Category Archives: Leadership

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Soldier Centered Design

Putting Soldiers Front and Center of Army Modernization

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Ever wonder how the Army develops new equipment or vehicles and how soldiers can get involved? You might be surprised to learn that soldiers across the Army are already playing a critical role in shaping the future of Army capabilities. In fact, soldiers now have more input in the development and selection of the Army’s next generation of weapons, equipment, and vehicles than at any point in our history.

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Stetson Manuel, a Robotics and Autonomous Systems platoon sergeant and infantryman, assigned to the Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment, 316th Cavalry Brigade, assembles the Ghost-X Unmanned Aircraft System. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. LaShic Patterson)
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Rate of Fire Against Men

A Quantitative Assessment of Fire Team Lethality

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Live fire ranges must deliberately measure marksmanship if they are to achieve their purpose of training soldiers and junior leaders in the skills needed to win close combat engagements.  Training Circular 7-9 describes marksmanship as “one of the most important” areas that live fire exercises (LFXs) train; we argue that it is the most important, full stop.[1] Nothing else in a LFX matters, no other training objectives have any validity, if the rounds soldiers fire do not eliminate their intended targets.

5-20 IN conducts a grueling 36-hour exercise designed to test soldier readiness and war-fighting skills. (US Army Photo retrieved from 1-2 SBCT Facebook Page)
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Fundamental Duties of Leadership

Reflections on the Battle of Chosin Reservoir

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General James Mattis USMC once said, “The most important six inches on the battlefield is between your ears.” If you have people under your charge, then you are duty-bound to think—to make well-considered decisions based on a studied knowledge base. Military leadership is unique because ill-considered decisions send soldiers to their deaths. Leaders cannot blindly follow instructions or even orders.

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Inculcating Ownership

5 Key Steps to Get your Leaders to take Ownership

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How do small unit leaders get their subordinates to own their problems?

Inculcating ownership into your leaders can determine success or failure, smooth execution or frustration, system success or failure, and high or low performance.

There’s not enough time in a day to solve all the problems or challenges that a unit might face. Therefore, it’s vital that leaders understand how to ensure subordinate leaders take ownership of problems at their level and uphold their share of the task when solving both simple and complex problems.

Below are 5 tips to get your subordinate leaders to own their problem and think like problem solvers instead of problem passers.

U.S. Army Spc. Collin Hall, assistant gunner, and Spc. Areg Safari, M240 gunner, assigned to Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, observe their assigned sector of fire from their defensive fighting position while they wait for the opposing force to attack their defensive positions at the Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawaii, Nov. 9, 2023, during the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC) 24-01 rotation. JPMRC is the Army’s newest Combat Training Center (CTC) and generates readiness in the environments and conditions where our forces will most likely operate. JPMRC 24-01 includes over 5,300 training participants across the U.S. Joint Force, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, and Thailand. (U.S. Army photo by Capt. Angelo Mejia) (U.S. Army photo by Capt. Angelo Mejia)
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LSCO Ready

Organizing and Equipping for Airborne Medical Care in World War II

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Late September, 1944—Nijmegen

Medical personnel shuffled litters in and out. Outside the doors, the courtyard teemed with humanity. Clusters of aid-men loitered in anticipation of the jeeps, which were operated by their casualty collecting detachments. Like foraging ants they traversed the division area, to and from the regimental aid stations, and they would return direct to the imposing walls of the seminary. The seminary looked like an institution of classical learning, if nothing else for the blanket of vines which clung in patches to the dull brick construction. It was the most suitable location they could find for a division hospital. Mostly because of its size.

Had one of the early developers of the American airborne been able to peer into the future and see this sight, it would have surpassed all comprehension. The scale, the efficiency were beyond anything they envisioned, which wasn’t much. If casualty care in Nijmegen could be considered near seamless, it was not a product of the vision of early airborne developers in the US Army.

It was a gradual acceleration to the display of efficiency on the grounds of the Nijmegen seminary. But the only question that mattered is did it work?

Based in Fort Liberty, North Carolina, the chorus represents the 19,000 Army soldiers that serve in the 82nd Airborne Division. (Staff Sgt. Javier Orona/Army)
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Preventing Disappointment through Counseling

Connecting Army Tools to Develop Leaders

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Have you ever been disappointed with the performance of a new team or new leader? Perhaps your expectations were too high or something else went wrong. How do we close this gap between expectations and the desired end-state? Maintaining performance through transition requires the commander to over communicate the vision and guide their people through the discomfort zone. The best commanders will also listen to feedback in stride to best direct resources towards changing priorities or emerging risk. 

U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Randolph Delapena, the 82nd Airborne Division Command Sgt. Maj., speaks with Paratroopers assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, prior to conducting a Joint Forcible Entry (JFE) for exercise Panther Giant on Fort Bragg, North Carolina, March 8th, 2023. Exercise Panther Giant is a validation exercise for elements of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team to demonstrate readiness and lethality before attending the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC). (Sgt. Jacob Moir, U.S. Army)
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Less Books – More Impact

2022 in Books

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Sometimes in life it all just comes together and you’re in the zone. Your schedule, your time management, your energy management or bandwidth, and all of the elements of your life are moving in a united direction toward your goal. Similar to a whole-life version of what Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi famously coined as Flow – these moments are special. But what about when you aren’t? What are the practices you try to sustain when you are just not in that state of total alignment. That was something I set out to answer in 2022. My current position and general time in my career brings with it a schedule and workload that required increased attention and bandwidth. Regardless of how much I wish they weren’t, my energy and attention are finite resources – more finite than I wanted to admit. With that in mind, I came out of 2021 and into this last year with the goal to minimize my focus to maximize my output. Put differently, I tried to do less, better. One of the areas that lost some of my time in this realignment was my reading. This was hard for me as someone who both loves reading but also approaches most things as if it were a competitive sport…to include how much I read. But the journey provided some important lessons that I will carry with me into future times when I return to a more balanced alignment.

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Hey Lieutenant!

The power of feedback and communication to accomplish the mission and not waste your soldier’s time.

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In August 2022 the Lebanese bushfire season should have been in full swing and keeping the soldiers of the United Nations Fire Brigade (UNFB) active and on their feet – but it was not. This Fire Brigade is responsible to fight fires on behalf of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). This force consists of four teams of 5 soldiers each, which assume different duties every 24 hours. To distinguish them, every duty has been assigned a colour, red, blue, green and yellow.

Service members are often called to deploy to austere, remote, and challenging locations for missions of great complexity.