REFLECT
Knowing What Something Isn’t
By Joe Byerly There are some things I know with 100% certainty. I know purpose isn’t something someone else can hand you. I know you can’t warm up a Chick-fil-A sandwich in the microwave while it’s still inside one of those tinfoil-lined bags. And...
Family Fitness Opportunities: A Father’s Day Gift from Afghanistan
By Joe Byerly When I returned from Afghanistan as the world was shutting down in March of 2020, I struggled to regain my footing. I missed the mission, the people, and the sense of purpose that had been the heartbeat of deployments during the...
How LinkedIn Upped My Military Game
by Stephen T. Messenger As a U.S. Army officer, I never had much need nor desire to interact on LinkedIn. After all, it’s for people job hunting, not military professionals, right? I understood it to be like any other social media platform, only...
In the Wake of a Leader’s Suicide: Leading Through Grief, Readiness, and Organizational Complexity
By Colonel Laura Weimer The burden of command is heavy. In early 2023, I felt that immense weight of responsibility coupled with personal pain and grief. Seven months into command of a division Headquarters Battalion (HHBN), one of my company...
Gambling with Influence: Don’t Bet Your Life on Someone Else’s Promise
By Joe Byerly I sat across from the Army general during my initial counseling, just a few months into squadron command. He talked about the two years of command ahead of me. But when he moved on to my next career move, I interrupted him. “Sir, I...
Saber Junction 25: Reflections of a Regimental Commander
By COL Donald Neal, 83rd Commander, 2nd Cavalry Regiment Just five more minutes of sleep. In the tranquil pre-dawn hours of Saber Junction 25, I learned a commander’s lesson that no field manual could fully encapsulate. I awoke to the sounds of...
Non-Judicial Punishment: The Authority We Are Least Trained to Wield
By LTC Steven Huckleberry Commanders are entrusted with many authorities, but few are as consequential, and as little prepared for, as the execution of non-judicial punishment (NJP) under Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Unlike...
Are You Chasing Daisies?
By Joe Byerly We build the future in our head with such vivid imagery. We can taste the salt on the rim of an ice-cold margarita. We can walk through every moment of the romantic date—every reaction, the way candlelight hits our partner’s eyes. We...
From Participation to Domination: How Units Can “WIN” the Officer Army Talent Alignment Process (ATAP)
If you don’t invest in the people who power your mission, don’t be surprised when the mission fails. – General Stanley McChrystal by Edward Prueitt The Army Talent Alignment Process (ATAP) has fundamentally transformed...
“Unc” Status: On Experience, Meaning, and Mentorship
by Brian C. Gerardi Somewhere between microeconomics and managerial accounting, I earned a new nickname: “Unc.” It started as a throwaway joke in a group chat. Our cohort of veteran business students attended a happy hour and I was the first to...
Gambling with Influence: Don’t Bet Your Life on Someone Else’s Promise
By Joe Byerly I sat across from the Army general during my initial counseling, just a few months into squadron command. He talked about the two years of command ahead of me. But when he moved on to my next career move, I interrupted him. “Sir, I...
Are You Chasing Daisies?
By Joe Byerly We build the future in our head with such vivid imagery. We can taste the salt on the rim of an ice-cold margarita. We can walk through every moment of the romantic date—every reaction, the way candlelight hits our partner’s eyes. We...
Waiting for Favorable Conditions
By Joe Byerly They checked the news first thing in the morning. Then again at lunch. Then one more time before bed. They waited for life to return to something that felt recognizable. It was hard to believe that leaders could be so casually...
To My Fellow “Subjects of Investigations”
By Danita Darby In 2019, I hit a professional and personal breaking point. I was investigated as a “toxic”, or counterproductive, leader. I attempted suicide that year too. I survived both—and what followed was a long, humbling healing process....
Twenty Years in Fourteen Lines
By Joe Byerly The man handed me the document fresh off the printer. “Make sure you keep this in a safe place,” he said. “This is your proof of service. Probably the most important document you’ll ever own.” I looked down at the still-warm DD214,...
The Courage to Face Where You Are
By Joe Byerly For the second year in a row, I’ve traveled to Dallas for the Military Appreciation Bowl in an effort to talk to young men and women about the opportunities for serving in our Nation’s military. The multi-day event includes...
Would You Do it in Secret?
By Joe Byerly When I look back on a career’s worth of decisions, I can trace most of my motives to three sources: necessity, passion, and ego. The first is straightforward. I did a lot of things because they were required of me. I moved across the...
A Leader’s True North – Start with the Golden Rule (Yeah, that one)
By CSM Scott Dinse A young leader has plenty of reason to be confused about what effective leadership looks and/or feels like. We have books, podcasts, experts, and even celebrities telling us what we should be doing and how we should be getting it...
The View We Never Get
By Joe Byerly It’s like looking down from a mountain top and seeing it all. I know everything that’s going to happen to him. As he struggles through college algebra, I know he’s going to be just fine and earn his degree. As he wrestles with...
From So What to Therefore
This is part II of a two-part series for intelligence officers. Read part I here. By Louis Crist Have you ever been told, “Just give me the ‘so what’!” I saw this over and over again as an OC/T, watching commanders frustratingly critique their S2s...
Non-Judicial Punishment: The Authority We Are Least Trained to Wield
By LTC Steven Huckleberry Commanders are entrusted with many authorities, but few are as consequential, and as little prepared for, as the execution of non-judicial punishment (NJP) under Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Unlike...
From Participation to Domination: How Units Can “WIN” the Officer Army Talent Alignment Process (ATAP)
If you don’t invest in the people who power your mission, don’t be surprised when the mission fails. – General Stanley McChrystal by Edward Prueitt The Army Talent Alignment Process (ATAP) has fundamentally transformed...
“Unc” Status: On Experience, Meaning, and Mentorship
by Brian C. Gerardi Somewhere between microeconomics and managerial accounting, I earned a new nickname: “Unc.” It started as a throwaway joke in a group chat. Our cohort of veteran business students attended a happy hour and I was the first to...
The Guidon We Only Respect When It Is Ours
By Sam Balch I was serving as a battery commander in the 82nd Airborne Division when our guidon disappeared. After completing a grueling Joint Readiness Training Center rotation, the battery transitioned to the administrative bivouac area to clean...
This Is an Every-Service Problem: Space Power and the Risk of Fundamental Surprise
By Catherine R. Cline The United States is unlikely to be surprised in space in the traditional sense. It tracks launches globally, monitors orbital behavior in near–real time, and maintains an unmatched catalog of space objects. If surprise is...
Commander, Don’t Give Up Your Voice!
By: James J. Torrence We have an authenticity problem, and everyone knows it. The troops know it. The junior officers know it. The staff officers definitely know it. And deep down, our senior leaders know it too. Everyone sounds the same. Every...
Twenty Years in Fourteen Lines
By Joe Byerly The man handed me the document fresh off the printer. “Make sure you keep this in a safe place,” he said. “This is your proof of service. Probably the most important document you’ll ever own.” I looked down at the still-warm DD214,...
Broadening with Purpose: Making the Most of the Army’s Broadening Opportunity Program
By Lyndi Dix During my time in company command, I was approached by a few mentors who encouraged me to consider the Broadening Opportunity Program (BOP) as I began thinking about what came next. I knew broadening was a common next step following...
An Open Letter to NCOs: Reclaiming Developmental Counseling
By: Gustavo Arguello Let’s be honest: most leaders feel that they are stretched thinner than a supply sergeant’s budget at the end of the fiscal year. Between deployments, training exercises, training meetings, and the endless admin requirements,...
From So What to Therefore
This is part II of a two-part series for intelligence officers. Read part I here. By Louis Crist Have you ever been told, “Just give me the ‘so what’!” I saw this over and over again as an OC/T, watching commanders frustratingly critique their S2s...
“Unc” Status: On Experience, Meaning, and Mentorship
by Brian C. Gerardi Somewhere between microeconomics and managerial accounting, I earned a new nickname: “Unc.” It started as a throwaway joke in a group chat. Our cohort of veteran business students attended a happy hour and I was the first to...
The Guidon We Only Respect When It Is Ours
By Sam Balch I was serving as a battery commander in the 82nd Airborne Division when our guidon disappeared. After completing a grueling Joint Readiness Training Center rotation, the battery transitioned to the administrative bivouac area to clean...
This Is an Every-Service Problem: Space Power and the Risk of Fundamental Surprise
By Catherine R. Cline The United States is unlikely to be surprised in space in the traditional sense. It tracks launches globally, monitors orbital behavior in near–real time, and maintains an unmatched catalog of space objects. If surprise is...
Commander, Don’t Give Up Your Voice!
By: James J. Torrence We have an authenticity problem, and everyone knows it. The troops know it. The junior officers know it. The staff officers definitely know it. And deep down, our senior leaders know it too. Everyone sounds the same. Every...
A Leader’s True North – Start with the Golden Rule (Yeah, that one)
By CSM Scott Dinse A young leader has plenty of reason to be confused about what effective leadership looks and/or feels like. We have books, podcasts, experts, and even celebrities telling us what we should be doing and how we should be getting it...
Adjusting the Learning Curve to Mentor the Workforce of the Future
by Chaveso “Chevy” Cook Recruiting and retaining top talent, especially from younger generations, is a hot topic, regardless of the workforce context. From managing Millennials, Gen Z, and incoming Gen Alpha in our workspaces, to garnering their...
An Open Letter to NCOs: Reclaiming Developmental Counseling
By: Gustavo Arguello Let’s be honest: most leaders feel that they are stretched thinner than a supply sergeant’s budget at the end of the fiscal year. Between deployments, training exercises, training meetings, and the endless admin requirements,...
From So What to Therefore
This is part II of a two-part series for intelligence officers. Read part I here. By Louis Crist Have you ever been told, “Just give me the ‘so what’!” I saw this over and over again as an OC/T, watching commanders frustratingly critique their S2s...
Think Like a Commander
By Lou Crist Several years ago, during an interview, I was asked, “What is the most important thing an S2 does?” The question took me aback. After some thought, I answered that the S2 should impart their understanding of the enemy to the commander....
Advocating for Apathy
WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 13: U.S. Army (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images) By Nathan A. Ballinger If everything is important, then nothing is. – Patrick M. Lencioni I’ve spent enough years as a senior noncommissioned...
How We Evaluate Physical Training
by Alex Morrow Was that a good workout? If it was, how do you know? If you were to ask these questions to many of our military leaders, they would tell you that if you walk away sweaty, tired, and sore, you’ve had a good workout. To paraphrase a...
Army Culture: Make Room for Recovery
By MAJ Terron Wharton From January 2018 to June 2020, I served in key development positions as a battalion operations officer, battalion executive officer, and brigade executive officer. My key development time was the hardest I have ever worked in...
Rethinking the Standard Battle Rhythm
By Chris Garlick How many Soldiers do you know who always have an energy drink or coffee in their hand, despite the time of day? That question likely describes many of your co-workers and perhaps even yourself. The Army has started to combat this...
Move Your Performance from the Industrial Age to the 21st Century using Wearable Tech
By Tyler Inman On October 1st, 2020, the Army released the Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) Operating Concept. The document’s foreword, signed by the Army’s senior leadership team, describes H2F as an investment in Soldier readiness and lethality,...
METCONs, Dick Butkus, The Forgotten West Point Experiment, and Why You’re Doing Fitness Wrong
By Tyler Inman Amateurs do unfocused, poorly-defined “metcons.” Professionals deliberately develop energy systems with a targeted, goal-oriented approach. Fort Bragg, NC – 2008 SFC Been-around-awhile asks: What in the hell is a...
Do Soldiers Need Sleep?
By Tyler Inman Practice makes perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. Perfect practice while routinely sleeping 8 hours per night makes perfect. Lethal squads and platoons are forged through hard, realistic training. To that end, my boss used to...
Precision in Training for the ACFT (Part II): Developing a Training Plan
By Tyler Inman Any attempt to develop a comprehensive physical training strategy must begin with a basic understanding of the scientific underpinnings offered in “A Leader’s Guide to Training for the ACFT.” With those foundations in mind, the next...
Precision in Training for the ACFT (Part I): Preventing Injuries
By Tyler Inman Preventable musculoskeletal (MSK) injuries plague Army readiness. Among Active Duty Soldiers, MSK injuries result in over 10 million limited duty days each year and account for over 70% of medically non-deployable Soldiers. ...
A Leader’s Guide to Training for the ACFT: Part 3
By: Tyler Inman Parts 1 & 2 described two exercise science theories foundational to all strength and conditioning programs. To increase fitness, training must be progressive in nature and the demands must be specific to the desired outcome....
A Leader’s Guide to Training for the ACFT: Part 2
By Tyler Inman In Part 1, you learned that overload must occur to increase fitness. Overload drives adaptation by creating enough stress to elicit a response. The key is a slow, smooth progression commonly referred to as progressive overload....
Podcast
Listen to our latest episode.
Store
Support our work.
Get Involved
Learn how to partner with us.
Lead with the best version of yourself.
Sign up for our emails.