I am not sure I am comfortable on suggesting "traumatic experiences" are the way to go to develop leaders, especially concern that the training needs to tempered to avoid "destroying" them perse. The military has a concept of "train as you fight" and often soldiers have commented that the training was sometimes harder then the actual real experience of some wartime operations. However, the reality of war is always more traumatic. Soldiers train with real bullets but always knowing that the "live fire" is designed to maintain safety. Often the training's physical demands or conditions can be harder, higher elevations, less sleep, etc but we know it is a training exercise. In war, its war and that is real so their is a huge psychological trauma regardless of the outcome of the engagement. Unfortunately, that sort of trauma comes with real consequences ie) physical and psychological PTSD etc. The problem with corporate America is they often like to use the vernacular of the military to describe their so called reality. However, Business is not WAR. Yes, I believe the military can learn alot about effeciveness and results and leadership from Business and Business can learn alot from the Military, but perspective needs to be maintained. When the military trains, they do so to make the soldier stronger and more capable, never to destroy them. I remember a manager once said to me, "the military knows how to take orders" I said, yes but they are not robots in the military following orders like were on a parade ground. Rather, they rely on people to think for themselves and come up with novel solutions and rarely does someone have to order anyone around. They prefer initiative, but yes when they give a legal order, it is obeyed but to transfer that idea to the Business sector is asinine. As to developing leaders and managers, I like to frame it in terms that Leadership is an Art and Management is a technique.