Operations Officer (S3)

Many Officers will step into an operations officer job right out of the Command and General Staff College without having the luxury of spending a year on a Division staff to learn the cultural norms of their new organization so it’s extremely important to have a game plan when you step into the seat. The following is my best advice to a brand new S3. I’m not looking to insult anyone’s intelligence, but I’ve found over the past 15 years that there is a wide variety in how Battalion Operations sections function, ranging from highly effective to nearly dysfunctional. Below outlines ‘a way’ (not ‘the way’) to function as an S3. I believe it will produce a highly effective and efficient battalion.

As a Field Grade Officer within a Brigade Combat Team, everyone knows who you are. There is no more anonymity. I cannot stress enough how important the relationships and reputation you build are. It’s no longer good enough to simply keep your rater happy with your performance. Sure, your rater still has the biggest say in your career trajectory and you should ensure that you aggressively execute his priorities in a manner that they are comfortable with; however, that is no longer enough. For the sake of getting the job done, as well as developing a positive reputation across your Brigade, I highly recommend you cultivate relationships in a 360-degree fashion. This must be genuine as your teammates will see right through a “spotlight ranger”. Be the best teammate you can be and strive to help your peers, subordinates, and superiors alike. It’s about being a good teammate.

If you can’t manage yourself, then you can’t manage your Battalion staff systems. If you can’t lead yourself, then you can’t lead your subordinate Officer and Non-Commissioned Officers. The two top ways a Major will fail as an S3 or XO is by failing to delegate and failing to manage time. You can get away with doing it all yourself as a Company Commander (though it won’t be fun); you absolutely cannot do it all yourself as an S3 or XO.  While these seem simple at first glance, you’ll find they take an exceptional amount of discipline to put into practice.

Introduction

After completing three years of key and developmental assignments as a Major, I’ve taken some time to reflect and evaluate bothmy shortcomings and successes.  A couple of things came to mind immediately; first, there are a bunch of lessons learned and tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), that have been learned the hard way by others.  The second, I remember going into my first key developmental job as a Battalion Executive Officer and wishing there was more out there in terms of ‘how to’ from people who had held the position before. I wasn’t looking for doctrinal checklist of things I was responsible for; I was looking for some useful advice.  Things like – what’s the best way to synchronize a Battalion? Best practice for task management? How do I keep myself armed with relevant information? I found a few articles.

I reached out to mentors for TTPs. I was blessed that the BDE XO in the organization I was joining, was an old friend who allowed me to bombard him with questions every day. Now, as I sit and AAR my KD time, I’d like to pass along my lessons learned so they don’t have to do it the hard way.

In this article I’ll discuss the art of managing yourself, key relationships that should be cultivated, some specific advice for S3s and XOs, leadership as a Field Grade Officer and pass on some specific TTPs that worked for me. All my thoughts are ‘a way’, not ‘the way’ and the goal of this article is to help Officers conceptualize and frame their strategies for filling these positions. Do not mistake anything in this article as me touting my superior knowledge and practice of organizational leadership.  Many of the things chosen to highlight are the result of failing and eventually coming to conclusions at a point that was too late for me and my organization to benefit. Being a Major is a lot of work and if you do not stay organized and disciplined it can easily become overwhelming; however, once you get the hang of it, it’s a lot of fun and extremely rewarding.