The Chiefs: a study in strategic leadership

The objective of The Chiefs study was to describe the leadership processes and cultural milieu at the most senior levels of the Australian military profession. Studying work and culture at the strategic level, The Chiefs breaks fresh ground, not just in Australia but internationally. The vast majority of such studies cover the role as it applies in the operational context. In contrast, The Chiefs analysed the senior military leadership role within the Australian military institution.

The study focused on the positions of Chief of the Defence Force, Vice Chief of the Defence Force, Chief of Capability Development Group and the Chiefs of Service: those who do their work mainly within the complex Defence bureaucracy in Canberra. It took a “sociologically-oriented” perspective on strategic leadership, focusing. on the determining factors in the organisational situation rather than on the qualities of the individuals involved. It depicted strategic leadership in terms of a simple but meaningful “frame of reference” that can be used by researchers, practitioners and observers to enhance their understanding of the processes involved. The study also took account of the cultural milieu in which the Chiefs and their staffs operate.

The Chiefs, through its recommendations, serves as a solid basis for guiding and evaluating senior performance and for developing joint professional military education (JPME) effort (or at least that from mid-career onwards) around the four strategic leadership roles of Strategic Leader, Strategic Builder, Strategic Director and Steward of the Profession.

A major implication from the study relates to striking the right balance between “leadership” and “management” at the strategic level. Senior officers might make their professional reputation on the basis of their talent for leadership but their longer term success will rest at least as much on their ability to manage the people, the resources, the structures and the networks within their remit.

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