Questions for discussion.

1. How did you prepare for company command? I made the most of my time as PL and XO, kept reading (books like Company Command) there’s a few out there. Working with PSGs, 1SGs, watching COs, and doing my jobs as LT, plus “interviewing” other CDRs – having lunch w/ them asking what worked, what didn’t work for them, all the way thru’ career course. I became an amalgam of all those factors.
2. What would you do different? As commander it is easy to get people to do things (reward/recognition, punishment etc.), but the truly great leaders, inspire others, (probably very rarely seen). As far as preparing for command, I’d become a technical expert on more equipment and systems we use, because often you have to be a teacher yourself, let’s say in a new company. I was surprised at how, early on, I had to teach what I expected first, I had to create products that were clear and easy.
3. If you only had 30 days until change of command, how would you prepare/ prioritize? A lot may seem important to a rookie commander, but you learn it isn’t as important as other stuff; you learn to differentiate and thus prioritize better. In 30 days, the best thing you can do, is ensure that you have property accounted for, signed down, shortage annexes on file, a list of key equipment you need to order, get your S4 to sell to the Brigade XO to turn on money for. During inventories keep hard copies locked up until you change out, and then look at the calendar. Make a tentative plan you’ll discuss with your leaders when you first take charge – what is coming up on the calendar and backwards planning on all the critical steps/gates, you must meet before then, i.e. we are going to NTC in a few months, we need to hit ranges, individual skills test for Sergeants’ time,  gunnery tables, squad, platoon STX by this date, before company FTX. Key to it all, once equipment is organized, build common load-plans right away able to respond to an EDRE, that way, every Soldier knows what vehicle they ride in, what goes in that vehicle (which weapons, which radios by serial, water cans, fuel cans, MREs, BII, etc.). So when you start training, your whole company down to platoon, squad, team and vehicle-level is arranged and those crews, hopefully will not change throughout training progression. Have all of this done BEFORE you take the guidon. If able, have an in-processing program, not just checklist where a new Soldier completes all his individual requirements before assigned to a team, so that distractors, appointments, are limited thereafter – I cannot overstate how much time you buy with a good in-processing program in place; at one post they called it School of Standards, most installations have some name for it.
4. What documents were critical to your preparation? Counseling for my 1SG, XO, and Supply NCO right off set expectations. The MTOE, property book and hand-receipt were key. You’ll find most of this stuff is organized, moved laterally sometimes, and you must organize it, then follow what’s on paper with what happens in real-life. If you move equipment or Soldiers to other sections, have Supply NCO update hand receipt to reflect that. Keep track of dispositions, turn-ins, and have your platoon leaders brief shortages in their platoon during your first meeting with them, not just where they are at, training-wise.