Center for Army Leadership ethicist leads training at Fort Leavenworth | Article

FORT LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS — Chaplain (Lt. Col.) Jared Vineyard, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center deputy command chaplain and Center for Army Leadership ethicist, facilitated leader development training for about 25 employees with The Research and Analysis Center Feb. 13, 2025, in the TRAC conference room in McNair Hall at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Leaders at TRAC, a subordinate organization of Army Futures Command and tenant organization on Fort Leavenworth, conduct training for employees as part of an established leader development program. After seeing the many leader development kits on the CAL website and recognizing CAL’s decades of experience in the subject areas, TRAC requested a CAL-facilitated session. The chosen session, “Building Trust to Improve Working Relationships,” gave participants the opportunity to explore the meaning of trust, and the reasons trust is important to unit climate, mission accomplishment and unit readiness.

“This one-hour block of instruction is designed to get leaders to define and assess their trustworthiness as well as to discuss techniques to earn and build trust,” Vineyard said. “As the facilitator, I want participants to open up and be honest with themselves as they look at their organizational climate as well.”

A key exercise for the TRAC team was completion of the “Assessing Your Trustworthiness” activity. The results of this assessment allowed Vineyard to delve deeper and conduct follow-on discussions with the group related to admitting mistakes, being receptive to feedback, and delegating work to subordinates.

Vineyard also addressed the common question, “How do you repair trust once it is broken?” In those circumstances, he said, a certain level of forgiveness or reconciliation is required for individuals to move past this juncture.

“It is possible to repair trust, but the individuals involved must be intentional and make a concerted effort. Those efforts often require crucial conversations to address what damaged the level of trust, along with a plan detailing corrective measures,” he said.

Training included a review of the Army’s Leadership Requirements Model and an examination of leader attributes and competencies. Instruction highlighted the importance of building trust as a significant leader competency.

Vineyard explained the three roles of trusted Army professionals as outlined in Army Doctrine Publication 6-22: honorable servants of the nation, Army experts, and stewards of the Army profession.

“We cannot have trust if individuals are lacking in character or have potential serious character flaws,” he said. “We cannot have trust in our teams or subordinates if individuals are lacking the necessary competence to complete their required duties, and we cannot have trust if our leaders, peers or subordinates are lacking commitment to the mission, or if they are inconsistent with their actions, words or values.”

Leaders interested in this topic or other leader development topics for their organizations are encouraged to contact CAL at [email protected].

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