Thinking of where you are now in your career, how long has it been since your last formal CG leadership training? Thinking of your future, how long before your next formal leadership training? Perhaps there are several years between formal leadership training, so how do you continue to develop yourself during these gap years, and how do you grow those you lead?
Imagine you can access on-demand resources to develop yourself and your unit members informally. Did you know that the Leader Development Resources (LDR) SharePoint site provides free, on-demand videos and podcasts? The videos include one-pagers with quick, short summaries and discussion points for facilitating mess-deck conversations or professional development events. Likewise, podcasts also include discussion points and questions, with each topic connecting to a leadership competency as outlined in the Coast Guard Leadership Framework.
Individual and Group Development
The LDR materials include short and long videos, podcasts, free assessments, and job aids. The videos are organized by themes, such as Core Values, Inspirational Leadership, Communications, and more. Resources, both short and long, also contain impactful lessons from Army, Air Force, and Navy leaders. In addition, the LDR includes links to many free resources. Furthermore, we provide a “DIY” or Develop it Yourself job aid to create a leadership conversation with your own video, podcast, article, or other media. The menu of resources serves as models for creating and customizing a leadership or professional development conversation for unit leaders to use to develop self and others, and to do so on a continuous or frequent basis.
Conversing about shared videos, podcasts, or articles is important for continuous leadership development. Each of the leaders of the Armed Forces disseminates an official reading list to provide commonly shared readings and to foster conversations. Likewise, leaders can share videos and podcasts from the LDR and thereby promote continuous learning through unit conversations.
Leader Assist
The LDC Leader Assist Program provides support for targeted leadership and performance improvement workshops. The goal of the Leader Assist Program is to improve climate and effectiveness in the Coast Guard by assisting leaders where leadership happens – in the field. LDC can provide Customized leadership workshops, command climate assessment and consulting, meeting and focus group facilitation, 360-degree evaluations with subsequent coaching, DiSC behavior assessments, strategic thinking/planning, diversity, inclusion, LDAC support, and one-on-one coaching services.
Leadership is about developing yourself and others to achieve results, which provides the “why” and importance for continuous learning. The LDR provides tools to start a new learning habit and serves as a model for developing customized learning and development at your unit. What will you do to continually develop yourself and others?
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Resources:
Leader Development Resources: Leader Development Resources (LDR) Portal (sharepoint-mil.us)