An officer who understands mission command and commander’s intent is worth 10 officers who don’t. When you are given a legal and lawful order, execute and stay within your limits. When a commander decides on a course of action, it is not your place to second guess. We advise and make recommendations, commanders make decisions, and assume the risks.
Leadership is more than knowing where you are, where you want to go, and how you are going to get there. Leading includes inspiring others to take the journey with you. All officers are leaders, regardless of duty position. You must be ready to make decisions, move the mission forward, and lead by example. Great leaders never ask a subordinate to make a sacrifice that he or she is not willing to make. If we hold ourselves to the same standard that we hold our Soldiers, they will strive to meet or exceed that standard.
Leadership has always been required, and that remains true in today’s digitally connected, global environment. Leaders must continue to prepare for what is, and for what may come. After 34 years of active-duty service to our country in the Infantry and the Special Forces, I have seen and learned a great deal from many different leaders. Like the author, I have learned many valuable leadership lessons, and continue to learn every day.
As we all strive to continue learning, MAJ Player has eloquently captured some excellent lessons in the “8 Essential Characteristics of Army Officership.” This book helps to define a number of leadership characteristics that are instrumental in the development of an Army Officer. Excellent leaders attack each day with an intense resolve to improve and become a better leader than they were the day before. This book will be a helpful tool to help hone the critical qualities necessary to become a successful leader. A detailed read and following action plan to personally develop as a leader from some of the lessons in this book will be key as you continue to develop your own leadership skills.
The views expressed in the foreword are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, or the US Government.
Eric P. Wendt
Lieutenant General, U.S. Army
INTRODUCTION
I wrote the article that would later grow into this short book while sitting in a hotel room in Madrid contemplating how I got there. I was visiting the Spanish and Portuguese militaries as part of my experience in the Army’s Schools of Other Nations (SON) Program. I have spent the last nine months studying at the Colombian Superior School of War, and I sometimes pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming.
In 2007, if you told 2LT Player, a “CHEMO” for 3-7 Field Artillery, what the next decade would look like, he would have told you to stop teasing him because he had to finish the USR. I am confident about what he would have said, because I am him, just ten years later. However, in the next ten years, I served in multiple leadership positions at the platoon and company level. I also served in a joint special operations unit, taught ROTC, and was selected to attend a foreign service’s ILE.
I arrived at my first assignment at Schofield Barracks with doom and gloom ringing in my ears. During my Basic Officer Leader Course, my small group leader told me that as a 74A headed to the 25thInfantry Division, I most likely would not have a chance to lead and it would be a constant struggle to be viewed as a serious professional.
Fortunately, the battalion operations officer changed my outlook during our initial counseling session. He listened intently as I told him my concerns of being “stuck on staff” and my desire to lead a platoon. He said: “There is no such thing as a bad branch, only bad officers.” He went on to say that if I wanted to lead Soldiers, I needed to demonstrate my leadership potential by performing well. He had a good point. In the Army, we do not always have control over duty assignments, but we have complete control over our performance. I committed myself to earn the right to lead Soldiers and developing the skills and attributes required for success.
As a result, I discovered what I consider the “Eight Essential Characteristics of Officership.”
Leadership is more than knowing where you are, where you want to go, and how you are going to get there. Leading includes inspiring others to take the journey with you. All officers are leaders, regardless of duty position. You must be ready to make decisions, move the mission forward, and lead by example. Great leaders never ask a subordinate to make a sacrifice that he or she is not willing to make. If we hold ourselves to the same standard that we hold our Soldiers, they will strive to meet or exceed that standard.
Keep an open mind and seek advice. Every team has experienced members that are an extremely valuable resource. These team members can provide historical examples of past issues and help guide your decisions. But first, you must be approachable and willing to listen.
An officer who understands mission command and commander’s intent is worth 10 officers who don’t. When you are given a legal and lawful order, execute and stay within your limits. When a commander decides on a course of action, it is not your place to second guess. We advise and make recommendations, commanders make decisions and assume the risks.
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.
Officers who require constant oversight are detrimental to high op tempo organizations that operate in complex environments. Valuable members of the team understand their responsibilities and execute with little supervision. Asking for the occasional azimuth check is important, but don’t inundate your boss with questions you should be able to answer yourself.
Counseling is the most important tool that leaders have at their disposal. Clearly communicating expectations and standards provides a baseline for measuring performance and ensures that both the rater and rated officer understand expectations. This is especially important when managing your rater profile and justifying the contents of evaluation reports for both officers and NCOs.
Leaders who take a genuine interest in their subordinates will see their teams achieve amazing feats. This goes hand in hand with counseling. You must get to know your Soldiers and help them personally and professionally. Find out their goals and help develop a plan to achieve them. If you take care of your Soldiers, they will always take care of the mission.
As a professional, you must immerse yourself in your profession. Military history is full of lessons and examples that you can compare to your situation. “Top block” officers read history and apply it regularly in their work. Taking the time to learn from the past will increase your ability to answer the tough questions when they arise.
Major Nathan Player is currently serving as the Raleigh Recruiting Battalion Executive Officer. He has 15 years of combined enlisted and officer service, has taught ROTC, commanded, and served in various Joint Staff, USAREC, and Special Operations assignments.
“I’ll see you after spring break when we will discuss how the Allies won World War Two. Enjoy your week off.” The seventeen cadets enrolled in one of my sections of, “History of the Military Art from 1904 to 2013,” at the United States Military Academy took my words as the cue that class – our final one before the 2020 spring break – was dismissed. They got up from their desks and began filing out of our Thayer Hall classroom to head to a lunch formation.
On July 10, 2019, I reported to Fort Leavenworth and the Command General Staff College. I had prepared myself to be led into a room with a doctor holding an orbitoclast for the lobotomy I had been promised. After some quick in-processing, I received administrative information before they sent me on my way. I was relieved to still have my mind, but surely the lobotomy everyone had promised would happen later in the year.
When I found out that I was selected to attend resident Intermediate Level Education (ILE) at Fort Leavenworth, I immediately realized how little I knew about the course. My research brought up numerous articles from officers discussing their year at Fort Leavenworth. These articles are what I found most useful and are the reason that I decided to write my own. Hopefully, my experience and advice serve two purposes. The first is to assist future classes in understanding the course of instruction and aid in your preparation for the “Best Year of Your Life.” Second, this article will be my attempt to, as General Funk says, “Leave the jersey in a better place than I found it.”
Assuming the fall assignment and unit interview cycle will proceed as normal, the authors of this blog set out to provide insight into the AIM 2.0 and unit interview process for the incoming CGSOC AY20-21. The process begins almost immediately once the course begins. Prepared officers will develop a game plan to increase their chances of receiving their desired assignment.
It’s been two years since I completed my Field Grade Key and Developmental (KD) time. Since then, I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to gather my thoughts and reflect on my time as a Battalion and Brigade S3. By no means does my experience make me an expert. If anything, it’s an opportunity to think. My intent is to reinforce common fundamentals with personally unique thoughts. Much of it is directed at the man in the mirror.
There I was…It was 2013, I was an aviation battalion S-3 in Afghanistan, and my boss had just given me less than 24 hours to write an argumentative essay. Someone at a higher headquarters wanted to redeploy one of our aerial medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) helicopter companies without replacing it. My boss believed this decision would severely impede MEDEVAC in our area of operations and the division commander agreed. He said he would take the issue to his boss and asked us to provide a short paper summarizing our analysis and recommendation. The writing fell to me. I had thought I’d left the argumentative essay behind two years earlier when I graduated from the Command and General Staff College (CGSC). But once again, I found myself crafting a thesis, gathering evidence, and writing an argument.
Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument.
Anyone following the Field Grade Leader knows the importance of reading. Anyone short on material or motivation can find dozens of book lists and a stream of articles that support professional reading. Everyone knows we need to read, but rarely do we talk about how to read. We assume that because we can see and comprehend words and the order they are in, we can read. But is that true? Everyone knows what a map looks like, but not everyone can use it for land navigation.