Oh yes. YES!!! Effing, yes! Policy letters. Consider me #triggered.

This is a great sub-topic under preparing for command. This should be SUPER easy, but as @smehr has found it’s just… not. Why? Well, turns out, go figure, it’s complicated. There is no 100% universal, standardized list of required policy letters. Huh? How is that possible?…[Read more]

Sapper School (like Ranger School) is officially designated the “Sapper Leader Course” and it is open for all branches. However, attending these schools costs money and it can occasionally be a challenge to get authorized to go by your unit (who will need to pay). Units will often refer to their TOE (table of organization and equipment) to tell…[Read more]

Good questions and comments and more questions. I’m no guru, but I’ll attempt an answer and maybe some of the smarter folks on the forum can offer their insights as alternative perspectives or reinforcement.

I prepared mentally through a not so humble process of relative comparison. Roughly ~50% of my lieutenant buddies would not graduate Ranger…[Read more]

Social Media… you’re doing it wrong.
 Sorry #NotSorry for the #Clickbait title. I felt like it was appropriate for the topic. I’ve wanted to write this post for a long time. Thank you to the JOF team for giving me the incentive to stop procrastinating. 
 If you haven’t heard, social media is a thing. We can ignore entirely the debate around your…[Read more]

I recommend two books on this topic:

Douglas Stone – Difficult Conversations

William Ury – Getting Past “No”

The first book speaks generally about how and why to give candid feedback. The second book is the second of Ury’s more famous book “Getting to ‘Yes'” but I think the more valuable of the two for how to set up and have particularly…[Read more]

I think these days we can come up with a better name than “Drink and Think.” That would go a long way to eliminate some of the concerns about whether we’re getting together socially or professionally and why there does or does not need to be alcohol involved.

Maybe we could  just call it, “peer to peer informal discussion and…[Read more]

Good topic. Tasking FRAGOs.

I have seen organizations that issue Weekly (WTF/O) and Daily (DTF/O) tasking FRAGOs or Orders. As with most things, the decisive point of success was implementation not the mere existence of the document. So, what are some of the keys tips for successful implementation?

In no particular order [ha! see what I did…[Read more]

Brother, every organization is unique… so on and so forth, disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer.

Now, down to business. Yes, you should be planning your calendar a full fiscal quarter in advance. Yes, you should be “locking” your calendar 6-8 weeks in advance. Then (optional – my personal technique), you should go nuclear when there are changes…[Read more]

I’m not holding my breath!

I have heard/read about a change to the physical testing for a little over a decade, and in that time, I have continued to lace up my sneakers for push-ups, sit-ups, and a two-mile run every six months.

It’s a change I would welcome with genuine enthusiasm (even though I might feel entitled to exactly 30-seconds of…[Read more]

@katehowa – Post #3 in the “Student to Lieutenant” series specifically covers reporting to BOLC. You can read that post here. Or, you can read the entire series just for funsies!

If you have the opportunity, I recommend arriving (not necessarily reporting) one or two business days early. It will give you an opportunity to informally familiarize…[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]

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]

Thought of one other thing!

Staff/Commander/XO’s get a pack of these!

You’ll get business cards… put them in your leader/continuity book. Write little notes on the back about why that person is important. The DRMO Manager. The finance office manager. The urinalysis dude. They all have business cards…

One quick TTP:

It took me WAY too long to realize that an “open-door policy” did not mean I needed to keep my door open all the time… (I mean, I’m not an idiot, I knew, it didn’t literally mean that…) I had my office door open WAY too much as a Commander and Staffer so that I was “approachable” and my Soldiers could be inspired by how much…[Read more]