by Oren Rosen
Building your team is important work. And managing that team once assembled is what determines if the team will perform at championship caliber. As a commander, you inherit most of your team—but that does not mean the roster is solidified for the rest of the season. You are going to look for key pieces in the off-season, attempt to claim some hidden gems off waivers, and take a chance on some rookies.
My first Battery Executive Officer once told me that as the Battery Commander (and a die-hard Lakers fan) I was like NBA coaching legend Phil Jackson. I had a Kobe Bryant, a Shaquille O’Neil, and even a Kwame Brown or two in my battery. However, despite the natural talents of my star players, the roster still had some holes. During my time in command, I worked to fill in those gaps, in order to enable my team to play at the championship level. Below is my codified playbook followed by some notes from my team’s playoff run in the sands of Kuwait.
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Understand What Your Roster Needs: A good starting point is to work with the Battery First Sergeant (1SG) and Platoon Sergeants (PSGs) to identify critical personnel needs. A good team has its high performers that play the majority of the minutes, but you also need your quality bench players that can be plugged in when the inevitable unexpected happens. Identify the personnel holes you have now, and in the future. Realistically, one-for-one personnel swaps are probably not going to happen. However, instead of dwelling on this, pick yourself up, get back in the game, and start working on some solutions!
Acquire Free Agents: A great method to strengthen your team is the acquisition of other Soldiers from within the battalion. Soldiers always need a second chance or an opportunity to grow, and movement from one battery to another can be the new start they need. Remember, transferring Soldiers will not solve all of your personnel challenges/needs, but it is a great method for specific situations. Key to the success of this method is the relationship between your 1SG and the other 1SGs in the battalion and between your 1SG and the Battalion Command Sergeant Major. If these relationships are not cordial, then it can be very difficult to make mutually beneficial Soldier transfers. Finally, you and your 1SG need to be on the same page in regards to which Soldiers you would be willing to transfer to another unit. Control the rumors about Soldier transfers and then make the transfers once everything has been solidified between all parties. This helps maintain Soldier and unit morale.
Cross-Train: Cross-training Soldiers on different Military Occupational Specialties (MOSs) tasks or assigning additional duties can be a valuable method for overcoming personnel shortfalls. Lay out which tasks and duties must be trained/filled and then let your 1SG and PSGs get to work developing a plan that is feasible, acceptable, and suitable. The key to this method is understanding that it is just a “bridge” until your unit is assigned more Soldiers. You can only “do more with less” for a limited period of time. Soldiers will get burned out with too many additional duties. They may also grow disaffected with performing MOS tasks that are outside of their primary MOS. These shortfalls are important for your NCOs to monitor and for you to understand as the Commander. This will help you truly understand your unit’s readiness and will then drive further conversations with your higher headquarters.
Send ‘Em to School: There is never a perfect time to send a Soldier to a school, so you need to create the time. First, your 1SG needs to understand which troop schools are priority and which training events you are willing to assume risk on in regards to troop attendance. Furthermore, you and your 1SG must talent manage and select the right people for the right schools; not every Soldier should become the unit’s MRT. Second, your higher headquarters needs to understand what risk you are assuming by sending Soldiers to these schools and what is gained by their attendance. Communicate with your battalion leadership—Commander, Command Sergeant Major, Operations fficer (S3), and Operations Sergeant Major—to make sure they are not blind-sided. Finally, make sure you have a training plan to get your Soldiers trained and certified on your team’s tasks once they return from school.
Manage Personalities: You also need to understand that internal team conflict is going to happen, and you must be prepared to address it. This is the most important technique for strengthening your squad. You can have the best-trained Soldiers, but if they cannot work together, then your team will not perform. Early in my command time, the team was not performing consistently well. My senior Platoon Leader’s personality rubbed people the wrong way. I was not holding my junior Platoon Leader accountable for his platoon’s failings. There was also a lack of experienced NCOs in the unit. I recognized that there were issues, but I thought that they would resolve themselves in time. At several points, my battalion commander dropped hints that there were problems that I was not adequately handling, but I never figured out the best way to fix all of the issues. Eventually, my senior platoon leader was traded to a different team and my junior platoon leader PCSed. I severely regret not working harder to mentor these two officers. They checked many of the boxes we expect from young Platoon Leaders and were valuable members of the unit. My inability to identify their developmental needs and manage their personalities caused the unit to undergo a prolonged period of stress.
Communicate with Higher: Finally, managing a team is exhausting work and at times there will be roster problems that you and your 1SG cannot solve by yourselves. Therefore, you and your 1SG must be honest and frank in your conversations with your BC and CSM concerning your team dynamics and shortfalls. What holes do you have in your roster? What do these holes prevent you from accomplishing? What holes must be plugged, and which ones would be nice to have filled? Are personalities clashing and do you need some help refereeing? These conversations can be uncomfortable and frustrating, but remember that no one cares more about your team than you. Lay your roster issues out early and often, and preferably before the personnel crisis becomes too acute, so you can preserve your BC’s decision space.
The Playoff Roster
In January 2022, the battery received some much-appreciated personnel assistance. To bolster the squad, we acquired: a rookie, 2LT Rodolfo Leal; a two-way player on her sophomore-year contract, 1LT Stephanie Pantano; and a group of wiley veterans: WO1 Duane Rice, SFC Jaycee Taylor, SFC William Sakal, SFC Tiffanie Wright, and SSG Robert Harrison. I was thrilled to get these new team members; but unfortunately, we didn’t have time to build team chemistry. Our deployment window had moved to the left by five months and under this time constraint, the new team had to jump feet first into the various pre-deployment tasks and certifications. Ultimately, we emerged from the gauntlet of field training in March 2022 bruised and worn out, but also as the second-fastest certifying battery in the battalion. By July 2022 (three months into the deployment), we had solidified ourselves as the best unit in the battalion through our tactical competence, unit cohesion, and decision making.
Over the course of the deployment, my 1SG and I employed many of the techniques that I discussed earlier to address our acute and chronic personnel challenges. Once deployed, we did not always have the ability to cross-train Soldiers or acquire others from other batteries (although we did do both at several points). More frequently, we relied on improving our internal and external communication methods to work through our challenges. Specifically, I had numerous tough conversations with my leaders when tempers flared, personalities clashed, and friction developed. But, I was able to use the lessons I learned from my earlier days in command to full effect. I refereed some of the hard cases, provided direct feedback to others, and sought out advice from my BC, CSM, and 1SG when needed. We did not always perfectly fix every situation, but we were able to mitigate the most severe by communicating with higher and managing personalities within the unit.
By the end of the deployment, the unit had gone through stressful situations, constant crew roster changes, and redeployment equipment headaches. However, the team stuck together, and crushed every mission they were tasked with. Finally, after 10 months of nearly day on/day off work, the battery held its redeployment awards ceremony. It was on that day I knew that we had won the championship- everyone was laughing and joking with each other during the whole ceremony.
Building a team takes time, patience, and hard work. Winning with that team takes constant unity of effort. You do not always get to draft everyone you would like to have. Sometimes you already have the squad you need, sometimes you are missing a player or two, and sometimes it is a rebuilding season. Regardless of where your franchise is, it is your responsibility as a Commander to take your team and try and win that championship. You will struggle at times, but pick yourself up and keep your team in the game. Remember, it took the Los Angeles Lakers three years to win a championship after signing Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.
Captain Oren Rosen is an Air Defense Artillery Officer and commanded Charlie Battery, 3d Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment for 23 months and 17 days. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Military Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and enjoys watching the Los Angeles Lakers in his free time.
