Contribute – Article, Resource, LPD product

Background

As an official Army resource, The CJO seeks articles and products that support the development and inspire of junior officers. Our primary audience is junior officers and cadets, but field grade and above officers, along with junior soldiers and NCOs, are also encouraged to contribute to the CJO and learn from our content. The CJO seeks articles and resources covering all fields of military expertise ranging from military-technical, leader and human developmental, and moral and ethical reflection pieces with a focus on how it helps the junior officer.

Some more specific examples are below

• Leadership: How to build key leadership skills at the individual or organizational level. Lessons and advice on how to develop the following areas:
  • Individual: Importance of character, how to relate to soldiers and be authentic, how to practice humility, interacting with people from different cultures, understanding how leaders make decisions, public speaking, writing, and other core leadership topics.
  • Team: Building a strong culture, team effectiveness, ethical challenges, maintaining discipline in a unit, managing conflict or hard relationships, and other organizational-level topics.
• Physical Fitness and Health: The implementation and optimization of physical fitness plans and training. Managing and optimizing all forms of health in one’s self and in Soldiers.
• Lessons Learned: Advice or lessons learned managing the wide range of events and activities that junior officers encounter, such as: Deployments, overseas rotations, challenging situations or dilemmas, intresting tasks or jobs, training events and preparing for them, writing awards, NCOERs/ evaluations, NTC/ JRTC rotations, and more.
• Managing Transitions: Arriving to a unit, changing positions during important times, having a new NCO counterpart, adjusting to new leadership, PCSing, deployments, DITY moves, attending military school, and preparing for ETS.
• Company Command: Preparing for command, first 90 days in command, how to run a meeting, managing relationships, tips on mentorship, building culture in a unit, understanding UCMJ, advice on FRGs, and achieving results as a team.
• Executive Officer: Understanding the knowledge and skills needed to thrive as an XO, to include: managing the different relationships in the company, learning supply, shared leadership, being 2^nd in command, mentoring LTs and NCOs, and other important XO functions.
• Platoon Leader: Reflections on lessons around building trust with your NCOs and soldiers, developing a platoon culture, managing difficult situations, developing others, managing the multiple responsibilities of a new officer, and building key skills needed to lead a platoon.
• Career: Preparing for and succeeding in BOLC, branch detail, Captain’s Career Course, selecting a graduate program/ school, applying to special forces, functional areas, Army schools, USMA assignments, other special units/assignments, etc.

Process & Guidelines

If you’d like to write or contribute a product about one of these topics, or if you have another topic you’d like to contribute something on that will help junior officers, please send a message to CJO@westpoint.edu with some basic details of your idea.  You should review some of the articles and products on the CJO site before submitting something – not only to determine what topics are already covered/where you can add value (what are you missing that we should have for junior officers!), but also to help you determine the style, tone, format, etc. of successful articles.

After you correspond with a representative from CJO about your intended topic, please consider the following guidelines when preparing your outline.

• Length– We’ve found that submissions between 800 and 1200 words work best. Articles should not exceed 2,000 words.
• Title– The title should be interesting and draw the reader in. It should be professional and give the reader a sense of what the article covers.
• Scope– The CJO’s intent is to make it’s content utilitarian and highly relevant to it’s audience. Their is much to discuss in our profession but ensure your writing is relevant to the junior officer. 
• Engaging– Consider using a personal story, interesting question, or some other way to engage the reader and make them feel more connected to what you are writing about.
• Research / External sources– Your experience and perspective are the central component of the article, but you should reference external sources or research that supports your ideas when possible.
• Hyperlinks– Junior Officers reading your piece may be interested in exploring the resources you discuss, so hyperlink sources, research, articles, and other key pieces of information in your article where appropriate.
• Photo– Please include a photo related to the theme of your article. It should be attributed (provide image source URL), at least 200×200 pixels, JPG or PNG format.
• Writing guidance– Write in a conversational voice/tone. You may write in the first person if you wish. Use Hyperlink sources.
• Biography– Include a biography at the end of your submission. The recommended length for the bio is 3-6 sentences (50-75 words). Please follow the example [here].