Have you ever wondered what are the products of the military or an army? Especially in peace time? Keeping the peace, reducing unemployment, training young people in a trade, possibly a university degree.
If you really think about, the real product of the military is to produce leaders, people who can lead in all manner of situations, from crisis to mundane, but people who can garner respect from a group of individuals to get a job done. I will admit, sometimes they miss the mark, and some of their product is not the best. There have been some major failures, but there have been also some amazing stars. What the military does is continue to learn, continue to invest to make the development of their leaders better, because if they didn’t peace time militaries would not exist.
Think about how leadership works in the military, leadership is taught at all levels. In a battle scenario, the leader falls in the heat of battle, the next leader in the hierarchy steps up to take the leadership role and is willingly accepted by the team, this can occur at multiple levels and multiple times. Think about your own organisation, what would happen if some of your leaders were suddenly not there or unavailable, would anyone step up? Could anyone step up?
This is part of setting up a leadership culture within your organisation. Firstly, recognising the importance of leadership in your organisation; secondly, developing it; thirdly, promoting it.