@george.l.gurrola – you’re so, so right about not only delivering “bad news” (whether it be training, taskings, or otherwise).   I had a HQ CC who did that, just always delivering the news of something that was late or hot, basically that I’d have to 180 at least a handful of folks.  It became a conditioned response after awhile. Anyway, after h…[Read more]

Include

Paragraph 1: Your current status (professional/marital/etc), expected date of departure from losing unit & date of arrival at gaining unit.

Paragraph 2: Experience/Background

Paragraph 3: Why you are happy to serve at your gaining unit. What you hope to do there to support the team.

Attach: copy of last evaluation, copy of ORB

The…[Read more]

Great points! Your performance in BOLC is one (small) part of what you establish as your professional reputation. What the academic evaluation report (AER) says about that performance tells only one side of that story. What your peers and trainers think about your performance tells another (arguably more important) side. Ideally, both will match…[Read more]

Ray, thanks for the reply! What happens when leaders visions conflict? Is there a negative impact to “pigeon holing” a leader into a manager’s role?

Can you explain the difference between a transactional and transformational style? How common are transformational leaders?

Good question. Your unit’s personnel section starts tracking you on their “gains roster” about the same time you receive your orders. So, it’s safe to send them a note as soon as you can reasonably predict your arrival date. That piece of the letter is important. They want to know who you are, sure. But, for nuts and bolts administrative and…[Read more]

@cale, overall it was a positive event for me, reinforcing a desire to be at the point of friction. I still have great respect for him, and credit the success of my first deployment directly to his leadership.

I’ll admit I’m still not comfortable giving orders, as it feels too much like asking favors. If I want something, I still try my best to…[Read more]

Adam,

Messaging is a key component of leadership, one I admittedly struggle with. Delivering a message that gets my vision across but allows my team the latitude to act. Empowering and supervising, sometimes it feels like I’m on the wrong end of the fulcrum no matter what I do…

My question to you is how did the SCO’s actions change how you lead?

Is this the Army version of “Kirk vs Picard”? “taking point” vs “empowerment”?

I had a Squadron Commander who insisted on physically being at the most dangerous point of the patrol. We had one officer take sniper fire (non-lethal) on a particular patrol route, so our Squadron Commander insisted on being in that exact spot on one of the next…[Read more]

Alan,

Thanks. Makes much more sense now. If you had been referring to the first article I found, I was going to have to check every last thing I’d written before I wrecked myself with an unbeknownst disruptive voice. [edit]

Also, I used “dissonant” when I meant “disruptive” earlier. The intro to this article was disruptive, but the ending…[Read more]