Are You Passionate about Leader Development?

West Point’s mission is “to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character, committed to the values of Duty, Honor, and Country, and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army.” To this end, West Point selects senior captains and junior majors to serve as rotating faculty members at the academy. West Point’s rotating faculty members serve approximately two to three year tours in one of thirteen academic departments, teaching various core and elective courses. These faculty members are in the proverbial trenches, charged with mentoring our nation’s next generation of leaders. If you are passionate about leadership and contemplating a broadening assignment as a West Point faculty member, here is a list of things to consider.

‘Frozen in Time’ photo by Cadet Victoria Martin, USMA Class of 2020. Retrieved from West Point Facebook Page.

It’s a Commitment

This assignment requires a relatively significant time investment. It takes about seven years to go from application through the end of your utilization tour. To put this in perspective, I began the process for this assignment in 2012 while in my first key developmental position as a captain. I completed a two year, resident graduate school in 2016, directly following which I moved to West Point for a three-year utilization tour.

Consider your personal and professional timeline to help decide if this assignment is right for you. Have an honest conversation with your branch manager about your promotion potential, Command and General Staff College, and your post-West Point timeline. Remember, you will incur an additional service obligation for attending graduate school (3 days for every 1 day you spend in school – typically six years for a two year graduate program). This can cause challenges in completing your major key development position in time for promotion boards or broadening opportunities. This is not always the case, but it does happen.

Know Your Boss’ Perception

While in command, I had a superb and extremely supportive brigade commander. He encouraged us to seek out different broadening assignments, believing that they would help develop us into better people, leaders, and officers. This experience is not universal. In fact, some of my peers’ mentors actively discouraged an assignment at West Point. Some even claimed an assignment at West Point is not as demanding as the operational Army. Be clear, realistic, and honest about your goals. The perception that a West Point assignment will ruin your operational career is simply not true. The academy has produced successful officers from its rotating faculty, including commanders, at all levels, to prestigious fellows. There is no shortage of success stories from West Point faculty alumni.

Seek a Challenge

Prior to arriving at West Point, I had never taught an academic subject in a professional setting. Teaching requires a significant amount of effort, planning, and preparation. You have to learn the course material, internalize it, and convey it in a manner that your students understand. In order to excel at teaching, you have to connect with your students and make the subject material relatable. Preparing to teach 30 to 40 lessons a semester is a significant undertaking that should not be underestimated. Again, the primary mission of West Point is to develop leaders of character while preparing them to serve our nation. And so, teaching is only one component of this.

Most faculty are engaged with cadets in a variety of ways including cadet summer training, extracurricular clubs, sponsorship, formal mentorship roles, military training, performance development reviews, staff rides, academic/military/physical individual advanced development programs, etc. The academy is truly cadet centric – the staff, faculty, and tactical officers are devoted to maximizing each cadet’s development. This requires a significant amount of time and effort.

No Staff – Still Staff Work

In addition to your teaching, mentorship, and leader development duties you will have additional duties. And while there isn’t a traditional staff, these additional duties require staff work. For example, our department has an officer who deals with personnel administration, faculty recruitment, and selection (S1). We have an officer who is responsible for procurement of resources, equipment, materials, and budget (S4). We have an executive officer who is also responsible for planning operations (S3/XO). There are plenty of opportunities to sharpen your staff skills before leaving for your major KD time. But remember, these are all additional duties – your primary duty is teaching and cadet development.

More than just Teaching

West Point offers opportunities to teach, coach, and mentor cadets as a tactical officer (TAC), an instructor in the Department of Military Instruction (DMI), an instructor in the Department of Physical Education, admissions officer, or as a representative in the Office of the Directorate of Intercollegiate Athletics. Each of these assignments has its own unique responsibilities and opportunities to develop cadets. TACs, DMI instructors, and DPE instructors make up a large portion of the staff and faculty at West Point.

TACs provide direct leadership and mentorship to a specific cadet company. They are responsible for the morale, welfare, and discipline of that company. DMI instructors teach various courses in military science, strategy, and national security policy. They are also responsible for planning and resourcing summer cadet training. DPE instructors are responsible for developing cadets physical fitness through a variety of courses and activities. Each of these broadening opportunities contributes to each of the cadet development pillars – academic, military, physical, and character.

The Next Generation

You are able to be part of the process that has produced some of our nation’s greatest leaders like Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton, Ulysses S. Grant, Buzz Aldrin, and H. Norman Schwarzkopf. Not only do we develop cadets, we also spend a great deal of time developing our faculty as well. West Point is proud of its “second graduating class” each year – the field grade officers who depart each summer and assume positions of higher responsibility across our Army. They go back out to the Army, having honed their writing and verbal communication skills through teaching. A broadening assignment at West Point offers the opportunity to develop specific technical skills, e.g. coding, data analysis, geographic information systems, dependent on your academic discipline. As a result, West Point continues to strengthen these attributes and competencies in the leaders it produces.

I have been fortunate to have a plethora of talented leaders as mentors here at the academy. These mentors choose to spend their limited amount of free time to help prepare me and my fellow field grades to be successful organizational leaders. I am humbled and honored to be part of an organization that is truly dedicated to producing the best leaders possible.

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An assignment at West Point is extremely challenging and fulfilling, aimed at producing the nation’s next generation of leaders. It is a great family environment, with a tight-knit community and plenty of activities available being situated along the Hudson River and just 50 miles north of New York City. You will develop leaders who will influence the course of our great union as we continue our experiment in democracy. Passing on our lessons learned as company grade officers helps the Nation’s next generation of officers transition from student to professional. Subsequently, if you are passionate about leader development, West Point is a great place to serve.