![]() ![]() More is better rewards successful performance but comes at the expense of cultivating long-term potential. It also prevents those with an excess of platoon leadership experience from finding themselves later in staff positions without the experience and knowledge to understand the needs of subordinate companies, batteries, or troops. Staff assignments provide vital planning and operational skills that all officers will need later in their careers. Lieutenants need a balanced portfolio of assignments to demonstrate their future potential as officers. Moreover, extended tours as a platoon leader create a significant backlog of lieutenants waiting unreasonably long for platoon leader opportunities. When a top performing officer is rewarded with a longer stay as a platoon leader, it is at the expense of broadening through duty performance in these other lieutenant positions. Typical tours of duty for platoon leaders are 12-18 months, which is ordinarily enough to judge leadership and interpersonal competencies. In reality, all lieutenant duties (e.g., company executive officer, any battalion or higher staff position) carry direct leadership responsibilities as expressed in ADRP 6-22-including developing, monitoring and coordinating team efforts, providing intent, and setting expectations. I believe this stems from a misunderstanding of what DA Pamphlet 600-3 says–that “all junior officers should seek leadership positions in troop units whenever possible.” This is misread as junior officers must maximize time as platoon leaders. This belief is deeply anchored in a military culture that privileges an officer’s ability to lead soldiers over competence in staff positions, which are viewed as second-class duties. The first flawed practice is the belief that lieutenants should spend as much time as platoon leaders as possible. If the Army does not improve, these problems will be perpetuated as these officers move into the field grade ranks. The result of these problems is an unacceptable variance in officer development for lieutenants and captains. There are also human failings of egocentric blindness and confirmation traps. The Army has also under-communicated its vision for talent management and failed to educate leaders in it. Leaders resist methods different than their own paths to success. There are several reasons why leaders persist with old ways that deviate from Army policy. To cultivate the vast talent present in the ranks, leaders must adopt a new set of principles for talent management aligned with institutional policy and better suited to developing 21 st-century leaders. As a result, Army talent management guidance is neither applied skillfully nor consistently, young officers miss out on critical staff development experiences, and the best junior officers do not have adequate opportunity to highlight their talents and potential. WARROOM TWITTER PROFESSIONALRather than follow the clear guidance expressed in Army regulations and doctrine, most notably Army Pamphlet 600-3 ( Officer Professional Development and Career Management) and Army Doctrinal Reference Publication 6-22 ( Army Leadership), mid-grade leaders too often perpetuate three mistaken practices. Army talent management guidance is neither applied skillfully nor consistentlyįield grade leaders are failing to implement talent management at the battalion level. ![]()
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