You Can Lead, But Can You Fight?

The leader development space, especially within the military community, experienced massive growth in the last decade. We are dining at a leader and self-development buffet. The myriad resources range from Army sites like MWI and AUP to blogs like The Military Leader and The Field Grade Leader. We are discussing emotional quotient, social intelligence, and strategic communication – topics formerly reserved for academic journals and college classrooms. Leaders are learning about building consensus and motivating as opposed to the hierarchical and command/control crutches of Army generations past. But, is the pendulum swinging too far to the leadership art and science over the tactical? You can lead….but can you fight?

You can go a long way in this profession on leadership ability alone, until you can’t. At some point you have to be able to fight, to actually do the mission of the Army. Maybe that moment is early in your career, deploying to Afghanistan one week after arriving to your first unit. Or, maybe you made it all the way to Battalion Command and find yourself sitting in a sweltering BASE-X tent in the RUBA at NTC during RSOI, with the Donovian hordes mere kilometers away – ready to chew you up. Eventually, if you are all leadership and no fight, you will be found out.

Leadership is important, please don’t misunderstand me. But it is a conduit to the real mission, fighting and winning our nation’s wars. You can be a great leader all day long, and you should be! But, if you can’t fight – if you lack a tactical acuity – your organization will see it.

Leadership is a means – one aspect – of achieving the mission; it’s not the mission itself.

Developing Tactical Acumen

Over the span of a twenty-year career, an Officer or NCO will spend the majority of their time at the tactical level. Let’s not forget that even Division Commanders lead tactical organizations. We need to develop strategic thinking in our junior and mid-grade leaders, but not at the expense of building tactical acumen. Luckily, these are not diametrically opposed topics nor do they pose a binary option. You can build both. Below are some ways to improve your tactical proficiency and decision-making frameworks.

The School House

Most leaders start learning about tactics from within the Institutional Domain – commissioning sources, basic courses, Ranger School, etc. These are school houses that focus on teaching you the blocking and tackling of being a tactical leader. Unfortunately, we too often treat them as something to get through or another badge to stack on our chests.

Be where your feet are. Live in the moment and soak up every bit of experience you can. Seize opportunities to test yourself and make mistakes. Learn from your experienced instructors and your peers. I wish I had realized earlier that the value of educational opportunities is in the learning itself more than the degree (or badge) it produces. When you leave, and go back to your unit, make sure you can look in the mirror and confidently say, “I learned everything I could.”

Unit Level Training

Reps, reps, reps! Tactical acumen requires repetition. Get them where you can, when you can, and how you can. View your tactical proficiency as a muscle that requires exercise. Yes – I am saying that if you don’t use it, you lose it.

Situational training exercises (STX) and live fire exercises (LFX) are the big ones. Combined Training Center rotations (NTC, JRTC, etc.) are the “sexy” opportunities. For the vehicular folks, gunnery is another big milestone rep. These are all important and should be maximized, but if you’re only “turning it on” when you are in these evaluation heavy training events, you are missing the point.

First, you are forgetting that EVERYTHING is an evaluation and someone is always watching. So if your sole motivation is performing when being evaluated, remember that. But, more importantly, don’t miss out on the countless opportunities to maximize unit level training. Here are just a few we tend to overlook:

Terrain Walks – or even just using a run, ruck, or drive as an opportunity to talk about terrain. NEVER overlook the importance of intuitively understanding terrain to mastering tactics.
Staff Rides – not enough units do these.
Range Walks – every time you do a range walk with your leaders, it should be an opportunity to talk about terrain, battlefield calculus, and the science of maneuver.
Tactical Decision Games

Self-Development

Ultimately, it starts with you. Yes, the Institutional Domain has some responsibility in preparing you and the Organizational Domain will help develop you through experiences. But, no one should care about your development more than you do and you shouldn’t expect them to. You have to care and you have to put in the work. Here are some ways:

Read, read, read! Pick up biographies of tactical leaders, history books, and memoirs. Use resources like CALL, CAC, and other publications. Read doctrine – you need to know the playbook before you can audible at the line. Check out 16 Cases of Mission Command, 66 Stories of Battle Command, and products like Musicians of Mars II and III.
Have conversations and build a network of people who care about your development. A good mentor is worth a thousand bosses. If it is a true mentorship, it will be reciprocal and you will learn from each other.
Seek out jobs at <shudder> NTC and JRTC. Observer Coach/Trainer positions at these organizations provides you a master class in maneuver. If you can’t get stationed there – or have other opportunities arise – pursue opportunities to be an OC/T Augmentee for a single rotation.

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These are just a few ways, within the Army Training Domains (Institutional, Operational, Self-Development) for you to pursue a mastery of tactics. Don’t let it be the Donovians – or worse, our next adversary – that force the realization that you don’t know how to fight. Identify your gaps now and rigorously work to close them.