Development of leadership skills: Experience and timing

To develop organizational leaders we need to understand how requisite skill s are acquired over the course of people's careers. In this article, a cros s-sectional design was used to assess differences in leadership skills acro ss six grade levels of officers in the U.S. Army. Increased levels of knowl edge, problem-solving skills, systems skills, and social skills were found at higher grade levels. Certain skills and experiences, however, were found to be particularly important at certain phases of leaders' careers. These findings are used to propose an organization-based model of skill developme nt. Implications of this model for leader development programs are discusse d.