This qualitative research study attempted to address "How does the U.S. Army implement leader development?" The study examined current U.S. Army doctrine along with senior and civilian leader perspectives for themes in reference to three research questions. These questions were: how does the U.S. Army leader develop subordinates, what are the key requirements for an effective leader development program, and what core leader competencies are most important in leader development? Through this analysis, the following themes emerged communication, trust, and legacy. Once the themes were identified, they were analyzed against a 2006-RAND study on U.S. Army leader development. The findings concluded that the most important competencies in leader development were communicates and leads by example. In order to establish an effective leader development program, leaders communicated to their subordinates and developed a holistic approach, which focused on setting the conditions for leader development, providing feedback on a subordinate's actions, and an integrated learning process. This approach developed trust between the leader and subordinate, which established a legacy on how subordinates developed their subordinates in the future.

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