Measurement and Prediction of Leadership

The ranking of a selected group of cadets of the United States Military Academy at West Point on "leadership," as determined by annual ratings of the Senior class and the commissioned officer in charge of the companies, bears closer relationship to "bearing and appearance" than to other subjects, with "tactics"and "athletics" being next in order. On the basis of class standing, leaders who have achieved military and civil distinction appear to be fairly representative of their whole classes. The numerical rank of a leader was obtained at the end of the third year by a combination of digits, each digit representing his rank in one of five subjects-bearing and appearance, athletics, activities, tactics, and academic standing, in the order given. The rank in each case was taken to be a rough prediction of the leadership rank which would be assigned a year later and correlated closely with the actual leadership rank obtained.