The Leader Book

At the Center for Junior Officers (CJO), we work to deliver content where leaders can best consume it.  One of the experiments we’ve tried this past year is producing instructional videos on aspects of the military profession.  The videos are available only to members of CJO registered to the site.  But blog content is accessible to everyone.  So, to accompany some of our videos, we’ve written blog posts to preview that content.  This blog post delivers much of the content available in our Leaders Book video.

The leader’s book is a tried and true small-unit leadership aid.  It doesn’t exist in doctrine but is a part of many unit Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and best practices.  Every leader should maintain a leader’s book in some form – but especially small-unit leaders.

A leader’s book is a physical (or digital) manifestation of the baseline responsibilities of being in charge.  You must know your people, your equipment, and your mission.  You must command the ability to describe each in detail at a moment’s notice – and make decisions accordingly.  The leader book, when maintained appropriately, helps you accomplish that task.

There are several different techniques to build and maintain a leader book, but at their core, they relate to those three things – people, equipment, and mission.  We are describing one way to maintain a leader book.  Feel free to modify to your specific tactical (Mission, Enemy, Terrain, Troops, Time, Civil Considerations (METT-TC)) and operational (Political, Military, Economic, Social, Infrastructure, Information, Physical Environment, Time (PMESI-PT)) variables.

People.  Who do you have in your unit?  Where are they?  What is their training status?  What is their counseling status?  What biographical data do you need to inform good decisions about them?  These questions might vary slightly based on the particulars of your unit, but at a minimum, you should maintain an alpha roster – or a list of those assigned to your unit with current duty status updated.  You should also keep an updated training status and updated counseling status.  Other information that can be helpful includes promotion status, significant life events (birthdays, family, residence), professional/personal goals, evaluations, and medical readiness.

Equipment.  What equipment does your unit require (Modified Table of Organization and Equipment/Table of Distribution and Allowances (MTOE/TDA))?  What equipment do you have on hand?  What material are you the hand receipt holder?  What is hand-receipted, to whom?  What is your equipment status?  When was it last maintained?  When is it due for maintenance?  When was an inventory last conducted?  When is the next inventory?  You should track both unit equipment and individual equipment – though Organizational Clothing and Individual Equipment (OCIE) is generally a good entry in your personnel section. 

Mission.  What is your unit mission statement?  When was it last updated? When is it due for the next review?  What is your higher mission?  What is your mission essential task list (METL)?  What are your collective and individual tasks, and what is your current proficiency in them?  A copy of the latest training schedule for your unit and next higher command is a must.

Given the amount of information you could put into a leader book, you should be careful not to be overwhelmed.  Your role is to lead your unit.  You must know your organization but, spending 90% of your time updating a massive leader book makes that problematic.  The leader book is a tool to help you understand your organization.  Your ability to lead derives from your understanding of your organization – individually and collectively.

A good rule of thumb is always to carry some physical portion of your leader book – but it should be only the things you need and use every day.  The rest of your leader’s book should reside on digits.  There are several TTPs to maintain a leader book physically and digitally – some examples are on the support page for leader’s books on the CJO website.  You should modify what works for you.  But, when building a leader book – especially digitally – interoperability is a crucial component.  You should track items using the same tools as your higher and subordinate leaders whenever possible.  You want to avoid forcing you or your subordinates to recreate the same information in multiple formats to submit reports.

Here’s an example of the leader’s book in action. 

LT Marshall just took over an electronic warfare (EW) platoon.  It’s a new unit, so his google search didn’t turn up anything on what they look like or who is in them.

LT Marshall pulls down the Modified Table of Organization and Equipment (MTO&E) from FMSWeb.  It tells him what equipment and personnel a full-strength EW platoon has.  When he reports to his company and gets his Alpha roster from company operations, it shows him how many people – and who – he has.  When he does his command inventories, he finds out precisely what equipment he has.

LT Marshall has all of his Soldiers fill out personal data sheets – or gets them from the company if they’ve done them already.  He then has each of his subordinate leaders provide him copies of their counsel packets for each Soldier.

LT Marshall goes on the Army Training Network (ATN) and pulls down his standard METL and the corresponding STPs and T&EOs.  He then gets a copy of the company and battalion training schedules as well as a DTMS print-out of his platoon training stats.

Now, when LT Marshall is walking back from PT and the company XO says ‘hey man, can you send two Soldiers over to help with the arms room inventory today’ he can pull out his leader book and speak with confidence ‘not unless I pull them off maintenance in the motor pool, that’s where 20 of my 26 Soldiers are.  I’ve got two on quarters sick, two on leave, and two on CQ recovery.  The company commander told us we need to get all PMCS’ completed before BN services tomorrow.  We’re looking at a long day to get there as you know my PLT Operational Readiness (OR) rate is only 50%.  I recommend against it, but if it’s what the boss wants, that’s what we’ll do.’  The XO looks at you and says, ‘Nah – good point.  Maintenance is the priority.  I’ll pull them from another platoon.’

Later in the training meeting, LT Marshall can articulate why his platoon needs more slots in the upcoming live-fire range.  He can point to the need to certify enough of his Soldiers on their individual skill proficiencies to ensure the collective training event in 6-weeks will fully qualify his platoon ahead of their upcoming Combat Training Center (CTC) rotation because he has the training stats and training plan readily available.

When LT Marshall receives a pass request from one of his squad leaders, he knows not to endorse it to the company until the squad leader has completed counseling his Soldier up for automatic promotion next month – because he has the information right at his fingertips.

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LTC Charles D. Hood is a military intelligence officer who has served in a variety of strategic and tactical assignments, including 2ID, 101st ABN DIV (AASLT), SHAPE, NSA, JSOC, DIA, 10th MTN DIV (LI), and INSCOM.  He holds a BA in History from UNC Asheville and an MA in Political Science from Baylor University.