REFLECT
Do We Disdain Intellectual NCOs?
By Chris Melendez Former officer and scholar James Joyner critiqued anti-intellectualism within the U.S. military. Opinions will diverge on Joyner’s assessment on whether such bias exists or whether an ideal balance can be struck between the...
ACFT 3.5: How the Army can Meet Congressional Guidance without Resorting to Gender Discrimination
by Kristen M. Griest I wrote an op-ed through the Modern War Institute in February advocating against the implementation of ACFT 3.0, the latest version of the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT). The new updates to this test include the option to...
Digital Dunkirk: Lessons Learned
On August 15, 2021, I doom-scrolled through social media feeds that tracked Kabul’s fall. By August 31, my phone had thousands of messages from hundreds of people I didn’t know two weeks before, and we’d helped some Afghan allies leave Afghanistan....
The Garrison Command Sergeant Major
By James Brasher You have been waiting for months and, finally, the Centralized Selection List (CSL) results are published. You have been wondering which brigade you are going to assume responsibility for. You open up the CSL, see your name, and...
Professional Fulfillment: How Finding Your Purpose Promotes Unit Cohesion
By Andrew J. Bibb The first time I took the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) I felt as if a massive burden had been lifted off my shoulders. My Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) scores were steadily declining as I aged. I was frustrated...
What are Chaplains For? Five Suggestions on How to Best Utilize the Chaplain
By Caleb Miller There are many guides for officers or NCOs to become better leaders. There are also guides for chaplains to improve. However, I see very little out there helping leaders develop, utilize or rate the chaplains in their midst. This...
Suicide is a Battle, I Could Not Fight It Alone
By Danita Darby On 25 May 2019, in Bagram, Afghanistan, I had reached the end of my rope. I was suspended from my command in February 2019, but that single situation is not why I am writing this. What I am writing about today is the fight I had...
Lessons Learned in Large Scale ACFT Testing
by Sarah Ferreira Since 2018, my unit has been executing the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) on a large scale, meaning that we test large groups of Soldiers continuously throughout a single duty day. We found that we can test a battalion size...
An Aversion to Ambition
by Brennan Randel What is it about open displays of ambition that can cause an eye-roll so deep it results in temporary blindness? Imagine a room full of combat arms second lieutenants on the first day of their basic officer leadership course. To...
A Leader’s Guide to Navigating Social Media in the Military
By Kristy Bell Social media has blurred the lines between our private and professional lives in an unprecedented way, and has also, in some ways, eroded the idea of a “non-partisan military” that shores up our democratic ideals. This came to the...
The Army Field Grade Starter Kit
“The Major runs on coffee and hate…and I think he’s out of coffee.” -Some Poor Staff Captain at NTC Last year I completed S3/XO time and there were a couple of things I wish I would have had in my cargo pocket when I walked...
What is Your Guitar Hero?
About a decade ago, I would spend hours a day playing my Xbox 360. I was hooked on one game in particular: “Guitar Hero”. In the game, players have to play hit songs by pressing buttons on a fake guitar. Each day I would continuously...
The Opposite of Fear is Love
The Opposite of Fear is Love is from Chapter 13 of Steven Pressfield’s The Warrior Ethos published by Black Irish Books. The greatest counterpoise to fear, the ancients believed, is love—the love of the individual warrior for his...
Your Landing Attitude and How to ‘Be’ in Transition
By Daniel Hodne Exiting an aircraft flying at 130 knots makes for an unnatural, turbulent, and adrenaline-charged experience. Career change, in many respects, shares similar qualities. In other words, the moment you’ve fully committed yourself to...
Turning Defeat into Development
By Joe Byerly On September 14, 1923, over 80,000 spectators packed into the New York City Polo Grounds to watch one of the most famous prizefights in boxing history. The heavyweight champion, Jack Dempsey, who stood at 6’1 and weighed around 185...
Lead Like a CHAMPION
Public Affairs Supervisor Advanced Leader Course, Class 501–17, posing after a physical fitness test. By SSG Alex R. Ramos The sport of boxing has had a rich tradition in my family. My father used to box, my uncles and cousins were pugilists,...
My Bid Farewell to the Army Blue
By Daniel Hodne This past November, my family and I returned to West Point, New York, for my Class’ 25th Reunion. While I stood alongside my classmates on “The Plain,” and watched the Corps of Cadets execute a...
Developing Deliberate Practices for Leadership Growth
“You are always practicing something, the question is,- What are you practicing” ...
Reflecting on Servant Leadership
By Joshua C. Bowen This past holiday season, I had the good fortune of celebrating Christmas with my family at my sister’s house in Bremerton, WA. She is a Navy Lieutenant (O-3) assigned to an aircraft carrier, the USS John C. Stennis, at Naval...
Do Leaders Need Emotional Intelligence?
Over the holiday break, I had the opportunity to catch up with with Dr. Joshua Spodek, author of the upcoming book Leadership Step by Step and discuss emotional intelligence. The term gets thrown around a lot in the military, but I...
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
The Art of Giving Negative Feedback
A few years ago, Doctrine Man published a popular list that “decoded” officer evaluation reports (OERs). The sad thing about his humorous jab at OERs, though, is that it wasn’t too far off from reality. Generally speaking, we in the military don’t...
Who are You Calling a Minion? Leadership on Staff
I’m back at the point in an officer’s career again; the point where I am no longer directly leading soldiers. I’ve traded in my map board, weapon, and radio for a laptop, Microsoft Office, and a diet fueled by our brigade chaplain’s finest black...
The Two Most Important Qualities of Followers
When it comes to looking for lessons on leadership, I believe most of us stick within our own institutions. In doing so, we miss out on a great body of knowledge that exists throughout ALL of our Sister Services....
Learning from our Generals…When They Were in Our Boots
As a military officer, I believe that many of us like to think our good ideas are original and that the Army had to wait for us to come along before finally doing something “new” and “innovative”. This point is evidenced by the myriad of blog posts...
Preparing Leaders for the #Future of War: Leveraging Communities of Practice
This post first appeared on March 13, 2015 via the Strategy Bridge as part of the Preparing Leaders for the #FutureofWar Series. Recently, we tuned in for New America Foundation’s Future of War conference and watched as the military took some hits...
Improving the Military with a Little Innovation
When I think of innovation, my mind tends to wander over to stories such as the junior officer who revolutionized gunnery in the U.S. Navy, Steve jobs introducing the very first iPod, or hover tanks. Okay, hover tanks aren’t a thing...
Don’t Be a “Water Bucket” Leader
by: Joe Byerly Command in the U.S. Army, regardless of echelon, is one of the greatest privileges (and stressors) bestowed upon commissioned officers. Unfortunately, many of us seem to stumble through these small windows of our military...
No Details, No Paper, and No Regrets
“I had a sort of a motto, “No details, no paper, and no regrets.” No details-don’t go about setting machine guns on different sides of bushes. That is done a damn sight better by a platoon commander. Then, no paper. You...
Finding the Path Towards Mission Command: An Exercise
By Joe Byerly Following my time in company command, I had the privilege of teaching future company commanders and first sergeants at the Cavalry Leader’s Course at Fort Benning, GA. During this assignment, I quickly learned that one of the...
How to Lead with the Strength of Nelson
This post is also available at the U.S. Naval Institute Blog and at Small Wars Journal Typically the Services study historic leaders from their own particular domain of expertise (air, sea, land), and rarely do they venture beyond this. The Navy...
No Results Found
The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
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.