This week, we kicked off a 3-month course at West Point called MX400: Officership.  This is a capstone course for seniors that focuses on the character, competence, and leadership skills officers need to lead Soldiers in battle–to accomplish the mission at least cost–along with a range of topics that are important to officership.

For our first class meeting, we ran a Leadership in Action (LIA!) workshop.

Have you witnessed leadership?

This is the question we asked the cadets.  They each answered the question by telling a one-minute story of leadership in action (LIA!)—giving each other concrete, personal examples of real-life leadership.  After 3 rounds of storytelling in small groups, we finished the workshop by talking about the themes that emerged.  The stories gave us a new glimpse into what is forging our understanding of what it means to lead.

Want to learn more?

• Read LIA! stories and learn about how to run a workshop in this ARMY Magazine article (PDF).  If you are like us, reading this article will call to mind your own stories, and it will evoke in you a desire to lead in a way that is worthy of a story yet to be told.
• Also, see the April 5 blog post describing the Leadership in Action process in full.

Positive. Inspiring. Energizing.