Category Archives: The Army

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Useful Tips from My Time as a BN S3 and BDE S2

A Guest Post by Leon Matthias

U.S. Army photo by Matthew Moeller, Aug. 1, 2018

We have all seen the staff section with too few rowers rowing with all their might while the others sit idle in the boat. Too few carry a disproportionate share of the work, while others drag their oars in the water. I am one of the lucky ones. As a Battalion S3 in Korea and a Brigade S2 on Fort Bragg, I was fortunate to lead Intelligence Warriors: men and women who understood the unit’s mission and tirelessly worked to achieve the Commander’s vision. Here are a few lessons I learned as these phenomenal teams advanced towards success.

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Success in Three Simple Steps

A Guest Post by Thurman McKenzie

NATO photo by Jake Tupman, March 07, 2018

In my current assignment as the U.S. Army Field Artillery Branch Chief, officers repeatedly ask me the same question: “What must I do to be successful?” My response is usually the same and can be distilled into three simple steps:

  1. Ground yourself in foundational components of your chosen profession. For Field Artillery Officers that includes the Five Requirements for Accurate First-Round Fire for Effect; and, the 13 Principles of Fire Support Planning.
  2. Be confident and play to your strengths while always seeking to learn and grow.
  3. Take care of your team!

In my experience, officers’ careers progress through a familiar sequence. First, an officer is placed in an unfamiliar environment. Next, the officer seeks to build his team applying foundational concepts. Then, the officer adapts to that new environment and effectively integrates into the larger team. Following the three steps above will serve Field Grade Leaders well as they learn and grow in the military.

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The Toyota Way: How Field Grades Should Approach Solving Systems Problems

A Guest Post by Trent Lythgoe

U.S. Army photos by Spc. Zachery Perkins

Army field grade officers (FGOs) must be able to solve systems problems. The best FGOs create systems to keep routine processes running routinely. Since FGOs cannot personally oversee every process in a battalion or brigade, systems ensure that things get done without constant FGO supervision. Systems are good for both organizational health and FGO stress levels. Occasionally, however, systems break down. Signs of system breakdown include missed deadlines, wasted time, and angry commanders. When this happens, FGOs need to know how to troubleshoot the system, find the problem’s root causes, and get things running smoothly again.

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Managing Talent: FA Majors to Combat Training Centers Post-KD

This essay was co-written by Field Artillery officers who currently serve as Observer, Coach, Trainers at the Army’s three Combined Training Centers.

U.S. Army Photo by Spc. Gyasi Thomasson, Jan. 26, 2019

As highly competitive field grade officers complete Key and Developmental (KD) jobs, many face a decision of going to a Combined Training Center (CTC) or a myriad of other possibilities.  The fact that this next assignment fills the important time between KD time and the possibilities of a tactical battalion (BN) command highlights the importance of this decision.  Factors that weigh into an officer’s decision for post-KD assignment include career progression, time available time for family, and location, among others.  The Army’s three Combat Training Centers located in California, Louisiana, and Germany, offer opportunities to fulfill all of the aforementioned factors, as well as a tremendous experience and learning environment for majors as they make the transition from running a battalion to commanding one.

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To Broaden, or not to Broaden, therein lies the Question

A Guest Post by Colonel Brad Nicholson

U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Henry Villarama. March 6, 2019

There are several points in an officer’s career where the possibility exists for individuals to pursue broadening opportunities. These broadening experiences are probably the most sought after and least understood opportunities available for officers. The three primary windows for such opportunities open immediately following basic branch qualification or company command, key and developmental field grade positions, or battalion-level command and key billets. While not all Army career fields or branches are the same, Army Regulation 600-3, Officer Professional Development and Career Management, highlights that basic branch and functional area officer development models share a generally accepted or standard path of professional progression associated with success.

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A Dangerous Mind: How Automatic Processing Can Make You “That Major”

A Guest Post by Brandon M. Kennedy

Today I was eating at the Subway by Airborne School. A Major from [unit redacted] walked by and asked where I was headed. I told him Fort Irwin and he laughed right in my face saying “Wow you must’ve been last in your class. No tab and headed to Irwin.”

The above excerpt is from an email by a young Infantry officer I had the chance to mentor over the past few months. Unfortunately, he was dropped from Ranger School for failing a part of the assessment week; a fairly common occurrence for students attending the course. He was upset and embarrassed with himself, so we talked about how to grow from his “failure.” Having reflected on his vignette from the sandwich shop, I was upset and embarrassed for that nameless Major, so I’d like to share this as a cautionary tale for fellow field grades.

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AIM-ing for the Best Assignment: How to Make the Most Out of AIM 2.0

A Guest Post by Jarod A. Taylor and Agustin M. Gonzalez

Army Secretary Mark Esper addresses the Talent Management Task Force he created to overhaul the cumbersome, centralized military personnel bureaucracy.

How should Army officers pursue desired future assignments under the new talent management system, the Army’s Assignment Interactive Module (AIM) 2.0? This article provides an overview of AIM 2.0 and makes recommendations for officers preparing for the reassignment process.

Officers identified to move in the summer of 2019 recently completed the process of requesting new assignments from the Army’s Human Resources Command (HRC). The process for individual officers is almost always opaque, with the officer’s branch manager at HRC occupying a powerful role, charged with doing what is simultaneously best for the Army, unit, and officer. Recent initiatives are pushing the Army, much like the rest of the Department of Defense, to implement personnel policies that emphasize talent management, where vacancies are matched to the particular skills of the employee filling that duty position. Decades of industrial-age personnel policy, required by law in the 1980 Defense Officer Personnel Management Act (DOPMA), combined with a generational shift in the All-Volunteer Force during the ongoing Global War on Terror resulted in various analysts warning about the risks of “brain drain” and “bleeding talent.”

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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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Anticipating Challenges, Not Courting Failure

A Guest Post by COL (R) Kevin C.M. Benson

U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Felicia Jagdatt

Officers entering the field grade ranks, likely since Caesar made the move, grew up being admonished with the adage “Failure is NOT an option.” The reality is while failure is not a consciously selected option, it is a possible outcome. The challenge for field grade officers is to determine how to capitalize on methods designed to anticipate points of failure and avoiding them while building flexibility into plans and orders. Leaders must seize every opportunity to learn and get better, this includes learning through failure. As Yoda said, “The greatest teacher failure is.” So, what methods exist to anticipate failure in planning and execution?