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The Field Grade Leader Menu Start Here Article Submissions Contact Us Follow me on Twitter Like me on Facebook Connect with me on LinkedIn Check out my YouTube channel menu The Field Grade Leader Organizational Leadership in the US Army Posted on Thursday, September 2, 2021 Let’s Talk About It 0 Comments Share Tweet Print Email The last few weeks have been incredibly hard to watch. After nearly two decades in Afghanistan, the war has ended. But it did not end with an unconditional surrender and a ticker tape parade, did it? Instead, on live TV, we watched the Taliban rapidly regain control of Afghanistan, ending with a crisis at the Kabul airport as people attempted to flee. US Air Force Photo So here we are, two decades later. We are a generation of wartime leaders, who, for a brief moment, have no war to fight. Before we move on, as leaders often do, let’s take a few minutes to talk through what happened, to make an honest attempt to learn through it. By writing this, I offer three simple questions. If you can, take some time today to reflect, think, and discuss. How are you doing? For many, the end of this war has forced us to address unhealed wounds. We knew the war wouldn’t go on forever when we left in ‘05 or ‘11, but we knew we were contributing to a larger campaign. The war became a constant, something we could point back to and justify the collective sacrifice. Now that the war is over, many are wrestling with the conclusion and wanting to quantify that sacrifice while seeing images of the Taliban inspecting American military equipment. What did we get right? While we’re working through all of that, it is important to remember what we got right. First, I couldn’t be more proud of how a rapidly formed joint force, including the Devil Brigade, handled a humanitarian crisis at the airport in Kabul. Now, as refugees begin to hit the States, we have ad-hoc teams coming together to welcome them. These efforts should make us all proud. This is the true American spirit, the very ideal we chose to fight for. Also, many of us got it right” when we fought in Afghanistan. During my time as a Company Commander in Paktikia Province, we protected the people in our area of operations. We provided them some semblance of stability, giving our enemies no rest as we hunted them through the valleys and into the mountains. Collectively, we gave the Afghan people a taste of freedom, their children watching and learning from our example. We gave their little girls hope. Only history can truly judge the impact of our efforts in Afghanistan. How can we learn? As we get past the raw emotion of what’s occurred, let’s start talking about what we learned in Afghanistan. At the tactical level, share your experiences and challenges as a leader in combat. For other leaders, it is imperative to discuss our experiences on higher level staffs. These are tough conversations, especially when we discuss our own shortcomings, but they are essential to enabling learning. This is a tough time, but what do leaders do in the face of adversity? We step up to the challenge and lead. That’s what I am asking each of you to do today. Be a leader and start a dialogue with your network. Together, we can shape how our institution learns and grows. Comments (0) | | Categories: The Army , The Profession Posted on Tuesday, July 6, 2021 Writing with Precision: How to Write so That You Cannot Possibly Be Misunderstood Book Review 0 Comments Share Tweet Print Email Writing with Precision is a practical manual that teaches clarity. The book offers many specific ‘ways’ to be clear; so many in fact, one must practice them to understand. Fortunately for us, Writing with Precision includes a handful of practical exercises. The author Jefferson Bates is a former NASA writer of some renown and published the first edition in 1978. In the book, he lays out what he learned over four decades as a professional writer who focused on clarity in government documents. His cover letters, memos, instructions, regulations, and reports were the acme of precision, and he was a key player in de-mystifying government writing…and I thought it was bad now. Some may think this is too pedantic a topic but it gives those of us in government service something to ponder. Specifically, what has the culture of the military taught us about writing that isn’t helpful? Bates sees eliminating jargon, vogue words, and gobbledygook as a start. Bates breaks Writing with Precision into several parts which cover a variety of topics. Part 1 focuses on writing with 10 principles and 7 axioms. Part 2 covers editing skills while Part 3 is a handbook organized in alphabetical order that further explains and complements his principles and axioms. Finally, Part 4 is a series of practical exercises with answers and comments. Throughout all four parts, Bates adds checklists and exercises to drive home his points. Overall, a worthy read for those on a quest to write better. My two biggest takeaways were a new method for building an outline using index cards and the reasons you SHOULD use passive voice. This will go on my reference shelf. It is a great tool to come back to as you edit your own (or someone else’s) work. Lieutenant Colonel Christopher L’Heureux is an Armor Officer who tries to write, likes to think, and routinely sips whisk(e)y. Comments (0) | | Categories: Book Reviews , Self-Development , Writing Initiatives Posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2021 The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek Book Review 0 Comments Share Tweet Print Email The latest installment of the Simon Sinek enterprise, The Infinite Game , has a lot of what I found compelling from Sinek’s past works. It explains a big idea in simple terms but this one didn’t seem to deliver. I found the read clunky and disorganized. I am a huge Sinek fan which is probably why I was so distressed. While he presents some valuable ideas in this book, I did not find the depth I was expecting. That said, the overall premise of The Infinite Game is sound. Sinek starts with the idea that humans view the world in win-lose terms. Stated another way, we believe our games are finite. We know the players, play by agreed-upon rules, have commonly understood goals, and somebody always wins and losses at the end. We yearn for this consistency and often get frustrated with interactions fraught with disorganization and surprise. The win-lose dichotomy clouds our perception of the world, and we view our interactions through this prism. Infinite games, however, are not the exception; they are common, and viewing the world under this paradigm is more useful than we realize. Known and unknown players play these games, without exact or agreed-upon rules, and they have no practical end. The primary objective of the infinite game is to continue to play. You can win at chess but how do you win in a friendship? Drug dealers aren’t trying to beat police to win; they just want to continue their business. This long-view method of perceiving the world changes incentive structures, understanding risk, and how we manage our resources. To play the infinite game, you must start by adopting an infinite mindset. Sinek’s prescription is to advance a just cause, build a trusting team, study rivals, show existential flexibility, and lead. A just cause is the feeling of being part of something bigger than yourself supplying a purpose so appealing people will sacrifice for it. Trust is aligned with psychological safety to embolden risk-taking. A worthy rival is a healthy competitor giving your organization a focus. Existential flexibility is the ability to change a process or path to align better with your cause. Finally, leading with an infinite mindset is focusing on a long-term view and taking care of the team. The key point I took from this book was the need to focus on the long-term vision over a short-term goal-oriented approach. The short-term mindset incentivizes near-term wins without regard to long-term effects. This is...