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Leadership

Preparing Cadets for Leadership After VMI

Are you looking to develop your leadership skills and become a successful leader in various sectors? Look no further than Virginia Military Institute (VMI). Founded in 1839, VMI’s honor, character, and service core values prepare cadets to tackle complex challenges and serve society. VMI enhances its “whole person” approach to undergraduate education through programs available at the Center for Leadership and Ethics. Established in 2009, the VMI Center for Leadership and Ethics offers character and leader development programs emphasizing academic and experiential learning opportunities. 

Course for Cadets

Publications

Leaders-in-Residence

Professional Development

Related Programs

Additional Resources

Leadership in Organizations Course

The interdisciplinary LEAD 344 course focuses on leadership in an organizational context, integrating theory and practice. Cadets learn how to influence subordinates indirectly through organizational systems and procedures, organizational culture, and ethical climate. The course also encourages cadets to reflect upon and apply their knowledge to their experiences as leaders and followers in the Corps of Cadets and ROTC curricula.

 

Leadership Publications

Clickable thumbnail image of PDF booklet

VMI Leader Journey

The VMI Leader Journey is a leadership development system that incorporates the Institute's core values -- honor, character, and service -- practiced in an environment stressing civility. This document provides an overview of the cadet's four-year journey of "whole person" development across our academic, physical development, and military programs.

 

Photo of cadets marching in line in full uniform.

Leadership Opportunity Inventory

This document outlines opportunities available to cadets across the four-year VMI experience and demonstrates that cadets seeking opportunities will find them. In addition, it provides a foundation for a structured and formalized cadet leader development system, identifying cadet development goals and the methods by which those goals are attained.

Leaders-in-Residence

The VMI Leader-in-Residence (LIR) program brings to VMI leaders of character whose distinguished careers within the military and/or private sector exemplify the citizen-soldier model.

Annually, the LIR conducts a “residency" at the Institute over several dates.  During visits, the LIR interacts with cadets, faculty, and staff in various formal and informal settings, including the classroom, barracks, and athletic activities such as club sports.  Additionally, the LIR delivers one major presentation, open to the public, on a topic related broadly to leadership.

 

Core Progressive Professional Development for Faculty and Staff at VMI

Our Center provides progressive professional development programs and workshops to enhance interpersonal, teaching, and leadership skills.

This program

  • reinforces VMI culture,
  • provides attendees with enhanced self-awareness,
  • includes some baseline leadership skills common to staff and faculty, and
  • incorporates critical thinking and reflection opportunities.  

For more information on these programs, please contact Lt. Col. Tucker, Ph. D., Assistant Director, Leadership and Character Development, at tuckerpa@vmi.edu or X7799.

Accelerating Professional and Personal Success is a core developmental sequence for incoming faculty and staff members that reinforces knowledge of key interpersonal skills fundamental to personal and career growth. These skills set a foundation for quality interactions with cadets, peers, and supervisors in and out of the classroom/workplace.

  1. Outcome: Understand and apply key interpersonal skills to enhance professional development and personal effectiveness as a VMI faculty or staff member.

  2. Objectives:
    1. Understand and incorporate Habits of Excellence as part of the professional and personal development plan.
    2. Define and articulate the Leader/Follower connection to enhance on-the-job effectiveness at VMI and personal effectiveness off duty.
    3. Gain a greater self-awareness of active listening tendencies and communication styles; apply active listening and communication techniques to enhance personal / group effectiveness.
    4. Comprehend and reenact how to elicit and give feedback to develop productive professional relationships within VMI.

Supervisor Training Success is a four-day program designed to improve the interpersonal and managerial skills of first-line and mid-level supervisors who lead teams and small groups at VMI. This opportunity is open to AP and classified personnel.

  • Candidates will take three self-assessments to learn about themselves, their self-efficacy, and their actions as a leader within VMI’s culture.
    • leader motivation
    • core values
    • self-confidence 
  • Candidates will understand the interplay of factors and techniques for managing their time while making more effective, sound decisions as team leaders.
  • Candidates will explore VMI's hiring process and performance management process.
  • Candidates will learn how to create strong teams and assist members in coping with change during the team formation process.     
  • Candidates will explore the basis of individual motivation while exploring techniques and strategies to motivate members of their team better.
  • Supervisors will assess their individual delegation style, understand how to select the right person for the delegated task, and successfully apply the delegation steps.
  • Candidates will explore the basis of individual motivation while exploring techniques and strategies to motivate members of their team better.

Lunch & Learn Seminars Success —This program will bring micro-learning to the department spaces upon request. These seminars supplement other professional development training offered by the CLE and focus on interpersonal and managerial skills for leading teams and small groups at VMI. Departments may request any or all of these opportunities.

Seminar Titles:

    • Generational Perspectives on Leadership - What Matters Most?
    • Combating Burn-out? Here are 8 Tips to Compete.
    • Who Said Administrative Professionals Are NOT Leaders?
    • Have You Checked Your Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Lately?
    • Is CIVILITY still ALIVE and WELL?
    • When Did Accountability, Answerability, and Ethics Separate?

Objectives:

    • Increase Team Cohesion
    • Enhance Collaborative and Teamwork Environment
    • Improve Communication

Continuing Professional Growth for Employees (Years 6-10) is a sequence of seminars conducted over an academic year. The course develops each individual’s self-awareness, ability to influence others, and leadership fundamentals that can be applied within academic and administrative departments. The seminars focus on key leader and follower skills that enhance participants’ effectiveness in performing committee or departmental duties. 

  1. Outcome: Understand and apply key interpersonal skills to enhance professional development and personal effectiveness as a VMI faculty or staff member.

  2. Objectives: 
    1. Understand and incorporate Habits of Excellence as part of the professional and personal development plan.
    2. To assess and enhance understanding of their individual strengths by participating in the StrengthsFinder instrument and coaching.
    3. To develop selected leadership and supervisory skills that can be successfully applied during committee work and daily duties.
    4. To understand and apply organizational leadership theory and techniques during seminar discussions and exercises.

 

Related Programs

Additional Resources

Self-Assessment Instruments

Self-awareness and reflection are essential to understanding one’s leadership style and behaviors. The following links contain a few key leader self-assessment Instruments that are free to the general public.

 

Corps Reading Lists by Class

  • "Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life... and Maybe the World," by William H. McRaven*
  • "Chop Wood, Carry Water: How to Fall in Love with the Process of Becoming Great," by Joshua Medcalf
  • "Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause," by Ty Seidule
  • "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success," by Carol S. Dweck, PhD*
  • "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance," by Angela Duckworth*
  • "Man’s Search for Meaning," by Viktor E. Frankl
  • "The Courageous Follower," by Ira Chaleff*^

  • "The People’s Guide to the United States Constitution," by Dave Kluge
  • "The Federalist: The Gideon Edition," edited by George W. Carey and James McClelland
  • "How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future," by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
  • "Legacy: What The All Blacks Can Teach Us About The Business Of Life," by James Kerr
  • "Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts," by Annie Duke
  • "Hesitation Kills: A Female Marine Officer’s Combat Experience in Iraq," by Jane Blair
  • "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking," by Susan Cain
  • "How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age," by Dale Carnegie and Associates

  • "First Principals: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How it Shaped our Country," by Thomas E. Ricks
  • "Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War," by Karl Marlantes
  • "Leaders Eat Last," by Simon Sinek
  • "Long Walk to Freedom," by Nelson Mandela
  • "Leading Your Parents: 25 Rules to Effective Multigenerational Leadership for Millennials and Gen Z," by Raven Solomon*
  • "The New One Minute Manager," by Ken Blanchard, PhD, and Spencer Johnson, MD^

  • "With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace," by Nikki Haley
  • "Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead," by Jim Mattis and Bing West
  • "Once an Eagle," by Anton Myer
  • "Walk with the Wind," by John Lewis
  • "My American Journey," by Colin Powell
  • "The Art of Command: Military Leadership from George Washington to Colin Powell," Edited by Harry S. Laver and Jeffrey J. Matthews
  • "Business Leaders and Success: 55 Top Business Leaders and How They Achieved Greatness," by William J. O'Neil 
  • "Soldier, Statesman, Peacemaker: Leadership Lessons from George C. Marshall," by Jack Uldrich

Leadership, Society, and War:

  • "On War," by Carl von Clausewitz - Indexed Edition, Edited and Translated by Michael Howard and Peter Paret
  • "The Art of War," by Sun Tzu
  • "Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive History of the Peloponnesian War," edited by Robert B. Strassler
  • "Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging," by Sebastian Junger*
  • "Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae," by Steven Pressfield
  • "The New Makers of Modern Strategy: From the Ancient World to the Digital Age," edited by Hal Brands
  • "The Odyssey," by Homer
  • "7 Habits of Highly Effective People," by Stephen Covey
  • "The Giver," by Lois Lowry
  • "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," by Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • "Ender’s Game," by Orson Scott Card
  • "Lord Jim," by Joseph Conrad 
  • "The Things They Cannot Say: Stories Soldiers Won’t Tell You About What They’ve Seen, Done or Failed to Do in War," by Kevin Sites
  • "The Village," by Bing West
  • "Power to the Powerless," by Vaclav Havel
  • "The Constitution of the United States with the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation," by R.B. Bernstein

Literary Classics:

  • "Frankenstein," by Mary Shelley
  • "The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • "To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee
  • "Doctor Faustus," by Christopher Marlowe
  • "Julius Caesar," by William Shakespeare
  • "Invisible Man," by Ralph Ellison
  • "Fahrenheit 451," by Ray Bradbury
  • "The Scarlet Letter," by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • "A Wrinkle in Time," by Madeleine L’Engle
  • "Wuthering Heights," by Emily Brontë
  • "Things Fall Apart," by Chinua Achebe
  • "Farewell to Arms," by Ernest Hemingway
  • "Catcher in the Rye," by J.D. Salinger
  • "The Call of the Wild," by Jack London
  • "Of Mice and Men," by John Steinbeck
  • "Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain
  • "Heart of Darkness," by Joseph Conrad
  • "Tale of Two Cities," by Charles Dickens
  • "Little Women," by Louise May Alcott
  • "Moby Dick," by Herman Melville

Associated Professional Organizations

The following professional organizations have resources available to their members on their websites.

Contact

Sara K. Lawhorne
Executive Administrative Assistant

P: 540-464-7361
F: 540-464-7396

Center for Leadership and Ethics
Marshall Hall, 500 Anderson Drive

Mailing Address:
For USPS:
NAME (If to an individual)
Center for Leadership and Ethics
510 Burma Road
P.O. Box 1839
Lexington, VA, 24450

For Other Carriers:
NAME (If to an individual)
Center for Leadership and Ethics
510 Burma Road
Virginia Military Institute
Lexington, VA, 24450

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