what it takes to be a good army officer]
Vi Characteristics of the Highly Effective Staff Officer
The following guest post was penned past Andrew "Evan" McCoy, Assistant Operations Officeholder for 4th Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment. The views in this post are those of the author and practice not reflect those of the Department of the Army of the Department of Defense force.
There are many things that an Army Officer, specifically a combat arms Officer must be. In that location are the standards; empathy, discipline, concrete fitness, confidence, resilience, mental agility, innovation, strong communication, that list could really continue for days, and there would nonetheless exist arguments for and against what characteristics a great Officer should have.[i] This paper is not focused on these, only is focused on a much smaller list of characteristics, those that I run into equally essential to whatever junior Officer who is lucky enough to discover themselves occupying a desk in the bowels of the headquarters building.
Let me preface this past stating plain and only; I do not encounter myself as a Highly Constructive Staff Officeholder. I have had the opportunity to discover and larn from many of the best staff officers around, and information technology is through those observations that I frame this newspaper.
My purpose for writing this is to serve equally a guide to the junior staff Officer, near specifically lieutenants and junior captains, who have finished time every bit a platoon leader and notice themselves thrust into staff meetings, control and staff meetings, training meetings, training resource meetings, daily commanders updates and a myriad of other staff functions to which they take previously had limited if whatsoever exposure to.
The staff is an interesting and rewarding place to exist assigned, especially every bit a company course Officer. The staff's primary purpose, which is often lost in the listing of requirements from higher headquarters, is to suggest the commander so that they tin can make a more informed determination. It is often forgotten during the seemingly un-ending taskings from higher headquarters, that we be as a tool for our dominate to requite refined guidance and direction to his subordinates. The commander has two main responsibilities; true, there are many things that they do and are responsible for, but it all boils downwardly to these two things: Provide guidance to staff and subordinate leaders, and make decisions on proposed courses of activity. The staff'due south function is to make those two things as piece of cake every bit possible for the commander to brand well informed, accurate, and timely decisions.
As a current fellow member of a battalion level staff[1], I accept had the opportunity to find many different characteristics of many different staff Officers. These characteristics, personality differences, and circuitous problems are found in all levels of staff piece of work, I am sure; however, I will speak mainly from experience at the battalion level. What I have come to believe is that Professionalism, Optimism, 'Buy-in', Motivation, awareness of the environment, and the ability to see the big motion picture; are the essential characteristics of the highly effective staff Officer.
What follow are my thoughts on how inferior Officers assigned to the staff, can assist to continue this process as shine as possible. Again this is not meant to exist just another listing of attributes for staff Officers to gloss over, it is meant to be a idea provoking work, helping to spur on the individual staff Officer to develop the necessary skills to non only survive, simply thrive during an assignment to the battalion level staff.
Professionalism
The showtime and foremost thing that any Officer assigned to the staff must be is a professional person. I sympathize that within the Army we must all conduct ourselves in a professional way, in fact it is one of the core concepts of who nosotros are as Officers, simply I am alluding to a deeper pregnant of professionalism. Professionalism is defined equally the skill, proficient judgment, and polite beliefs that is expected from a person who is trained to practise a job well.[2] I see this as the most of import of the characteristics that we will discuss, mainly considering it is so broad and extensive.
Let's begin by breaking downwards the definition. The skill that is expected from a person, who is trained to practice a job well, cannot exist summed upwards by just listing a stack of books, articles and manuals to read and saying "here y'all go, one time y'all've read these you will exist good to go." The skills required of the staff Officer are cumulative, gained from experience, learned from failures, and always irresolute. The wide base of knowledge required as an Officer on staff must be developed over time through professional reading, professional person discussion, and at times through direct training by more experienced staff Officers. Information technology is imperative to have a wide base of knowledge, knowing things that are 'outside of your lane' volition assist during collaboration and during professional discourse with other members of the staff.
In addition to the wide knowledge base, an constructive staff Officeholder must possess a passion for widening that base further. As an Officer progresses on the staff it is expected that they will non stagnate or plateau, but will continue to go better, not through rote repetition of a single job, but through a greater agreement of the earth in which the staff operates, learning and developing skill sets in new processes, expanding systems and ways of thinking and better upon the systemic processes with which you are already surrounded. The U.s. Ground forces Eye of Military machine History Recommended Professional Reading List[iii], is a expert starting place, outset with your level, when you stop that read the adjacent above, there may be some merit in reading the side by side level in a higher place that but there is no demand to hash out it out loud (same thing with Clausewitz[2]). When you have finished all the recommended reading on that list, go to your local volume store and outset in on anything in the business or personal evolution section. The purpose is not to gain specific knowledge, but to widen the base of cognition that you can draw from in your professional person life.
As a philosophy major in college, I gained a passion for reading, especially reading thought broadening topics. Taking this passion for learning into my own personal and professional development has been a rather like shooting fish in a barrel transition, and information technology has benefitted me greatly, both expanding my base of knowledge besides every bit lending itself to strengthening my arguments during professional discourse.
Optimism
The daily grind of endless meetings, constant reworking of presentation materials, short deadlines and compressed timelines, tin can brand your time on staff seem like a nightmare that you just cannot seem to wake up from. This is an piece of cake trap to fall into, however, information technology will not simply accept its toll on the personal level, but it will decrease effectiveness of the staff. It is imperative that staff Officers remain optimistic even in the face of arduousness. The fatalist way of thinking must be avoided at all costs, even when you know that the fight is unwinnable.
Medal of Accolade recipient ADM James Stockdale was held prisoner for more than seven years during the Vietnam War. He was tortured multiple times, kept in isolation and had no noesis when his captivity would end or if he would exist killed by his captors. Throughout this menstruation of captivity he was well aware of the grim outlook that his situation held, yet throughout these nighttime times he held on to the indisputable fact that everything would piece of work out in the end. While Stockdale had remarkable organized religion in the unknowable, he noted that information technology was always the most optimistic of his prisonmates who failed to arrive out of in that location live. "They were the ones who said, 'We're going to exist out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come up, and Christmas would become. So they'd say, 'Nosotros're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. So Thanksgiving, and then information technology would be Christmas again. And they died of a cleaved heart." The Stockdale Paradox[iv] can exist summarized as so:
Yous must retain organized religion that you will prevail in the cease, regardless of the difficulties.
AND at the same fourth dimension…
Yous must confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, any they might be.
The unwavering conventionalities that everything would piece of work out alright in the end, must be carefully balanced confronting the brutal facts of the everyday life.
Just dust your teeth, pour another loving cup of coffee and get set for a long nighttime of re-working PowerPoint slides. The night volition end, you lot'll wake up from the nightmare, and you will movement on to some other staff position, where yous volition continue to pull your hair out and piece of work belatedly nights and the cycle will continue until y'all dice in a coffee fueled centre attack. This is your lot in life; y'all are an Officer in the greatest fighting strength e'er assembled in the history of recorded warfare. So sit back down at the bench, serve your time, "Row Well and Alive."
"Buy In"
Odds are, if you are assigned to the staff for whatsoever length of time, you will be assigned a task that you practise not agree with. This is a fact of life; however the job of the staff Officer is not to mutter about the task at paw, but to execute to the highest level of your ability. One time that a task leaves your bosses thoughts and is passed on to you, it is no longer up for discussion and it must be executed similar it is your own personal encephalon child. The staff Officer, especially at the junior level, must purchase in to the commander's vision, fifty-fifty if in that location is disagreement or dissention; at that place is no place for that in the staff. When we go back to the purpose of the staff as discussed earlier, the job of the staff Officer is to make recommendations for the commander to make decisions on.
When taking stock in whom the truly effective staff Officers is, it is important to cultivate an organization of "True-believers" while avoiding the "bobble-heads." The very best staff Officers, fully understand and back up the commander, espouse their support of the control and bring 'converts' over to the support of the control; all without becoming a normative person, a 'yep-man' incapable of providing existent feedback on bug.
The thought of mission buying, especially with tactical missions, is essential to every subordinate-supervisor relationship within an arrangement. The chore that is directed by higher headquarters, the commander, 1 of the principal staff; must be executed and communicated with the surety and conviction as if information technology was conceived and adult past the staff Officer information technology was assigned to.
Equally a highly effective staff officer, you must not but "Potable the Kool-aid" merely you have to cascade it for others as well. I have had the pleasance to piece of work with many talented young Officers, many of whom are the inspiration for these characteristics. In that location are some however who equally talented as they are, as intellectual and professional minded as they can perchance be, will non see center to eye with the commander. It can be quite hard to deal with staff Officers who are full of potential but are pouring a completely dissimilar drink altogether, these Officers tend to contribute to toxic situations and should perhaps be looked at every bit needing to be moved out of the organization. It is also of import to remember that the commander, is the commander for a reason. The feel level of the commander is much greater than any other Officer in the organization. Before y'all make up one's mind to dismiss a thought or idea as 'stupid' or not necessary, consider the story of Mr. Miyagi[v]. You may call up you are only painting a contend, washing the machine or sanding the flooring, y'all may exist unwittingly learning kung fu.
Motivation
I of the largest problems institute within a staff, which has been alluded to already, is a distinct lack of motivation within staff Officers. Past the very nature of the staff; unless you lot are assigned as the Executive Officer, the Operations Officer, or the Intelligence Officer; you are waiting, biding your time for a better assignment to come forth. Because of this fact, many Officers get frustrated and lose motivation very rapidly, especially among junior Officers coming from a leadership role onto the less interactive, higher workload of the staff, it can be difficult to retain the high level of motivation that is necessary for a highly effective staff to run smoothly. A technique that can piece of work to help alleviate this lack of motivation is to focus on improving the systems of the world around you. The initiative of a highly effective staff Officeholder and their ability to affect the world effectually him, is i of the most important things that a staff Officer can possess. Staff Officers live in a earth of systems.
An outside event triggers x report , sent to b staff Officer , which feeds decision y for the commander.
Systems like this are commonplace in the staff functions; however, they are often mismanaged or are not as efficient as they should be. A highly efficient staff Officeholder should exist able to identify these shortfalls of systems, and develop a more efficient means of accomplishing the desired endstate. If a staff Officer is able to touch the systems with which they work in a positive fashion, streamlining the procedure, eliminating wasted attempt and simultaneously increasing efficiency, then that staff Officer is able to positively affect the arrangement.
Common Operating Picture
The staff of any system is a circuitous arrangement of many moving pieces, lots of members working on different projects, everyone pulling in a dissimilar management working their own small slice of the pie; information technology can exist overwhelming especially for a junior Officer. It is incredibly important for whatever staff Officer to have a working cognition of what everyone in the staff is working on, the issues that others face, and even offering advice to other staff members. It is imperative that staff members retrieve that it is the goal of the Entire staff to provide good recommendations to the commander in society to allow them to brand informed decisions. The word Synergy, defined as the combined effort being greater than parts: the working together of two or more than people, organizations, or things; especially when the result is greater than the sum of the private efforts; comes to mind when describing the outputs of a highly effective staff. Something that has been observed, especially during staff meetings, is that while ane staff section is briefing the commander on issues that concern their section, other staff section members tend to not pay attention, waiting their turn to brief the commander on their problems. This event, while information technology should non happen, seems to be very commonplace, instead what should happen is that all members of the staff should take opportunities like staff meetings to ensure that they are on the same page regarding all electric current efforts of the unabridged staff.
The separate staff sections are more complexly intertwined than the united nations-indoctrinated staff officer may realize. Personnel deportment, briefed and tracked by the S1 volition have consequences that ripple outwards, affecting the mission readiness of the Operations cell, the DEROG updates tracked past the Intelligence office, property accountability from the Sustainment prison cell, and may even effect the communications readiness of the Signal store. It is essential that all staff members are aware of actions being taken in other sections, and put forth the required thought and analysis into how each little modify will shift their mission readiness.
The staff of an organization, in order to run finer and efficiently, must develop symbiotic relationships amid the different sections. The relationship between members of the staff is crucial, especially the inter-dependence between the operations staff and other sections. Having a solid working human relationship with your fellow staff members, volition greatly meliorate not only your productivity, but your overall mental wellbeing while on staff.
Big Picture
While in that location are many things that a staff Officeholder must understand and be capable of doing, each and every fellow member of the staff must exist able to identify the commander's vision, conceptualize where the arrangement is, where it needs to be and so exist able to delve into the specifics, the nitty-gritty details of how the system gets from here to there. The power to see the large picture show or the over arching conceptual goals of the system, and then drib into the specific details is invaluable to the staff Officer. This is directly tied to the "Buy-In" that was discussed previously, the commander's vision must be understood, and so that the staff members tin work together to achieve the goals. At the junior staff Officeholder level, it is particularly important to identify with the commander's vision and the over-arching goals of the organization, while maintaining the specified focus on the data and individual events that back up the progression of the organization.
The above image is a staff Officers guide to the progression of facts into the decision making process. In summary, the junior staff Officer collects data and refines the information into usable information that tells the story of what the organization is doing and its electric current status, the bridging indicate, where data becomes data is the Junior Staff Officer'south bread and butter. The power to take raw information and through careful analysis, nowadays a coherent idea that can lend itself useful in the determination making and planning processes, is where the junior officer is at his almost useful . The Primary Staff Officers uses the information that has been refined in concert with their feel, in order to speak definitively on the status and progressive trends of the organization. This allows the commander to refine this knowledge, requite guidance and make decisions based on feel, good judgment and the supporting work that has been adult by the staff.
The staff of a combat organisation, while information technology is a difficult assignment at times, is the best identify for a inferior Officeholder to develop the skill set that will support him for the rest of his career. It is through the development of these skills professionalism, optimism, "Purchase-in" and buying, Motivation, sensation of the surroundings, and understanding of the details and how they fit into the big picture; that junior staff Officers can positively bear upon the organization, and prepare for time to come assignments at higher levels.
Notes:
[1] I served equally the Banana Operations Officer for a CTC rotation and an OEF deployment prior to the career course, post career course I currently serve as Assistant Operations Officeholder and have completed two JMRC D.A.T.E rotations.
[two] If you feel that you must read Clausewitz, read Book Ane, Chapter One; over and over over again until you recall you sympathise it, then talk to someone who actually understands it, realize y'all actually have no idea what The High german was saying and commencement the process over over again. (http://www.history.army.mil/reading)
[i] ADP half-dozen–22
[ii] Merriam Webster Online Dictionary
[iii] The U.S. Army Main of Staff'south Professional Reading List
[iv] Collins, James. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Bound… and Others Don't. William Collins, Web.
[v] The Karate Kid. Dir. Avildsen, Perf. John G. Ralph Machio, Pat Morita. Columbia Pictures. 1984. Movie.
Source: https://medium.com/the-smoking-gun/six-characteristics-of-the-highly-effective-staff-officer-ef57e0cd8b10
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