A Strategy for Character and Leadership Education

Abstract

The concept of teaching character and/or leadership is a critical component of human performance and development. Whether in the military, government service, athletic competition, or academics, character and leadership play a pivotal role in producing a quality product. Unfortunately for educators and practitioners, the chief limitation in developing these traits is the inevitable immeasurability of each through normal means. This article establishes a linkage between character and leadership development and the Clausewitzian notion of military genius in order to establish correlation between military genius and character and leadership education. To establish this relationship this article defines the characteristics of military genius, demonstrates how these aspects can be taught and evaluated, and then links these activities to defining moments which allow the one to evaluate character and
leadership in practice.