. The JD-R model offers insights into how well units and subunits within the organization are meeting individuals’ needs in terms of job resources and alignment of values.

It almost goes without saying that it is important for commanders to be alert to the work demands within their units. However, work demands such as the impact of micromanagement are often harder to detect than more tangible demands such as workload and productivity requirements. The use of organizational climate surveys such as the PULSE represent a useful tool in a commander’s repertoire when aiming to identify and balance job demands and resources in order to achieve outcomes in long-term organizational resilience.

Mental Health Support

Early intervention is critical for good mental health recovery, but many military members delay seeking support due to career concerns. It is not uncommon for personnel to adopt the idea that mental health issues can be hidden to avoid potential career ramifications or embarrassment. It follows then, that for effective mental health support and resilience to flourish within the military, there needs to be a strong trust developed between individual members, commanders, and mental health support services.

Some militaries employ commissioned psychology officers, who not only provide mental health services relating to counseling and critical incident mental health support, but also provide organization-level support in the form of direct advice to commanders on issues such as motivation, performance, human factors, fatigue/shift management, unit cohesion, and job suitability (Staal and Stephenson 2006 ). Military psychologists are also commonly engaged in research, psychoeducation, and support on topics ranging from pre/post-operational adjustments and stress management, through to specific tasks such as working with human remains or hostage recovery. In this way, military psychologists attempt to engage with commanders and service members at all levels with a view to proactively improving performance and resilience, rather than being seen solely as medical practitioners who only get involved once a member becomes a “patient.” This helps promote the mindset that positive mental health and psychology are proactive performance enhancers rather than reinforcing negative mental health stigmas where seeking psychological support is akin to injury or weakness (e.g., Crane and Boga 2017 ; Jamieson et al. 2018 ).

Several nations (e.g., Australia, Canada, the USA, and New Zealand) conduct mental health screening for military personal returning home from deployments. The aim of these screens is to identify potential impairments in mental health and provide opportunities for brief interventions and/or psychoeducation to encourage adaptive behaviors, or to refer personnel for more comprehensive assessment and support (Searle et al. 2015 ). These screens also enable the large-scale collection of data to better understand and improve mental health support to operations. This organizational approach seeks to reinforce the message that command takes mental health seriously and allows for early interventions, for those most in need upon return from operations.

Building upon the responsibilities of leaders to make mental health support accessible, health specialists also need to build trust with both military members and commanders in order to overcome the barriers and stigma associated with mental illness. Many military personnel have deeply held concerns that even relatively “minor” mental health problems will result in perceptions that they are “damaged” or unreliable within their units. Accordingly, mental health intake, assessments, and treatment processes need to take into consideration not only the most ethical and effective treatment options available, but also potential issues of how different treatment options might affect operational readiness and career progression. While this observation may sound superficial (as effective treatment needs to be the priority), research has shown that perceived damage to a military member’s career poses a significant risk to long-term mental health and creates a substantial barrier to broader help-seeking behaviors during military service (Hoge et al. 2004 ; Van Hooff et al. 2018 ). For example, removing a soldier from a promotion course to undertake comprehensive treatment might be the best clinical option, but options that allow them to complete their course while accessing support should also be considered. If one soldiers’ career is perceived to be unfairly impacted by engaging in mental health support, there may be many more wondering if seeking support for themselves is worth the risk.

Unsurprisingly, increased exposure to combat is directly linked to increases in symptoms of combat stress and post-traumatic stress (Judkins and Bradley 2017 ). The delivery of brief psychological interventions promoting the resilience, recovery, and return to duty has become a foundation of operational psychology. While the management of combat stress within an operational environment is a multidimensional process, with mental health professionals working closely with serving members and command, the cumulative evidence shows that militaries that provide embedded psychological support reduce the prevalence of long-term disfunction and are more effective at maintaining an effective fighting force (Judkins and Bradley 2017 ).

By way of illustration, the US military identifies six key treatment principles for managing operational stress reactions (brevity, immediacy, contact, expectancy, proximity, and simplicity; or BICPES; Judkins and Bradley 2017 ). The Australian military uses a similar construct called PIES (proximity, immediacy, expectations, and simplicity). Other militaries have adopted similar models but the fundamental idea remains the same. Specifically, the aim is to manage military members experiencing stress reactions as close to their deployed location as possible. This keeps them connected with their team and helps maintain their operational mindset. Maintaining an individual’s expectation that they will return to effective duty is critical to avoiding the development of a causality mindset (i.e., no longer operationally effective and thus returning home). The further a member is removed from their operational unit during treatment, the harder it becomes for them to return to operational duties (Judkins & Bradley). Early identification of issues and simple interventions are the most effective methods for promoting fast recovery from common mental injuries and strains. However, it is acknowledged that not all treatments can be delivered in this way. More serious stress reactions may necessitate withdrawal to rear-echelon areas or even return home for comprehensive treatment. Proactive resilience training is one means in which militaries endeavor to preserved operational capability through the reduction of psychological casualties.

Resilience Training in the Military

Stress inoculation training has traditionally formed around the idea that exposure to demanding stressors will inevitably lead to more resilient personnel. Unfortunately, experience without clear feedback and guidance is just as likely to build bad habits as good ones.

A key ingredient in effectively building resilience seems to be in exposing individuals to levels of stress sufficient for them to learn adaptive and beneficial lessons without pushing them to the point of injury or distress where learning becomes impaired. Ideally, training should challenge a person in a meaningful manner, while allowing for different approaches and skills to be trialed and reflected upon (Crane and Boga 2017 ). If training is overwhelming or beyond an individual’s capacity, adaptive learning becomes impaired and the focus starts to shift from learning to survival. This can lead to an increase in long-term sensitivity/avoidance of stressors, the development of new mental health problems, or withdrawal from training/exit from the military. Furthermore, pushing people beyond their limits with the expectation that the exposure will inoculate them to stress risks promoting a culture in which a stoic response to stress is expected and any observable sign of weakness is discouraged, resulting in individuals choosing to hide mental health problems rather than seek support when required.

Militaries around the world have taken different approaches to developing resilience training. A commonly seen approach adopts a workshop format involving psychoeducation and the practice of cognitive skills for stress management. Such training often runs between a couple of hours and a couple of days. A classic example is the mental health training developed by the NATO Science and Technology Organization which teaches basic cognitive skills such as: acceptance and control, goal setting, self-talk, and tactical breathing in a 2-hour workshop. Variations of this program have been adopted by at least eleven militaries from NATO countries; although there have been few empirical validations conducted, there is evidence to suggest that these programs lead to better cognitive coping (e.g., less self-blame) and lowered short-term psychological distress in training (Bailey et al. 2011 ; Cohn and Pakenham 2008 ).

The following represents a small sample of programs used to illustrate different approaches to resilience training within the military forces.

The Master Resilience Training (MRT ) is a ten-day program that aims at teaching resilience skills to non-commissioned officers (NCOs). This program forms a pillar of the US Army–led “Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness” (CSF2) program. Based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), the curriculum centers on the “action-belief consequence model” proposed by Ellis (1962). This model holds that cognitions shape emotional and behavioral responses. The MRT is primarily intended as a foundation for training resilience skills, but it also aims to introduce resilience concepts that soldiers will encounter on deployments and across their career (Reivich et al. 2011 ). The program adopts a train-the-trainer approach, targeting NCOs with the intent that they lead and instruct junior soldiers in these skills. The purpose is to enhance soldiers’ overall performance and wellbeing by increasing their ability to handle adversity and thereby prevent depression/anxiety. Training is delivered in a combination of large-group information sessions and small-group breakout sessions. Activities include role-plays, checks on learning, and experiential learning (e.g., group discussions and application exercises). The program builds on evidence-based protective factors that have been found to contribute to resilience. These factors include: optimism, effective problem-solving, flexibility, faith, self-regulation, relationships, and emotional awareness (Reivich et al. 2011 ).

In an evaluation of the MRT, Harms, Herian, Krasikove, Vanhove, and Lester ( 2013 ) found that the training decreased the diagnoses for mental health problems and substance abuse. However, the benefits were judged to be marginal, with only a small difference in subsequent diagnoses for mental health problems observed between the training and control groups (4.44% in the MRT sample compared to 5.07% in the non-MRT sample). These results suggest that CBT-based group training programs can have positive effects in reducing mental health problems – although the effect sizes were small. Still, although the effect size of the program was small, given the prevalence and costs of mental health problems, Harms et al. argue that even a small reduction in diagnosed mental health problems represents meaningful outcomes for individuals in larger populations, such as the US military. Furthermore, the cumulative effects from small effect sizes are not easily modeled and might result in large gains over time. Further study was called for to assess potential long-term effects.

One additional point of interest from Harms et al.’s ( 2013 ) validation was that when analyzed for mediating effects it was found that MRT had no direct effects onto diagnoses of mental health problems; rather the effects were completely mediated by improvements in soldier’s self-reported optimism and adaptability . While more research is required to understand these results longitudinally, it provides some insight into what aspects of the MRT are providing the greatest benefits onto mental health. This knowledge has facilitated ongoing refinement of the resilience training program and informed the development of further resilience programs.

Mental Fitness Training . The mental fitness training developed by Macquarie University, in conjunction with the Australian Defense Force takes a distinctly different approach from more commonly applied psychological skill-building strategies. Psychological skill-building strategies are generally intended to teach stress management skills (e.g., tactical breathing, grounding, and progressive muscle relaxation). By contrast, the mental fitness training involves the application of a single metacognitive approach: coping and emotion regulatory self-reflection. The aim is to modify how personnel appraise stressors, encouraging a “stress as opportunity for self-growth” mindset. The training is designed to fit within preexisting military exercises and builds upon the adversity already inherent in military training. The program involves a 30-min introduction to the training and a self-reflection workbook to be completed periodically over the exercise period. The length of time between self-reflection can vary depending upon the intensity of training, but typically involves five 10-min periods of guided self-reflection conducted over 2–5 weeks.

Mental fitness training adopts a similar concept to physical fitness, where fitness is trainable, requires maintenance, and is often judged based on the demands of the environment (e.g., a “competition-fit” weightlifter is unlikely to be considered a “fit” marathon runner). Military personnel have generally been found to be more receptive to this practical/performance-orientated approach rather than less tangible ideas such as “training mental health.” It also assists trainees to develop a personal identity of being “mentally fit” and reinforces the relevance of engaging in training to better adapt to changing environmental conditions (e.g., a soldier with optimum fitness on operations may need to adjust their “training program” to become better “fitted” to the different demands of civilian life upon return home). At its core, the program frames stressors as opportunities for continual growth and offers a framework to develop personal training programs to progress toward established goals.

Five reflective practices are encouraged in the mental fitness training in order to strengthen resilience. These are: (a) awareness of one’s emotional, physical, behavioral, and cognitive responses to triggering events; (b) awareness of values and value-based goals in relation to the situation; (c) awareness of strategies applied to address the situation; (d) evaluation of strategy effectiveness in relation to values and goals; and (e) constructive adaptations of strategies to promote improvements in future strategies (Crane et al. 2019 ).

In 2017, a validation of the mental fitness training program was conducted with a class of officer cadets completing a particularly demanding part of their initial training at the Australian Royal Military Collage (involving field/tactical skills and leadership under adversity). Half the cadet class received the mental fitness training and the remainder attended an established psychological-skills-building resilience workshop. Data collected at the immediate conclusion of the field exercise demonstrated that there were no significant differences in depressive and anxiety symptoms between the two programs. However, over the next three months, anxiety and depressive symptoms continued to climb in the psychological skills group, whereas cadets who completed the mental fitness training demonstrated a significant reduction in depressive symptoms and perceived frequency of stressors. On average, at the three-month follow-up, cadets in the mental fitness program demonstrated symptom reductions of greater than >20% on all primary outcome measures (i.e., depression, anxiety, and perceived frequency of stressors) compared to those who received the psychological skills training. Most notably, the level of reported anxiety symptoms in the mental fitness group had practically returned to baseline levels (Crane et al. 2019 ). Thus, the mental fitness program was found to facilitate a speedy return to normal functioning post-adversity (representing the concept of resilience) rather than just buffing immediate stressors. Comparatively, the CBT-based psychological skills program provided similar short-term stress-buffering effects, but was not found to promote post-adversity recovery.

Experiential Leadership Development Activities (ELDA) . Since 2007, the New Zealand Army has incorporated outdoor ELDA in support of their Army leadership framework to train and develop leaders. Since 2012, many New Zealand soldiers have been required to complete ELDA training as part of their promotion courses. ELDA are outdoor activities, ranging between 6 days (for level 1) and 12 days (for level 2 training), which utilize challenging activities such as rock climbing, whitewater kayaking, mountaineering, or ski touring as the medium for personal development. The aim of the ELDA program is to challenge students every day, then allow periods of self-reflection and group discussion to encourage students to assess their own performance with respect to motivation, confidence, and skill. From these experiences, participants generate personalized self-development strategies. The level 2 course extends the training to include tools to help students better understand discrepancies between their personal identity and how they are perceived by others. The goal is to help students develop strategies which will enable them to better utilize their strengths and mitigate their weakness as leaders, particularly under periods of adversity.

Since 2012, ELDA training has become more focused on understanding personality and leadership and less concerned with performance under pressure or resilience. However, validation studies have found that students were more likely to demonstrate positive thinking and understanding or consideration of others when dealing with challenging situations, with positive behaviural changes being evident for an average of 4 months post-training without active reinforcement (Rhodes 2012 ). The evaluation of the training also notes that the more challenging and militarily relevant the course is, the more frequently positive workplace changes were observed. Furthermore, courses were found to be enhanced when they included inbuilt reminders to encourage ongoing self-reflection post-course, with the intent to recognize a broad range of immediately applicable personal strategies to respond to demands.

Overall, the accumulated research suggests that psychological stress management skills are able to be trained and inhibit some of the negative effects of stressors; however, resilience training goes beyond just buffering stressors. Adaption, recovery, and long-term resilience require changing the way people interpret and interact with stressors. Resilience training should not be considered a “one-shot” or annual inoculation, but needs to be actively incorporated into routine training and military life if it is to be maximally effective.

Resilience involves the ability to bounce back with minimal impact from adversity. Resilience is developed within military organizations through good selection and training practices that build upon the personal strengths of military members. Leaders have an important role to play in encouraging resilient outcomes. The attitude that leaders hold toward stress (in general) and mental health support (specifically) has a significant impact on whether or not individuals will engage in adaptive or maladaptive behaviors when faced with adversity. At the unit level, commanders need to display a genuine desire to see their members thrive. How a commander manages morale, work demands, and resources plays an important role in the long-term resilience of military members under their authority. At the broadest level, understanding barriers to care and effective integration between command and mental health support practitioners is fundamental for achieving resilient outcomes. Finally, there are notable benefits from the conduct of bespoke resilience training, but there is no single solution to building resilience. All the pieces need to fit together and reinforce each other to get the best results.

In closing, given the complexities and demands of military service, the promotion of resilience requires a whole of organization approach, sharing the responsibility between individual members, leaders, commanders, and support agencies.

Cross-References

Leadership in Extremis

Military Leader and Leadership Development

Military Organizational Learning

Military Personnel

Military Training, Education, and Socialization

Recruitment and Retention

What is Military Leadership?

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Crane, M. (2017). Managing for resilience: a practical guide to individual wellbeing and organizational performance. Taylor & Francis.

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Ferran Adrià, chef at legendary Barcelona-based restaurant elBulli, was facing two related decisions. First, he and his team must continue to develop new and different dishes for elBulli to guarantee a continuous stream of innovation, the cornerstone of the restaurant's success. But they also need to focus on growing the restaurant’s business. Can the team balance both objectives? Professor Michael I. Norton discusses the connections between creativity, emotions, rituals, and innovation – and how they can be applied to other domains – in the case, “elBulli: The Taste of Innovation,” and his new book, The Ritual Effect.

• 26 Apr 2024

Deion Sanders' Prime Lessons for Leading a Team to Victory

The former star athlete known for flash uses unglamorous command-and-control methods to get results as a college football coach. Business leaders can learn 10 key lessons from the way 'Coach Prime' builds a culture of respect and discipline without micromanaging, says Hise Gibson.

• 02 Apr 2024
• What Do You Think?

What's Enough to Make Us Happy?

Experts say happiness is often derived by a combination of good health, financial wellbeing, and solid relationships with family and friends. But are we forgetting to take stock of whether we have enough of these things? asks James Heskett. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Employees Out Sick? Inside One Company's Creative Approach to Staying Productive

Regular absenteeism can hobble output and even bring down a business. But fostering a collaborative culture that brings managers together can help companies weather surges of sick days and no-shows. Research by Jorge Tamayo shows how.

• 12 Mar 2024

Publish or Perish: What the Research Says About Productivity in Academia

Universities tend to evaluate professors based on their research output, but does that measure reflect the realities of higher ed? A study of 4,300 professors by Kyle Myers, Karim Lakhani, and colleagues probes the time demands, risk appetite, and compensation of faculty.

• 29 Feb 2024

Beyond Goals: David Beckham's Playbook for Mobilizing Star Talent

Reach soccer's pinnacle. Become a global brand. Buy a team. Sign Lionel Messi. David Beckham makes success look as easy as his epic free kicks. But leveraging world-class talent takes discipline and deft decision-making, as case studies by Anita Elberse reveal. What could other businesses learn from his ascent?

• 16 Feb 2024

Is Your Workplace Biased Against Introverts?

Extroverts are more likely to express their passion outwardly, giving them a leg up when it comes to raises and promotions, according to research by Jon Jachimowicz. Introverts are just as motivated and excited about their work, but show it differently. How can managers challenge their assumptions?

• 05 Feb 2024

The Middle Manager of the Future: More Coaching, Less Commanding

Skilled middle managers foster collaboration, inspire employees, and link important functions at companies. An analysis of more than 35 million job postings by Letian Zhang paints a counterintuitive picture of today's midlevel manager. Could these roles provide an innovation edge?

• 24 Jan 2024

Why Boeing’s Problems with the 737 MAX Began More Than 25 Years Ago

Aggressive cost cutting and rocky leadership changes have eroded the culture at Boeing, a company once admired for its engineering rigor, says Bill George. What will it take to repair the reputational damage wrought by years of crises involving its 737 MAX?

• 16 Jan 2024

How SolarWinds Responded to the 2020 SUNBURST Cyberattack

In December of 2020, SolarWinds learned that they had fallen victim to hackers. Unknown actors had inserted malware called SUNBURST into a software update, potentially granting hackers access to thousands of its customers’ data, including government agencies across the globe and the US military. General Counsel Jason Bliss needed to orchestrate the company’s response without knowing how many of its 300,000 customers had been affected, or how severely. What’s more, the existing CEO was scheduled to step down and incoming CEO Sudhakar Ramakrishna had yet to come on board. Bliss needed to immediately communicate the company’s action plan with customers and the media. In this episode of Cold Call, Professor Frank Nagle discusses SolarWinds’ response to this supply chain attack in the case, “SolarWinds Confronts SUNBURST.”

• 02 Jan 2024

Do Boomerang CEOs Get a Bad Rap?

Several companies have brought back formerly successful CEOs in hopes of breathing new life into their organizations—with mixed results. But are we even measuring the boomerang CEOs' performance properly? asks James Heskett. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 12 Dec 2023

COVID Tested Global Supply Chains. Here’s How They’ve Adapted

A global supply chain reshuffling is underway as companies seek to diversify their distribution networks in response to pandemic-related shocks, says research by Laura Alfaro. What do these shifts mean for American businesses and buyers?

• 05 Dec 2023

What Founders Get Wrong about Sales and Marketing

Which sales candidate is a startup’s ideal first hire? What marketing channels are best to invest in? How aggressively should an executive team align sales with customer success? Senior Lecturer Mark Roberge discusses how early-stage founders, sales leaders, and marketing executives can address these challenges as they grow their ventures in the case, “Entrepreneurial Sales and Marketing Vignettes.”

• 31 Oct 2023

Checking Your Ethics: Would You Speak Up in These 3 Sticky Situations?

Would you complain about a client who verbally abuses their staff? Would you admit to cutting corners on your work? The answers aren't always clear, says David Fubini, who tackles tricky scenarios in a series of case studies and offers his advice from the field.

• 12 Sep 2023

Can Remote Surgeries Digitally Transform Operating Rooms?

Launched in 2016, Proximie was a platform that enabled clinicians, proctors, and medical device company personnel to be virtually present in operating rooms, where they would use mixed reality and digital audio and visual tools to communicate with, mentor, assist, and observe those performing medical procedures. The goal was to improve patient outcomes. The company had grown quickly, and its technology had been used in tens of thousands of procedures in more than 50 countries and 500 hospitals. It had raised close to $50 million in equity financing and was now entering strategic partnerships to broaden its reach. Nadine Hachach-Haram, founder and CEO of Proximie, aspired for Proximie to become a platform that powered every operating room in the world, but she had to carefully consider the company’s partnership and data strategies in order to scale. What approach would position the company best for the next stage of growth? Harvard Business School associate professor Ariel Stern discusses creating value in health care through a digital transformation of operating rooms in her case, “Proximie: Using XR Technology to Create Borderless Operating Rooms.”

• 28 Aug 2023

The Clock Is Ticking: 3 Ways to Manage Your Time Better

Life is short. Are you using your time wisely? Leslie Perlow, Arthur Brooks, and DJ DiDonna offer time management advice to help you work smarter and live happier.

• 15 Aug 2023

Ryan Serhant: How to Manage Your Time for Happiness

Real estate entrepreneur, television star, husband, and father Ryan Serhant is incredibly busy and successful. He starts his days at 4:00 am and often doesn’t end them until 11:00 pm. But, it wasn’t always like that. In 2020, just a few months after the US began to shut down in order to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus, Serhant had time to reflect on his career as a real estate broker in New York City, wondering if the period of selling real estate at record highs was over. He considered whether he should stay at his current real estate brokerage or launch his own brokerage during a pandemic? Each option had very different implications for his time and flexibility. Professor Ashley Whillans and her co-author Hawken Lord (MBA 2023) discuss Serhant’s time management techniques and consider the lessons we can all learn about making time our most valuable commodity in the case, “Ryan Serhant: Time Management for Repeatable Success.”

• 08 Aug 2023

The Rise of Employee Analytics: Productivity Dream or Micromanagement Nightmare?

"People analytics"—using employee data to make management decisions—could soon transform the workplace and hiring, but implementation will be critical, says Jeffrey Polzer. After all, do managers really need to know about employees' every keystroke?

• 01 Aug 2023

Can Business Transform Primary Health Care Across Africa?

mPharma, headquartered in Ghana, is trying to create the largest pan-African health care company. Their mission is to provide primary care and a reliable and fairly priced supply of drugs in the nine African countries where they operate. Co-founder and CEO Gregory Rockson needs to decide which component of strategy to prioritize in the next three years. His options include launching a telemedicine program, expanding his pharmacies across the continent, and creating a new payment program to cover the cost of common medications. Rockson cares deeply about health equity, but his venture capital-financed company also must be profitable. Which option should he focus on expanding? Harvard Business School Professor Regina Herzlinger and case protagonist Gregory Rockson discuss the important role business plays in improving health care in the case, “mPharma: Scaling Access to Affordable Primary Care in Africa.”

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5 Leadership Trends That Will Shape 2024

• December 13, 2023

As a leader, it’s your responsibility to remain aware of these key changes and embrace these five leadership trends are set to take front stage in 2024:

Wellbeing-Focused Leadership

There has been a major uptake in focus on well-being and mental health initiatives within the workforce; this is particularly vital for those who work remotely, and even more crucial since we’ve all experienced major world changes that have altered our lifestyles, as the cost of living crisis and inflation, wars between countries and politics that have affected our families, and the ever-looming threat of layoffs. According to the  American Psychological Association , approximately 70% of Americans feel that the nation does not care for them and are worried about their human rights being under attack, with 38% considering moving to another country.

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace  report  reveals that 57% of U.S and Canadian workers are stressed on a regular basis, while another  report from The American Institute of Stress uncovered that 83% of Americans suffer from work-related stress, costing the economy $77 billion. This is something that leaders and managers cannot afford to turn a blind eye to, if they are concerned about reducing costs, improving productivity and high levels performance, and engaging employees. Well-being needs to be high on the agenda for 2024, with all leaders thinking and working collectively to develop strategies and policies that put the employees wellbeing first.

AI-Powered Leadership

With the generative AI boom that was sparked by ChatGPT, will come the need for leaders to adopt this technology at scale. This involves upskilling your team on how to use and deploy it effectively, and will bring significant returns in the long run, to improving overall productivity and boosting wellbeing, with employees being empowered to produce better quality work in less time. As a leader or manager, you will also be empowered with the data and intelligence to be effective in your role.

Emotionally-Intelligent Leadership

Employees want leaders who are more empathetic, compassionate, self-aware, excellent communicators, and can coach them to success instead of micromanaging or distrusting their work. This is especially essential as Gen Z takes over as the next biggest generation on the workforce, while Baby Boomers go into retirement. Many  managers and leaders have complained about Gen Z’s lack of work ethic, which in some respects, is justifiable. But since Gen Z is poised to be the next generation of leaders, why not develop one’s own growth mindset and coaching skills to be a mentor and coach be these young professionals, so they can be high performers in their jobs and careers?

Additionally, when you are an emotionally intelligent leader, you will produce a more positive work environment, attract more quality candidates because of your employer brand, and resolve workplace conflict effectively.

What’s coming in 2024 will be a workplace revolution like no other. Leaders and managers who desire successful careers and want an empowered workforce need to be aware of these key changes that will impact their businesses and the global economy, and prepare through developing a growth mindset, being self-aware, and maintaining a positive attitude towards change while leveraging technology to remain competitive.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

Photo by Dinielle De Veyra

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By Rachel Wells

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B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Outlook for 2024 [Research]

• by Stephanie Stahl
• | Published: October 18, 2023
• | Trends and Research

Creating standards, guidelines, processes, and workflows for content marketing is not the sexiest job.

But setting standards is the only way to know if you can improve anything (with AI or anything else).

Here’s the good news: All that non-sexy work frees time and resources (human and tech) you can apply to bring your brand’s strategies and plans to life.  

But in many organizations, content still isn’t treated as a coordinated business function. That’s one of the big takeaways from our latest research, B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Outlook for 2024, conducted with MarketingProfs and sponsored by Brightspot .

A few symptoms of that reality showed up in the research:

• Marketers cite a lack of resources as a top situational challenge, the same as they did the previous year.
• Nearly three-quarters (72%) say they use generative AI, but 61% say their organization lacks guidelines for its use.
• The most frequently cited challenges include creating the right content, creating content consistently, and differentiating content.

I’ll walk you through the findings and share some advice from CMI Chief Strategy Advisor Robert Rose and other industry voices to shed light on what it all means for B2B marketers. There’s a lot to work through, so feel free to use the table of contents to navigate to the sections that most interest you.

Note: These numbers come from a July 2023 survey of marketers around the globe. We received 1,080 responses. This article focuses on answers from the 894 B2B respondents.

Table of contents

• Team structure
• Content marketing challenges

Content types, distribution channels, and paid channels

• Social media

Content management and operations

• Measurement and goals
• Overall success
• Budgets and spending
• Top content-related priorities for 2024
• Content marketing trends for 2024

Action steps

Methodology, ai: 3 out of 4 b2b marketers use generative tools.

Of course, we asked respondents how they use generative AI in content and marketing. As it turns out, most experiment with it: 72% of respondents say they use generative AI tools.

But a lack of standards can get in the way.

“Generative AI is the new, disruptive capability entering the realm of content marketing in 2024,” Robert says. “It’s just another way to make our content process more efficient and effective. But it can’t do either until you establish a standard to define its value. Until then, it’s yet just another technology that may or may not make you better at what you do.”

So, how do content marketers use the tools today? About half (51%) use generative AI to brainstorm new topics. Many use the tools to research headlines and keywords (45%) and write drafts (45%). Fewer say they use AI to outline assignments (23%), proofread (20%), generate graphics (11%), and create audio (5%) and video (5%).

Some marketers say they use AI to do things like generate email headlines and email copy, extract social media posts from long-form content, condense long-form copy into short form, etc.

Only 28% say they don’t use generative AI tools.

Most don’t pay for generative AI tools (yet)

Among those who use generative AI tools, 91% use free tools (e.g., ChatGPT ). Thirty-eight percent use tools embedded in their content creation/management systems, and 27% pay for tools such as Writer and Jasper.

AI in content remains mostly ungoverned

Asked if their organizations have guidelines for using generative AI tools, 31% say yes, 61% say no, and 8% are unsure.

We asked Ann Handley , chief content officer of MarketingProfs, for her perspective. “It feels crazy … 61% have no guidelines? But is it actually shocking and crazy? No. It is not. Most of us are just getting going with generative AI. That means there is a clear and rich opportunity to lead from where you sit,” she says.

“Ignite the conversation internally. Press upon your colleagues and your leadership that this isn’t a technology opportunity. It’s also a people and operational challenge in need of thoughtful and intelligent response. You can be the AI leader your organization needs,” Ann says.

Why some marketers don’t use generative AI tools

While a lack of guidelines may deter some B2B marketers from using generative AI tools, other reasons include accuracy concerns (36%), lack of training (27%), and lack of understanding (27%). Twenty-two percent cite copyright concerns, and 19% have corporate mandates not to use them.

How AI is changing SEO

We also wondered how AI’s integration in search engines shifts content marketers’ SEO strategy. Here’s what we found:

• 31% are sharpening their focus on user intent/answering questions.
• 27% are creating more thought leadership content.
• 22% are creating more conversational content.

Over one-fourth (28%) say they’re not doing any of those things, while 26% say they’re unsure.

AI may heighten the need to rethink your SEO strategy. But it’s not the only reason to do so, as Orbit Media Studios co-founder and chief marketing officer Andy Crestodina points out: “Featured snippets and people-also-ask boxes have chipped away at click-through rates for years,” he says. “AI will make that even worse … but only for information intent queries . Searchers who want quick answers really don’t want to visit websites.

“Focus your SEO efforts on those big questions with big answers – and on the commercial intent queries,” Andy continues. “Those phrases still have ‘visit website intent’ … and will for years to come.”

Will the AI obsession ever end?

Many B2B marketers surveyed predict AI will dominate the discussions of content marketing trends in 2024. As one respondent says: “AI will continue to be the shiny thing through 2024 until marketers realize the dedication required to develop prompts, go through the iterative process, and fact-check output . AI can help you sharpen your skills, but it isn’t a replacement solution for B2B marketing.”

Back to table of contents

Team structure: How does the work get done?

Generative AI isn’t the only issue affecting content marketing these days. We also asked marketers about how they organize their teams .

Among larger companies (100-plus employees), half say content requests go through a centralized content team. Others say each department/brand produces its own content (23%), and the departments/brand/products share responsibility (21%).

Content strategies integrate with marketing, comms, and sales

Seventy percent say their organizations integrate content strategy into the overall marketing sales/communication/strategy, and 2% say it’s integrated into another strategy. Eleven percent say content is a stand-alone strategy for content used for marketing, and 6% say it’s a stand-alone strategy for all content produced by the company. Only 9% say they don’t have a content strategy. The remaining 2% say other or are unsure.

Employee churn means new teammates; content teams experience enlightened leadership

Twenty-eight percent of B2B marketers say team members resigned in the last year, 20% say team members were laid off, and about half (49%) say they had new team members acclimating to their ways of working.

While team members come and go, the understanding of content doesn’t. Over half (54%) strongly agree, and 30% somewhat agree the leader to whom their content team reports understands the work they do. Only 11% disagree. The remaining 5% neither agree nor disagree.

And remote work seems well-tolerated: Only 20% say collaboration was challenging due to remote or hybrid work.

Content marketing challenges: Focus shifts to creating the right content

We asked B2B marketers about both content creation and non-creation challenges.

Content creation

Most marketers (57%) cite creating the right content for their audience as a challenge. This is a change from many years when “creating enough content” was the most frequently cited challenge.

One respondent points out why understanding what audiences want is more important than ever: “As the internet gets noisier and AI makes it incredibly easy to create listicles and content that copy each other, there will be a need for companies to stand out. At the same time, as … millennials and Gen Z [grow in the workforce], we’ll begin to see B2B become more entertaining and less boring. We were never only competing with other B2B content. We’ve always been competing for attention.”

Other content creation challenges include creating it consistently (54%) and differentiating it (54%). Close to half (45%) cite optimizing for search and creating quality content (44%). About a third (34%) cite creating enough content to keep up with internal demand, 30% say creating enough content to keep up with external demand, and 30% say creating content that requires technical skills.

Other hurdles

The most frequently cited non-creation challenge, by far, is a lack of resources (58%), followed by aligning content with the buyer’s journey (48%) and aligning content efforts across sales and marketing (45%). Forty-one percent say they have issues with workflow/content approval, and 39% say they have difficulty accessing subject matter experts. Thirty-four percent say it is difficult to keep up with new technologies/tools (e.g., AI). Only 25% cite a lack of strategy as a challenge, 19% say keeping up with privacy rules, and 15% point to tech integration issues.

We asked content marketers about the types of content they produce, their distribution channels , and paid content promotion. We also asked which formats and channels produce the best results.

Popular content types and formats

As in the previous year, the three most popular content types/formats are short articles/posts (94%, up from 89% last year), videos (84%, up from 75% last year), and case studies/customer stories (78%, up from 67% last year). Almost three-quarters (71%) use long articles, 60% produce visual content, and 59% craft thought leadership e-books or white papers. Less than half of marketers use brochures (49%), product or technical data sheets (45%), research reports (36%), interactive content (33%), audio (29%), and livestreaming (25%).

Effective content types and formats

Which formats are most effective? Fifty-three percent say case studies/customer stories and videos deliver some of their best results. Almost as many (51%) names thought leadership e-books or white papers, 47% short articles, and 43% research reports.

Popular content distribution channels

Regarding the channels used to distribute content, 90% use social media platforms (organic), followed by blogs (79%), email newsletters (73%), email (66%), in-person events (56%), and webinars (56%).

Channels used by the minority of those surveyed include:

• Digital events (44%)
• Podcasts (30%)
• Microsites (29%)
• Digital magazines (21%)
• Branded online communities (19%)
• Hybrid events (18%)
• Print magazines (16%)
• Online learning platforms (15%)
• Mobile apps (8%)
• Separate content brands (5%)

Effective content distribution channels

Which channels perform the best? Most marketers in the survey point to in-person events (56%) and webinars (51%) as producing better results. Email (44%), organic social media platforms (44%), blogs (40%) and email newsletters (39%) round out the list.

Popular paid content channels

When marketers pay to promote content , which channels do they invest in? Eighty-six percent use paid content distribution channels.

Of those, 78% use social media advertising/promoted posts, 65% use sponsorships, 64% use search engine marketing (SEM)/pay-per-click, and 59% use digital display advertising. Far fewer invest in native advertising (35%), partner emails (29%), and print display ads (21%).

Effective paid content channels

SEM/pay-per-click produces good results, according to 62% of those surveyed. Half of those who use paid channels say social media advertising/promoted posts produce good results, followed by sponsorships (49%), partner emails (36%), and digital display advertising (34%).

Social media use: One platform rises way above

When asked which organic social media platforms deliver the best value for their organization, B2B marketers picked LinkedIn by far (84%). Only 29% cite Facebook as a top performer, 22% say YouTube, and 21% say Instagram. Twitter and TikTok see 8% and 3%, respectively.

So it makes sense that 72% say they increased their use of LinkedIn over the last 12 months, while only 32% boosted their YouTube presence, 31% increased Instagram use, 22% grew their Facebook presence, and 10% increased X and TikTok use.

Which platforms are marketers giving up? Did you guess X? You’re right – 32% of marketers say they decreased their X use last year. Twenty percent decreased their use of Facebook, with 10% decreasing on Instagram, 9% pulling back on YouTube, and only 2% decreasing their use of LinkedIn.

Interestingly, we saw a significant rise in B2B marketers who use TikTok: 19% say they use the platform – more than double from last year.

To explore how teams manage content, we asked marketers about their technology use and investments and the challenges they face when scaling their content .

Content management technology

When asked which technologies they use to manage content, marketers point to:

• Analytics tools (81%)
• Social media publishing/analytics (72%)
• Email marketing software (69%)
• Content creation/calendaring/collaboration/workflow (64%)
• Content management system (50%)
• Customer relationship management system (48%)

But having technology doesn’t mean it’s the right technology (or that its capabilities are used). So, we asked if they felt their organization had the right technology to manage content across the organization.

Only 31% say yes. Thirty percent say they have the technology but aren’t using its potential, and 29% say they haven’t acquired the right technology. Ten percent are unsure.

Content tech spending will likely rise

Even so, investment in content management technology seems likely in 2024: 45% say their organization is likely to invest in new technology, whereas 32% say their organization is unlikely to do so. Twenty-three percent say their organization is neither likely nor unlikely to invest.

Scaling content production

We introduced a new question this year to understand what challenges B2B marketers face while scaling content production .

Almost half (48%) say it’s “not enough content repurposing.” Lack of communication across organizational silos is a problem for 40%. Thirty-one percent say they have no structured content production process, and 29% say they lack an editorial calendar with clear deadlines. Ten percent say scaling is not a current focus.

Among the other hurdles – difficulty locating digital content assets (16%), technology issues (15%), translation/localization issues (12%), and no style guide (11%).

For those struggling with content repurposing, content standardization is critical. “Content reuse is the only way to deliver content at scale. There’s just no other way,” says Regina Lynn Preciado , senior director of content strategy solutions at Content Rules Inc.

“Even if you’re not trying to provide the most personalized experience ever or dominate the metaverse with your omnichannel presence, you absolutely must reuse content if you are going to deliver content effectively,” she says.

“How to achieve content reuse ? You’ve probably heard that you need to move to modular, structured content. However, just chunking your content into smaller components doesn’t go far enough. For content to flow together seamlessly wherever you reuse it, you’ve got to standardize your content. That’s the personalization paradox right there. To personalize, you must standardize.

“Once you have your content standards in place and everyone is creating content in alignment with those standards, there is no limit to what you can do with the content,” Regina explains.

Why do content marketers – who are skilled communicators – struggle with cross-silo communication? Standards and alignment come into play.

“I think in the rush to all the things, we run out of time to address scalable processes that will fix those painful silos, including taking time to align on goals, roles and responsibilities, workflows, and measurement,” says Ali Orlando Wert , senior director of content strategy at Appfire. “It takes time, but the payoffs are worth it. You have to learn how to crawl before you can walk – and walk before you can run.”

Measurement and goals: Generating sales and revenue rises

Almost half (46%) of B2B marketers agree their organization measures content performance effectively. Thirty-six percent disagree, and 15% neither agree nor disagree. Only 3% say they don’t measure content performance.

The five most frequently used metrics to assess content performance are conversions (73%), email engagement (71%), website traffic (71%), website engagement (69%), and social media analytics (65%).

About half (52%) mention the quality of leads, 45% say they rely on search rankings, 41% use quantity of leads, 32% track email subscribers, and 29% track the cost to acquire a lead, subscriber, or customer.

The most common challenge B2B marketers have while measuring content performance is integrating/correlating data across multiple platforms (84%), followed by extracting insights from data (77%), tying performance data to goals (76%), organizational goal setting (70%), and lack of training (66%).

Regarding goals, 84% of B2B marketers say content marketing helped create brand awareness in the last 12 months. Seventy-six percent say it helped generate demand/leads; 63% say it helped nurture subscribers/audiences/leads, and 58% say it helped generate sales/revenue (up from 42% the previous year).

Success factors: Know your audience

To separate top performers from the pack, we asked the B2B marketers to assess the success of their content marketing approach.

Twenty-eight percent rate the success of their organization’s content marketing approach as extremely or very successful. Another 57% report moderate success and 15% feel minimally or not at all successful.

The most popular factor for successful marketers is knowing their audience (79%).

This makes sense, considering that “creating the right content for our audience” is the top challenge. The logic? Top-performing content marketers prioritize knowing their audiences to create the right content for those audiences.

Top performers also set goals that align with their organization’s objectives (68%), effectively measure and demonstrate content performance (61%), and show thought leadership (60%). Collaboration with other teams (55%) and a documented strategy (53%) also help top performers reach high levels of content marketing success.

We looked at several other dimensions to identify how top performers differ from their peers. Of note, top performers:

• Are backed by leaders who understand the work they do.
• Are more likely to have the right content management technologies.
• Have better communication across organizational silos.
• Do a better job of measuring content effectiveness.
• Are more likely to use content marketing successfully to generate demand/leads, nurture subscribers/audiences/leads, generate sales/revenue, and grow a subscribed audience.

Little difference exists between top performers and their less successful peers when it comes to the adoption of generative AI tools and related guidelines. It will be interesting to see if and how that changes next year.

Budgets and spending: Holding steady

To explore budget plans for 2024, we asked respondents if they have knowledge of their organization’s budget/budgeting process for content marketing. Then, we asked follow-up questions to the 55% who say they do have budget knowledge.

Content marketing as a percentage of total marketing spend

Here’s what they say about the total marketing budget (excluding salaries):

• About a quarter (24%) say content marketing takes up one-fourth or more of the total marketing budget.
• Nearly one in three (29%) indicate that 10% to 24% of the marketing budget goes to content marketing.
• Just under half (48%) say less than 10% of the marketing budget goes to content marketing.

Content marketing budget outlook for 2024

Next, we asked about their 2024 content marketing budget. Forty-five percent think their content marketing budget will increase compared with 2023, whereas 42% think it will stay the same. Only 6% think it will decrease.

Where will the budget go?

We also asked where respondents plan to increase their spending.

Sixty-nine percent of B2B marketers say they would increase their investment in video, followed by thought leadership content (53%), in-person events (47%), paid advertising (43%), online community building (33%), webinars (33%), audio content (25%), digital events (21%), and hybrid events (11%).

The increased investment in video isn’t surprising. The focus on thought leadership content might surprise, but it shouldn’t, says Stephanie Losee , director of executive and ABM content at Autodesk.

“As measurement becomes more sophisticated, companies are finding they’re better able to quantify the return from upper-funnel activities like thought leadership content ,” she says. “At the same time, companies recognize the impact of shifting their status from vendor to true partner with their customers’ businesses.

“Autodesk recently launched its first global, longitudinal State of Design & Make report (registration required), and we’re finding that its insights are of such value to our customers that it’s enabling conversations we’ve never been able to have before. These conversations are worth gold to both sides, and I would imagine other B2B companies are finding the same thing,” Stephanie says.

Top content-related priorities for 2024: Leading with thought leadership

We asked an open-ended question about marketers’ top three content-related priorities for 2024. The responses indicate marketers place an emphasis on thought leadership and becoming a trusted resource.

Other frequently mentioned priorities include:

• Better understanding of the audience
• Discovering the best ways to use AI
• Increasing brand awareness
• Lead generation
• Using more video
• Better use of analytics
• Conversions
• Repurposing existing content

Content marketing predictions for 2024: AI is top of mind

In another open-ended question, we asked B2B marketers, “What content marketing trends do you predict for 2024?” You probably guessed the most popular trend: AI.

Here are some of the marketers’ comments about how AI will affect content marketing next year:

• “We’ll see generative AI everywhere, all the time.”
• “There will be struggles to determine the best use of generative AI in content marketing.”
• “AI will likely result in a flood of poor-quality, machine-written content. Winners will use AI for automating the processes that support content creation while continuing to create high-quality human-generated content.”
• “AI has made creating content so easy that there are and will be too many long articles on similar subjects; most will never be read or viewed. A sea of too many words. I predict short-form content will have to be the driver for eyeballs.”

Other trends include:

• Greater demand for high-quality content as consumers grow weary of AI-generated content
• Importance of video content
• Increasing use of short video and audio content
• Impact of AI on SEO

Among the related comments:

• “Event marketing (webinars and video thought leadership) will become more necessary as teams rely on AI-generated written content.”
• “AI will be an industry sea change and strongly impact the meaning of SEO. Marketers need to be ready to ride the wave or get left behind.”
• “Excitement around AI-generated content will rise before flattening out when people realize it’s hard to differentiate, validate, verify, attribute, and authenticate. New tools, processes, and roles will emerge to tackle this challenge.”
• “Long-form reports could start to see a decline. If that is the case, we will need a replacement. Logically, that could be a webinar or video series that digs deeper into the takeaways.”

What does this year’s research suggest B2B content marketers do to move forward?

I asked CMI’s Robert Rose for some insights. He says the steps are clear: Develop standards, guidelines, and playbooks for how to operate – just like every other function in business does.

“Imagine if everyone in your organization had a different idea of how to define ‘revenue’ or ‘profit margin,’” Robert says. “Imagine if each salesperson had their own version of your company’s customer agreements and tried to figure out how to write them for every new deal. The legal team would be apoplectic. You’d start to hear from sales how they were frustrated that they couldn’t figure out how to make the ‘right agreement,’ or how to create agreements ‘consistently,’ or that there was a complete ‘lack of resources’ for creating agreements.”

Just remember: Standards can change along with your team, audiences, and business priorities. “Setting standards doesn’t mean casting policies and templates in stone,” Robert says. “Standards only exist so that we can always question the standard and make sure that there’s improvement available to use in setting new standards.”

He offers these five steps to take to solidify your content marketing strategy and execution:

• Direct. Create an initiative that will define the scope of the most important standards for your content marketing. Prioritize the areas that hurt the most. Work with leadership to decide where to start. Maybe it’s persona development. Maybe you need a new standardized content process. Maybe you need a solid taxonomy. Build the list and make it a real initiative.
• Define . Create a common understanding of all the things associated with the standards. Don’t assume that everybody knows. They don’t. What is a white paper? What is an e-book? What is a campaign vs. an initiative? What is a blog post vs. an article? Getting to a common language is one of the most powerful things you can do to coordinate better.
• Develop . You need both policies and playbooks. Policies are the formal documentation of your definitions and standards. Playbooks are how you communicate combinations of policies so that different people can not just understand them but are ready, willing, and able to follow them.
• Distribute . If no one follows the standards, they’re not standards. So, you need to develop a plan for how your new playbooks fit into the larger, cross-functional approach to the content strategy. You need to deepen the integration into each department – even if that is just four other people in your company.
• Distill . Evolve your standards. Make them living documents. Deploy technology to enforce and scale the standards. Test. If a standard isn’t working, change it. Sometimes, more organic processes are OK. Sometimes, it’s OK to acknowledge two definitions for something. The key is acknowledging a change to an existing standard so you know whether it improves things.

For their 14 th annual content marketing survey, CMI and MarketingProfs surveyed 1,080 recipients around the globe – representing a range of industries, functional areas, and company sizes — in July 2023. The online survey was emailed to a sample of marketers using lists from CMI and MarketingProfs.

This article presents the findings from the 894 respondents, mostly from North America, who indicated their organization is primarily B2B and that they are either content marketers or work in marketing, communications, or other roles involving content.

Thanks to the survey participants, who made this research possible, and to everyone who helps disseminate these findings throughout the content marketing industry.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

About Content Marketing Institute

Content Marketing Institute (CMI) exists to do one thing: advance the practice of content marketing through online education and in-person and digital events. We create and curate content experiences that teach marketers and creators from enterprise brands, small businesses, and agencies how to attract and retain customers through compelling, multichannel storytelling. Global brands turn to CMI for strategic consultation, training, and research. Organizations from around the world send teams to Content Marketing World, the largest content marketing-focused event, the Marketing Analytics & Data Science (MADS) conference, and CMI virtual events, including ContentTECH Summit. Our community of 215,000+ content marketers shares camaraderie and conversation. CMI is organized by Informa Connect. To learn more, visit www.contentmarketinginstitute.com .

About MarketingProfs

Marketingprofs is your quickest path to b2b marketing mastery.

More than 600,000 marketing professionals worldwide rely on MarketingProfs for B2B Marketing training and education backed by data science, psychology, and real-world experience. Access free B2B marketing publications, virtual conferences, podcasts, daily newsletters (and more), and check out the MarketingProfs B2B Forum–the flagship in-person event for B2B Marketing training and education at MarketingProfs.com.

About Brightspot

Brightspot , the content management system to boost your business.

Why Brightspot? Align your technology approach and content strategy with Brightspot, the leading Content Management System for delivering exceptional digital experiences. Brightspot helps global organizations meet the business needs of today and scale to capitalize on the opportunities of tomorrow. Our Enterprise CMS and world-class team solves your unique business challenges at scale. Fast, flexible, and fully customizable, Brightspot perfectly harmonizes your technology approach with your content strategy and grows with you as your business evolves. Our customer-obsessed teams walk with you every step of the way with an unwavering commitment to your long-term success. To learn more, visit www.brightspot.com .

Stephanie Stahl