Activity – cplenge – The Center for Junior Officers

charles.hood replied 6 years, 1 month ago

Mandi, great article and great points!

I think in the Army we sometimes fall victim to professional development where ‘history is written by the victors.’ What I mean is we have an up-or-out promotion system – so every field grade and senior officer you see is just a portion of those who went through the jobs/experiences the Army has to offer. Battalion Commanders and key staff officers are off the Command Select List (CSL) – a population usually less than 20% of those eligible to compete. Depending on your branch BN CSL makes up 90% of the O-6 selects. Then, another round of CSL and a smaller select from that group to GO.

That means almost everyone who’s giving the narrative on ‘this is what it take to make it’ or ‘this is what you should do’ is recounting a small (and getting smaller as you move up in rank) portion of the experiences and results out there.

Further, the way someone thinks of the narrative on how they got where they are may change substantially once they make it through each gate. I imagine the 360 evaluations on many senior leaders looked quite different at various stages of their careers.

All that to say senior leaders might say things that don’t always reflect the way they came up – and definitely don’t reflect the experiences and pitfalls many of their peers at various stages ran into.

I think you’re very smart to understand the way you frame your own narrative and approach to leaders for advice and mentorship can’t be just about mirroring – you have to factor in your sense of self and a hefty dose of realism/skepticism in order to leverage the advice successfully.

cpth replied 6 years ago

This is a great article and a useful list. I would recommend taking pictures of items and their components to add to your platoon property book to help when the nomenclature and name don’t resemble what the item actually is. Also keep a working property book that is updated whenever equipment is moved or turned in for services/maintenance. Your working property book should have notes on where everything is located, i.e. pieces of a JCR on a particular vehicle or items kept on the 3rd shelf in the black locker. I recommend becoming familiar with GCSSA and learning how to check the status of your replacement parts or ordered items.

dayna.e.sanders replied 6 years, 4 months ago

This is a great article! I was the first Female Commander of 2138th FSC. Talk about a rough start, but through doing all of these things discusses here – I had an immensely successful tenure as Company Commander.
- cplenge replied 6 years, 4 months ago
  
  That’s awesome to hear! Do you have any lessons learned along the way that would be worth sharing?
  - dayna.e.sanders replied 6 years, 4 months ago
    
    Be Patient: When you’re new to a unit, there is nothing scarier than feeling alienated, misunderstood, and alone. My advice here is, be patient — if you’re a good leader, these feelings will dissipate.
    
    When I first came to the 2138th FSC, the culture left by previous leadership was very hands off and as far from standard as one can imagine. No training meetings, operations process, MDMP, CSDP, nor OPD. Incorporating these critical components back into the training schedule and the culture was challenging and led to some intense conversations among leaders. However, as the morale among leaders improved and those leaders began to see the positive results of the aforementioned, the existing leadership came to see eye-to-eye with me and I became part of the team – they trusted and respected me.
    
    Sometimes as leaders we forget as we move unit to unit that the respect that you have earned in other units may not follow you to your new unit. It takes time. Trust and respect must be earned.
    - cplenge replied 6 years, 4 months ago
      
      Excellent advice! It sounds like you made a positive impact on the organization. What was your experience like being the first female commander of the unit?

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