A Staff Officer’s Guide to the Galaxy
Far out in the backwaters of an unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the universe lies a small, unregarded door. Behind it lies an utterly insignificant office whose occupants still think that Microsoft Excel is pretty neat.
This office has a problem: many of these denizens are unhappy pretty much all the time, and the only proposed solutions usually involve moving captains from one task to another.
And so, the problem remains – a problem that you now face as you walk into the Brigade S3 office for the first time as a bushy-tailed junior captain who still thinks it’s cool to tell stories about Captain’s Career Course.
I am far from an expert on the inner workings of brigade staff, being a relatively recent alumnus myself, and with only the perspective of one organization. Retrospectively, my time on staff wasn’t even that long, but it sure felt like it. That said, some of the lessons I learned and ideas I “borrowed” from my time on staff hold some universal truths and may be of benefit to those of you just starting out on the journey.
When in Doubt, Be Useful
Arguably, the most important piece of advice I received before waltzing my way into the operations center of the brigade was, “there is no such thing as an unimportant task.” On the face, that is frankly terrible advice for nearly all of life’s pursuits. In the context of a staff officer seeking to build a reputation within the unit, however, there is something worth pursuing.
First, position yourself in the shoes of the seasoned, grizzled, and likely exhausted Brigade S3 that just barely looked up from his full Outlook inbox to acknowledge the fact that a new captain arrived.
As such, your first task will likely be something better suited for a particularly bright middle schooler fueled by an industrial supply of energy drinks, a task far below the standing of a well-trained war machine like yourself.
If you treat that task for what it is, busywork with no significant impact on daily operations, then you will demonstrate your powerful ability to not be trusted with more. Rather, recognize it for the opportunity that it provides. If that is your only task, then come to work each day and commit your full effort to making it successful.
You will likely be rewarded with yet another throwaway task. And another. And another. But eventually, when the circumstances permit, your ability to show up and put full effort into small things will translate into trust to do the big things right. That trust and reliability will pay dividends in developing your reputation on the staff.
Understand the Organization, Invest in Relationships
Learn to understand the ecosystem in which you work. How do your S3 and XO divide the workload? How does the commander or your boss receive information best? Which staff sections need more prodding to get you their feedback in time? You needn’t audit their daily habits, but you should take a rational approach to understanding what roles people fill in the organization and where you can effectively fit in.
Every organization has (at least) two hierarchies: positional and social. Learn to navigate both. Become a team player and leverage interpersonal relationships to make yourself more effective at your job. One simple trick I picked up as an XO was to stop by people’s offices when I didn’t need anything, just to say hello and ask how their day was going. That way, I wasn’t only coming to them in times of crisis or when I needed something.
Most importantly, the other captains on staff with you will be the greatest keys to your success. You are in it together, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health. If you can win them over by demonstrating your competence and willingness to help out, especially in your early days on staff when you have a light workload, it will pay off when you are staying until 2200, setting up a conference room for a QTB.
Master the Tools
Microsoft and its suite of products are inextricable from staff work. You can’t beat it, so you might as well join it. At a minimum, you should be proficient in Excel and PowerPoint. Power BI, Access, Project, and other tools will blow people’s minds, but if you’re developing something that other people will be expected to use, it will fall off in place of the more comforting embrace of the familiar, even if yours is the better tool for the job.
AR 25-50 is your friend. Some field grade officers develop an innate ability to glance at a memorandum and immediately identify an indentation 0.1” too far to the right. You should develop that instinct as well.
Outside of the shared struggle that unites all junior officers in a righteous war against pedantry, standardized formatting does play a critical role in efficient executive decision-making. Your Brigade Commander sits through countless hours of meetings and reviews hundreds of slides and memos each week. Uniformity allows them to immediately begin processing the information on the product, rather than waiting to be talked through the unique color-coding scheme on your special slide.
Staff is Not a Detour
Being on staff isn’t that bad. If nobody has told you yet, if you choose to make a career out of the Army, then you’re going to be spending the majority of your remaining career on staff. There’s absolutely a sense of fraternity, a unique form of responsibility, and a clear task and purpose that does not always exist in the isolating role of command.
The effort you put into your time on staff translates into the reputation you earn in your unit and an opportunity to demonstrate readiness for follow-on roles. If you are on brigade staff as a captain, you get a lot of face time with your senior rater and develop a relationship that they do not have the time to build with the other captains in the unit. That can pay off in more ways than an OER reflects.
To end on a cliché, staff time is what you make of it. You can treat it like exile on Elba, just waiting for your return to the line. Or you can use it to better understand the organization, improve staff processes, and make a meaningful impact on Soldiers’ daily lives by producing timely, clear products that give unit-level leaders more reaction time and maneuver space. So, take notes, make yourself useful, and DON’T PANIC!
Author: CPT Hunter Whitney is an Armor Officer currently commanding a tank company in Raider Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. He previously served as a Brigade Planner during the unit’s EUCOM deployment. He assumed command during a JMRC rotation and recently transitioned to his second command. A 2019 graduate of USMA, he has also served as a Scout Platoon Leader and Troop Executive Officer in 3d Cavalry Regiment.
Photo by Spc. Mariah Aguilar
TOWNSVILLE FIELD TRAINING AREA, AUSTRALIA
07.24.2023
28th Public Affairs Detachment
