Posted by Adaptable Leadership - Building Leaders for Changing Times on 1/25/2008

Michael G. Sanders, Sr., PhD

Dr. Mike Sanders has performed research and created products that address the full spectrum of personnel issues including: special operation soldier leadership assessment and selection, training in leader development, and personnel attrition and retention evaluation. Dr. Sanders was instrumental in visioning and the development of the US Army Special Operation Command’s Adaptable Leader training and development program.

As a partner in Human Resource Tactics (HRT), Dr. Sanders has created tests and applied these tests in profiling college football and basketball players for National Football League (NFL) and National Basketball Association (NBA) teams. HRT assesses and profiles over 650 of the nation’s best college football players each year for 17 NFL teams in preparation for the NFL Draft. He has conducted workshops on NFL player assessment and consulted with sports, military, and business leaders on personnel assessment, selection, and leader development issues.

For over 16 years Dr. Sanders has provided and continues to provide consultative support to elite military units belonging to the US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) and US Marine Corps. He has developed scenarios, exercises, and evaluation procedures and applied these assessment and training processes to Officers in the Special Forces Qualification Course and Special Mission Units. He assessed personnel for suitability for different missions within USASOC and provided assessment findings to senior leaders for personnel selection decisions.

Dr. Sanders holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Texas Tech University and has performed as an Industrial Organizational Psychologist in both commercial and military settings. His work has been used as a basis for policy decisions at all levels of the Army. He currently serves as Adjunct Professor in the Psychology Department at North Carolina State University. Dr. Sanders has published over 100 papers, technical reports, and articles on the development of people.

Dr. Sanders co-founded Adaptable Leadership, LLC to transfer his knowledge and experience in the development of Adaptable Leaders to Corporate America. The soldiers he helped select go on missions where their life and the lives of those on their teams depended on them being highly adaptable and effective. Likewise, business leaders today are being counted on to be highly adaptable and effective in carrying out their missions.




[i] Leadership Practices, Adaptive Corporate Culture, and Company Financial Performance 2005, Ric Roi, HR.com

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