Category Archives: Self-Development

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Learning to Fail

 

My name is Josh Powers, I’m a Major in the United States Army, and I’d like to tell you about the worst failure of my career. I’ve had countless failures as a leader in the military, from the time I backed a forklift over a porta potty as a Second Lieutenant to the executive level briefing that belly flopped in Tokyo in December. My career is riddled with failures, accidents, flawed logic, and bad assumptions. Each of these shortcomings sucked in their own way, but each helped shape who I am as a leader. So, what’s special about the near decade-old story I’m brushing off today? This one is absolutely the most personal. It is a failure which defines a moment in my career when I felt inadequate and out of my league professionally. It is a painful memory, an indication that it is the right story to share. I hope you remember this story the next time you fall on your face or the next time a subordinate strikes out in front of the commander. You see, we all fail, even the most proficient and experienced leaders. But failing does not make you a failure. As a professional in the United States Army, failure is not a destination, a place you end up and never return from. What matters in failure is what you learn and how you recover.

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Other People’s Failures: Making the Most of Vicarious Learning

A Guest Post by Steve Leonard

On an otherwise uneventful November morning in 1990, I watched from a distance as one of the most important lessons in failure unfolded before me. A pair of D-7 bulldozers were busy scraping out a makeshift trench in the lunar-like landscape of Saudi Arabia while another dragged a 40-foot container into the trench. Since our battalion was focused preparing for movement deeper into the desert to occupy battle positions, no one else seemed to take notice.

At least not until months later, as we consolidated our equipment for redeployment after the conclusion of the Gulf War. It was the battalion executive officer who first noticed that we were missing a container and asked the company commanders to “confirm their numbers.” In an almost matter-of-fact tone, one of them noted that the missing container was from his company.

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When Failure Means Too Much Rather Than Not Enough

A Guest Post by Stephanie Worth

Photo by Joshua Worth – January 15th, 2019

As Army Logisticians, we’ve all heard the horror stories: A tactical pause in Desert Storm to allow logistics to catch up to the maneuver force, or the 101stholding the line at Bastogne with no winter coats.   But what does a failure of logistics look like in the War on Terror?  Thanks to the post-WWII Bretton Woods System, the U.S. has absolute control of its logistics tail.  Given enough priority we can project an unlimited amount of wartime supplies anywhere in the world at any time.   I argue that in the current environment the only real failure is a failure to synchronize. There is almost always enough of the commodity the ground force needs; the problem is getting them to a specific place at a specific time to achieve the desired end state – synchronization. The failure to synchronize, specifically matching logistics to the tactical plan, is the most important lesson we can teach young logisticians. As a junior officer, I often believed that if I knew how to get the supplies from the operational level to the end user, I knew all I needed to know. That was far from the truth.

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Failure: Learning to Overcome Adversity

A Guest Post by Christopher Little

U.S. Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman John Linzmeier

You fear failure, it makes you uncomfortable, and it often prevents you from reaching your full leadership potential. When you ask someone if people like to fail, the answer is always a confident, “no.” I argue differently. You should fail and take risks as a leader, though not deliberately. If you do not fail, you are staying inside your comfort zone, something a leader should never do – always strive to improve. Failure helps you become a better leader in a number of ways:  it helps you overcome adversity, requires humility, enables mentorship, and builds resiliency. Being able to accept risk with the possibility of failure is a pinnacle aspect of a good leader.

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47 Ways Not To Die

A Guest Post by COL (R) James K. Greer

Troopers from the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment hold their position during the final battle across the Western Corridor, National Training Center, against assaulting elements of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, from Fort Riley, Kan., September 9, 2018. (U.S. Army photo by Capt. Jeff Caslen)

Although now retired, I did 11 rotations as an armor officer in the rotational unit (BLUFOR) at the various dirt Combat Training Centers: National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, Calif., Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) at Fort Polk, La., and Hohenfels, Germany (then CMTC; now JMRC). More often than not, at a CTC as BLUFOR (aka the “good guys”) you lose most of your battles. Often that includes finishing the fight sitting on top of your tank alongside a blinking yellow light signaling you were “killed” using the laser training simulation. I hate that blinking yellow light because it means that in that operation I failed.

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Learn and Improve

A Guest Post by Nate Player

U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Calab Franklin, March 29, 2018

Knowing and improving one’s strengths and weaknesses will improve the organization

“Superior leaders are acutely aware of their strengths and weaknesses. They actively build on their strengths and improve upon their weaknesses. Complacency is a fatal leadership flaw and we should never find comfort in remaining stagnant. This goes for every aspect of the profession of arms. Make realistic and achievable goals and then work to achieve them.”

Granted, that may be easier said than done. A lot is expected of officers at all levels, and this can be a shock to a new lieutenant fresh from the Basic Officer Leader Course. The following is an attempt to pass on some lessons learned with the hopes of helping you view this important topic in a simple and approachable manner.

Be self-aware

Simply recognizing you are not perfect and identifying your strengths and weaknesses will put you ahead of a surprising number of your peers. Every officer brings different tools to the table. While the Army has a “minimum standard,” each officer is unique and by consequence will have a different set of strengths and weaknesses. The key to professional success is understanding that you do not have to be the “best” at everything, but you should be the “best” at something. It should also go without saying that you strive not to be the “worst” at any required skill or task. Periodic and candid self-assessment will ensure you are leveraging your natural talents to your benefit and that you are mitigating and shoring up your weaknesses.

Build on your strengths

Develop a plan to hone your identified strengths. Talent is like muscle – when you exercise your talent it strengthens and grows. It will atrophy if you don’t. Everyone starts with certain innate advantages. It is what you do with those advantages that will make all of the difference. It is common for those who are talented in one area or another to “coast” on that talent rather than develop and improve it. Don’t be that officer. Seek opportunities to exercise your talent and sharpen the edge of your particular gift or skill.

Improve your weaknesses

Do you suck at PT? Run more. Are you overweight? Eat less. Does briefing make you nervous? Rehearse. Are you shy in front of groups? Take a public speaking class. Did you get stumped in the last command and staff? Prepare for the next one. Long story short, use your weaknesses as indicators to guide your professional growth as opposed to excuses to justify your mediocrity.  Self-improvement is mostly mental. A victim mentality will never improve your situation. If you believe you can, or believe you can’t, you are right.

 Use your strengths to improve your organization

Are you looking for opportunities to provide a niche inside your organization? You can start by asking yourself three questions: What are you good at? What do you enjoy doing? How do the answers to the first two questions align with your unit’s assigned mission and areas of focus? Answering these three questions will start you on the path to being a valuable member of the team. Do you actually enjoy PT (rarer than you would think)? If so, look at how you can help your peers and subordinates improve their physical fitness. Do you enjoy learning new things and tackling problems? Volunteer to be a working group lead or become the “problem solver” in your shop.  In short, being good at something doesn’t help anybody including yourself if you can’t apply your talent to organizational success.

Set achievable goals

Goal-setting is a tricky business. The key to success is backwards planning. First identify where you currently stand (your start-point) and your desired result (end state). You then work backwards identifying the “baby-steps to greatness” along the way. This provides you with a roadmap to guide yourself through the self-development process. Each of your “baby-steps to greatness” should be feasible, measurable and achievable (assuming you do them in order). As you complete each phase you will come closer to turning your strengths into assets and moving your weakness the realm of proficiency.

Some final thoughts to consider

In life it is impossible to remain stagnant. We are either walking up hills or sliding down them. The sooner you learn this the better off both you and your organization will be. A willingness to tackle weakness and sharpen strengths is a natural discriminator between marginal and superior performers. It takes effort to be sure, but the focus will pay dividends in ways few other individual efforts will in the Army.

This is the fifth article in Nate Player series on leadership. Check out the first post in the series HERE

Major Nathan Player is currently assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg. He has 13 years of combined enlisted and officer service, has commanded and served in various joint staff and professional education assignments.

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Beyond Tactical: Surviving and Thriving at the Next Level

A Guest Post by Brad Nicholson

 

This article is specifically for field grade officers who are currently serving, or will be potentially assigned, at echelons above corps (EAC) and particularly in joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational (JIIM) environments. The military focuses field grade officership primarily on the “key and developmental” staff assignments held by “iron majors” or command at the battalion or equivalent level in each of the services.  Most field grade officers spend the majority of their careers serving in battalions, brigades, groups, regiments, squadrons, and wings, or their higher-level tactical headquarters, such as a division or corps in the Army. These units provide readiness and lethality to the United States military. Many of the hard-earned skills developed to this point in an officer’s career are transferable. However, these higher-level formations introduce new dynamics, particularly in the JIIM environment. The following discusses the expectations and unique requirements for success as Joint Staff J5 desk officers, theater army or air force planners, and other such assignments.

Bounce: The Myth of Talent and the Power of Practice by Matthew Syed

**This book review is provided by Daniel Von Benken. It focuses on how to apply Syed’s work to the domain of military expertise: training for and fighting wars.

Synopsis: In Bounce, Syed makes a strong and thought-provoking argument that purposeful practice and a growth mindset are the keys to developing expertise. Bounce builds on Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule, an idea familiar to military leaders that expertise requires 10,000 hours of work and not just talent. Syed provides greater context surrounding expertise and how experts are created. He delivers his message in three parts. First, he debunks the myth that natural talent is the key for the most successful people. Second, he investigates the psychology of performance and its interaction with proficiency. He closes with a deep study of purposeful practice and psychology, considering whether alternative conditions for expertise like genetics or geographic disposition enable success. In the end, he crowns purposeful practice and a growth mindset as king. Examples of purposeful practice and a growth mindset are examined below.

Syed uses familiar stories and an accessible writing style, a quality allowing the reader to move quickly through the book. For the military leader, the book’s first two sections drive home the lesson that talent isn’t a natural trait, it is earned. Focus your reflection on the first two sections, and re-read if able. Syed’s third section adds credence to the book’s thesis, but most likely leaves the door open for future dialogue.

Applications for a Military Leader: Syed offers three salient points benefitting leaders responsible for training an organization.

  1. Take a quality approach to training. Make training meaningful and resource it properly. The book references a time when Syed’s table tennis coach changed his practice routine and challenged him with a longer table and multiple balls. This forced him to make cognitive and physical adaptations to his game, leading to enormous performance gains in future matches. To a military professional, one could imagine a unique approach to a stress shoot on a rifle range, or even as I have recently seen, a virtual-constructed Fire Support Coordination Exercise. Syed’s training philosophy nests well with the training outcomes we expect in the military: developing Soldiers and leaders able to adapt their physical and cognitive approaches to increasingly demanding conditions in order to maximize performance (e.g., gaining every tactical advantage possible).
  2. Evoke a growth mindset. Syed details a psychological study showing students who are rewarded for effort instead of talent choose harder tasks and show greater growth over iterations of problem sets. A military professional who sets conditions where failure in training is accepted and hard work is appreciated, evokes a growth mindset in a unit. Leaders could challenge their units to the edge of their capabilities in training, an approach consistent with the current Army vision of training to operate in the challenging conditions envisioned for future warfare. Additionally, resilience-trained professionals on military installations would provide a great resource for practical and creative approaches structuring training to evoke a growth mindset.
  3. “Sets and Reps” as a key contributor to mastery. Being good takes time. Artillery sections require multiple repetitions at emplacement; distribution platoons require repetitions at rearm, refuel, resupply and survey point operations to gain efficiency; infantry companies require combined arms live fire repetitions to mass combat power at the decisive point. Leaders invest time into Soldiers and protect time for key trainers within an organization. Senior leaders at all echelons stress the importance of protecting time for leaders to train their personnel. Emphasis on Sergeant’s time is a great example of how senior leaders in tactical formations make that commitment.

Like War by Peter Singer and Emerson Brooking

In this work, Peter Singer and Emerson Brooking provide a frightening description of social media as a weapon system. The book provides numerous case studies showing the results of social media in conflict, including the rise of ISIS and Russian actions in Crimea. In today’s world, sources like Facebook and Twitter provide a constant stream of true and questionable information, shaping our realities and worldview. These vignettes all solidify the fact that social media and rapid information flow will continue to shape how we fight wars in the future. This book is for any leader who may step foot onto a future battlefield.

The Seventh Sense by Joshua Cooper Ramo

**This review is provided by Doug Meyer from The Company Leader

The differences in the world between 1970 to 1990 are minuscule when compared to the exponential changes experienced from 1990 to today. The internet and technology sparked an evolution in how we live, create, interact, and survive. We aren’t in Post-Cold War Age, but rather The Age of Networks. In The Seventh Sense: Power, Fortune, and Survival in the Age of Networks, New York Times bestselling author Joshua Cooper Ramo takes the reader on a review of evolving forces from the industrial revolution to the present. He does this to show how leaders, organizations, and nations either adapted or failed to adapt to previous evolutions. He uses these examples to unveil the new age we are living in and how it affects economies, nations, corporations, the security environment, and more. As another author, General Stanley McChrystal, tells us in his book Team of Teams – networks matter.