Good Monday morning!

From my foxhole, junior officers are the front line raters and counselors, so they are the ones who actually know what talents, strengths, etc., that their Soldiers have.  What they should be doing with this information is then communicating it higher. This can be in the form of counseling, recommendations on future p…[Read more]

The fact you’re asking here and now already puts you ahead of your peers. To caveat off a couple of things @logisticus mentioned.

Standout by knowing and doing your job – doing it to standard, efficiently, and effectively. If you don’t know, ask. If you want to know a better way to do something, look for it. The NG is full of young officers who…[Read more]

The fact you’re asking here and now already puts you ahead of your peers. To caveat off a couple of things @logisticus mentioned.

Standout by knowing and doing your job – doing it to standard, efficiently, and effectively. If you don’t know, ask. If you want to know a better way to do something, look for it. The NG is full of young officers who…[Read more]

Thanks for posting.  I’d actually been struggling with this a bit recently.  While I may be “OOO” I still tend to keep up with email and respond when needed.  I stopped using the OOO message if I was planning on responding, but this article gave me a new way of looking at it as a way to let people know my response time will be slower than usual an…[Read more]

The tasks never stop, do they? A bit of good news is that we have shortened the list of AR 350-1 mandatory training requirements this past year.  Hopefully, people are listening to us as we continuously beat that drum.   Over the years I have learned a few lessons on how to prioritize my list of mandatory tasks.

1.  What metrics are being re…[Read more]

Management is definitely a major gap for me.  My last two commands comes down to one very serious problem; “professional development” isn’t a priority from the BN level.  I think I had management at the platoon level down; I’m still figuring out the company command management thing (but I’m getting it I think). However what’s next? The last 2 B…[Read more]

Jefferey,

Congratulations! This was something that I spent about a month trying to figure out, basically as soon as I took command right up until the point that I briefed my company for the first time. I guess it included my speech as the incoming commander during the CoC.

I tried to keep with a theme which boiled down to my vision for the…[Read more]

Can’t go past the first page on the topic threads- I click “2”, click “11”, and on the “->” but it only reloads the 1st page of topics. I am on a government computer and on IE, if that matters. 🙂

I LOVE these ideas! I especially like the idea of hand written notes and homemade food/potlucks. It speaks volumes to thank someone specifically on how they’ve impacted the organization. Meaningful versus generic goes a long way. Giving thanks and showing appreciation should be a part of every Leader’s personal battle rhythm.

I think Management was my biggest gap as a junior Officer. As a senior CPT, we are expected to be proficient in our leadership style and how we manage teams. I think we could do a much better job to ensure that senior CPTs and junior field grades do feel more confident in their management style. I’ve been in the military over 8 years now and still…[Read more]

I have found that Soldiers and even myself are more appreciative of small gestures of appreciations.

I took to writing personal notes after I was wowed by a General officer doing the same for me. It was one of the first times I had Soldiers come up to me and personally tell me how much that gesture meant to them.

Pizza!  I’ve used food a lot o…[Read more]

As a junior officer in the National Guard, Mission Planning seemed to be the most difficult to be successful at with the limited time and resources I had available.  When I studied the choices, I realized that I had full-time staff to help with the others, but Mission Planning was something that I was left to my own devices to figure out.

Justin! As I logged into JO I was sending out my first appointment letter to one of my 2LTs. Talk about coincidence!

Resources. Your main resource will be your legal representative/JAG. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about procedures, processes, etc. Another great resource are other officers who’ve done this before. Things like here (JO), M…[Read more]

Eli,

Thanks for your post and thoughtful effort in shaping the next generation of military leaders!

A number one book pick from several bosses is “The Road to Character” by David Brooks- he filmed a great 5 min TED talk as a thought provoking prep.

For more military applications- John McCain’s book on “Why Courage Matters” offers many examples…[Read more]