Staff work isn’t always glamorous. But the reality is that you will spend most of your career in a staff role. Even the highest-ranking officers in our military are not commanders per se, but chiefs (and one chairmen) of staff. The requirement is crucial; do the hard and scientific work of war where your output will directly impact the soldiers and leaders charged to enthusiastically carry out your orders. Glamorous or not, if you want to be a great officer then you must be a great staff officer.
Over the past 4 years, I have served on 3 general staff at the operational and strategic level. While each had its uniqueness of demand and culture, the fundamentals remained constant. The very things that make a great battalion assistant operations officer applied, at a different scale and requirement for experience and maturity, to a colonel at the Pentagon.
I wish I could say that I have mastered these 21 principles. Hell, I wish I could say I was consistently good at all of them. This list comes from a place of personal and professional aspiration – not perceived mastery.
- Always pin the tail on the donkey.
Who owns the task or next action? No non-specific pronouns (e.g., they, him, we). Third-person pronouns will hurt you. Ownerless next actions fall through the cracks – assign the task with conditions and standards, and a time to report progress or completion.
- Knowledge management IS staff management.
Date-less, number-less, version-less products; files left on your desktop and not archived; and a lack of naming convention, all beg for future reinvention of the wheel. And make sure your archiving and knowledge management system is user-friendly. Progress is when you can show someone where to find the information they need. Winning is when you don’t even have to show them because the system is that intuitive.
- The staff officer who has friends and associates widely has answers.
Always “have a guy/gal for that.” This is a people business. Build relationships, help others when you can, and cooperate. You are competing against the standard, not each other. The Army is a team sport. In-person communication is better than a phone call. A phone call is better than an email. And an email is better than nothing. You can always just do all three.
- Know and serve your audience(s).
We all have a boss, but great staff officers serve multiple audiences and know the balance. Focus on your audience of one (your principal). Meet their needs and carry out their vision. But remain aware of and serve the larger audience (the force, your battalion, brigade, etc.). Meet as many needs and serve as many audiences as you can, being careful to triage requirements and prioritize your energies appropriately.
- Exude a positive attitude and an unflappable (cool, calm, collected) demeanor.
A positive attitude fuels positive and productive staff work — no one likes the “angry staff officer,” nor the easily excitable one. Balance your team. Sometimes your team needs a little kick in the butt. Other times they might need a more settling touch. Regardless of your approach, remain in control and make it intentional.
- Good staff work is about building bridges, not digging moats.
Be the unit from whom others want to take a phone call. Always assume others have the best of intentions unless proven otherwise – but don’t be blind to their incentives. Help your sister units and your higher headquarters, but also balance your help checkbook…your offer to help (credit) is often paid by your subordinate units’ resources (checking). Do these things because they are the right thing to do, but know they will also produce dividends in freedom to maneuver, help from your peers, or relief from requirements when you truly are overburdened.
- Love the one you’re with and buy-in.
Carry your Commanders’ (one and two levels up) vision and values. Don’t talk incessantly about “your last unit/organization.” The best organization is the one you are in, and if it isn’t then be a positive force to change it. Field Grade Officers are true believers and apostles, but not bobbleheads – remain focused on the science (ways and means) of achieving the ends.
- Chase synergy and think at echelon.
Anticipate friction points and don’t isolate yourself from subordinate and sister units. What does your boss need to know? Your boss’ boss? What are the views and equities of others – is this contentious? Ask these questions, and then use the answers to inform all stakeholders involved and formulate your plan. Find and leverage efficiencies where you can.
- You can disagree with your boss, and when you do…do it one time.
But after that, you move out and draw fire with violence of action. You owe him/her both. Don’t get emotionally attached to a plan or course of action. Be passionate about carrying out your leader’s vision and intent. Be passionate about mission success. But, dispassionately do the good, hard staff analysis and provide all relevant information to your commander in a format the aids decision-making. If you disagree with the decision, make a respectful and professional counterpoint. Then, when she or he decides, execute with vigor and conviction.
- Make contact with the smallest possible force.
If it is a problem that one of your subordinate teammates can handle, let them handle it. Not all problems rise to your level. Triage tasks, provide supervision, and quality control/quality assurance. More on this in Principle #12.
- Be multi-lingual.
Know and speak to your audience. But you need to quickly shift between your different audiences and translate appropriately. Communication is an art and you are in the business of communicating clearly and effectively. You need to be able to speak grunt, warfighter, company grade, field grade, and flag officer — and choose the right language for the right audience.
- Own the monkey (the next action) — unless it’s not your monkey.
Monkey Management is about knowing the next task, determining to whom it belongs, and training your team to care for and feed the monkeys at their level. If the next task isn’t your job/doesn’t rise to your level, then you need to assign that monkey to the right trainer and make sure you equip them to care for and feed it. It is not an abdication of responsibility, but the diffusion of ownership and authority. You remain responsible for mission success.
- Have the humility to realize you may not be the smartest person in the room, and the hustle to prepare as if you’re expected to be.
This principle originally stopped with “don’t think you are the smartest person in the room.” Except, sometimes you will be…sometimes you have to be. As a Major in a battalion, you often will be the most experienced and informed person in the room. The trick is to wield this with humility, never turning off the experiences and initiative to others or limiting solutions to the boundaries of your own imagination. Prepare and be ready to be the “smartest” person in the room, but enter every room with humility.
- Be a nuclear reactor, not a coal silo.
You need to produce and proliferate energy, knowledge, communication, and understanding — not store it. You bring fire and motivation. Storing up information or wielding it as power hurts the overall organization. You are in the business of shared understanding.
- You’re not Luke Skywalker anymore…but you’re not quite Yoda either.
It’s not about you; you’re not the hero of the story. But you also aren’t the sage mentor in observe mode. You’re Obi-Wan from Episodes 1 and 2; you mentor but you also nug on staff work. You are like the old “player-coaches” from the early days of baseball where the manager was also a player. We are all workers on staff. There are no supervise-only billets.
- Font and format Matter.
It’s not about form over function; it’s about helping the function through attentive and deliberate form. Consistent, clean, clear, and concise formatting aids understanding and execution. It also instills confidence in those charged to carry out the task with conviction.
- Don’t overestimate higher’s dysfunction, and don’t underestimate your own.
It’s natural to inflate our own importance and competence while making few apologies for the shortcomings of others. Refer to Principle #13. Avoid fundamental attribution error. Higher will make mistakes…you will make them too. If you view your own performance with a measure of humility, others just may do the same for you.
- Never miss a hit time.
Perfect is the enemy of the good; the 90% solution delivered on time is better than the 100% solution delivered late. That simple – meet suspenses.
- Ask the next question.
Peel back the onion and go one, two, three…questions deep. Keep asking the next question until you bump up against Principle #18.
- Tell the story…the short story.
People remember narratives. Articulate information in clear, short, and concise narratives. We aren’t being paid by the word. Communication is your business, and you are in an attention-depleted economy.
- Yours is the science of war.
Commanders have the prerogative to wax poetic about visions, values, and philosophies. You own their art and make it a reality with detailed analysis, actionable tasks, and feedback mechanisms. Yours is the long-range training calendar, not the vision statement. Welcome to middle management – own it and thrive in it.
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No list, no matter how good, is complete. What did I miss? What fundamentals are you using in your units to provide the best advice and service to your commanders and formations? In the meantime, I have more than enough work on my hands just trying to be great at these 21. Share them with The Field Grade Leader or The Company Grade Leader. Let us hear what you think as we hear from the rest of the staff over the next few weeks!
Doug Meyer is an active-duty infantry major. He currently serves as the Chief of Operations for Operation Warp Speed. Before that, he served on the Joint Staff and the I Corps Staff. He has served in the CENTCOM and PACOM areas of responsibility. He is also the founder and executive editor of The Company Leader found @thecompanyldr on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Sage advice, for the Profession of Arms and those who practice it.
Excellent article, Doug. I am glad to see “building bridges, not digging moats” on your list. Sometimes it gets lost that a staff’s role, particularly in garrison, is to support our subordinate elements to ensure their mission accomplishment, which facilitates both ours and higher’s success; anything that a staff can do to better support these elements can produce dividends in both productivity and unit cohesion. From a Battalion XO’s perspective, I think this is a pretty comprehensive list, but the fundamental I think may be missing is staff understanding and recognition. Staff work can sometimes be a thankless endeavor, and while you correctly identify Field Grade Officers needing to have buy-in to higher’s vision and values, it is important that staff officers, NCOs, and Soldiers also have buy-in and see the positive results of their hard work.