BLUF: Our Soldiers are on social media all the time, where they’re being influenced. Are we going to cede that space to others, or are we going to try to influence them there as well?

I picked up this idea and others while listening to COL Lopez’s interview on the Military Leader podcast: https://www.themilitaryleader.com/podcast/eric-lopez/

To learn more about “talent management,” feel free to check out ARCIC’s recent weekly professional reading on the topic here: http://www.arcic.army.mil/LPD/FullArchives/ If you access the link after they release a new reading, just look for Series 159 “From Talent Management to Talent Optimization” from 21Feb2018.

BLUF: Talent optimization…[Read more]

I concur. They can be dangerous because of a perception of favoritism.

However, to continue the discussion on the value of personal relationships, I want to point out two benefits:

1. Having a personal relationship builds trust, which is a pivotal aspect of mission command.

2. Personal relationships are required to understand intangibles that…[Read more]

I agree with what I think your underlying point is – that we need to consider all leaders holistically – but I think “dangerous” is a strong word to refer to the importance of personal relationships in talent management. Qualifications, experience, and all of the other things we can “quantify” are important, but managing human capital – developing…[Read more]

That’s a great point of view @brock.j.young: balancing loyalty and integrity. It also makes me think of Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean in regards to virtues; how virtue is often mean state between the extremes of excess and absence.

I like the hierarchy of loyalty as well. That’s probably one of the top points I’d want to highlight in future…[Read more]

@logisticus Thanks for sharing. You raise a lot of great points.

To help current and upcoming leaders, I’d like to follow-up by asking:

1. How did you facilitate this discussion as a commander?

More specifically…

2.What was the venue and who were you communicating with?

3. Was this an all hands-on-deck type event or more targeted to leaders…[Read more]

Looking at the options again, it strikes me that the issues “Overload of Training Requirements,” “Resourcing Difficulties,” and “Technical and Tactical Mastery” are all related to prioritization – a key task as a leader, and in life in general. We never have as many resources (time, money, etc.) as we’d like, so we must develop sound priorities.…[Read more]

If I were to take a stab at why this discussion may not occur right away, I’d guess that it has to do with the negative perception of coming into an organization and immediately changing things. I think there is some value in coming into an organization and observing it to understand it better before making changes. There may be some things that…[Read more]

Ray: I am not in a position to get this program started now, but I am anticipating the possibility in the future. I’ll reach out to you when I am in such a position. In the mean time, I wanted to ask here, because I’m sure others might have the same question. This looks like a great resource!

@CALDOL: I just checked out this part of the site for the first time and think this is a great tool to facilitate discussions of readings. Are you willing to set up a discussion similar to 1-5 CAV’s existing thread on “This Kind of War” for any unit? Or do we already have the ability as regular members to set one of these up?

“Duty” by Robert Gates. It’s easy to think of our units and the Army’s mission of fighting our nation’s wars in isolation. In this context, it’s easy to get frustrated by orders that don’t seem to make sense because of a narrow scope. This book is an entertaining, fast read from an outstanding statesman that provides some insight into the…[Read more]

Unity of effort is definitely the key, but this is always more challenging to achieve than unity of command. So yes, consolidation of information collection planning and assets needs to occur, but I think we need to be weary of the “Romance of Leadership” if we consolidate all of this, because one person (the commander) does not always have the…[Read more]

Tiara:

The only doctrine that I’m aware of that relates to mentorship is our 6-22 series of leadership doctrine (ADP, ADRP, and FM). In terms of regulations, I’m not aware of any requirements.

I would ask @rakimball. He’s the best mentorship SME I know.

-Gary

Tiara:

The only doctrine that I’m aware of that relates to mentorship is our 6-22 series of leadership doctrine (ADP, ADRP, and FM). In terms of regulations, I’m not aware of any requirements.

I would ask @<span class=”post-author” style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, ‘Times New Roman’, Times, serif; font-size:…[Read more]

To echo what most have said already, recording the session is important, but the most important part is the conversation. Make an effort to get the counselled individual to share their perspective as well.

One good way to do this is to share some questions in advance that you want to discuss during the counseling. This can be in regard to their…[Read more]