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Leaders Hold the Dominant Terrain

“Remember that when an employee enters your office,
he is in a strange land.”  -Erwin H. Schell

Erwin Schell’s quote is partly about your physical office, which can be a foreign and scary place for everyone you lead. But the statement is also about how you wield power when your people enter the domain of your influence.

When you’re the recognized leader, you automatically hold the dominant terrain at the outset of every engagement. Of course, this is especially true in the military, where command authority is the ultimate trump card and rank is clearly displayed on our uniforms. Your people know who is in charge – you don’t need to restate it.

What will outlive your professional accomplishments is the way you enable individuals to feel capable and powerful, despite the obvious fact that you hold ultimate authority.

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8 Myths About HRC Assignment Officers

Some officers serve half their career before speaking with their Assignment Officer at Human Resources Command. Commonly heard beliefs include: “If you get on Branch’s radar, they’ll send you to Korea”; “Just lay low and let your commanders speak on your behalf”; and “I plan to stay with troops as long as I can, so I don’t need HRC’s help.”

I’ve worked as an Assignment Officer for almost a year and I recommend against holding on to such beliefs. Further, I think most people hesitate to engage with their Assignment Officer because they really don’t know who is on the other end of the phone. Hopefully this post provides you some clarity about who is helping you navigate your career.

HRC Assignment Officers

The U.S. Army Human Resources Command (HRC) has completed its Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) move to Fort Knox, Ky. Currently, HRC’s new home in the Lt. Gen. Timothy J. Maude Complex employs about 3,300 military, civilian and contract workers. The nearly 900,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility is the largest office building in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Photo by Robert Stevenson, Fort Knox Visual Information. Link to photo.
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Rangers Get a Legitimate Voice in New Book

Ranger

Rangers from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment and a multi-purpose canine pause during a nighttime combat mission in Afghanistan. Courtesy U.S. Army. Link to photo.

“Violence of Action: The Untold Stories of the 75th Ranger Regiment in the War on Terror”

Veterans often feel underwhelmed by accounts of war that carry a tone of glory-seeking or inaccurately represent the reality of combat. Today’s media landscape affords any veteran the opportunity to publicize his/her thoughts, and only a few of those accounts will be widely lauded. Almost none will be so highly regarded that they serve as a literary memorial to those who served.

Violence of Action: The Untold Stories of the 75th Ranger Regiment in the War on Terror will be one of those books. And I want to recommend a review of the book on Task and Purpose, made by a colleague of mine whose prose grabs the heart of the book and does it justice.

Here are some excerpts, but read his review here:

Glory abounds in this piece of work, but it presents as a byproduct of raw honesty; it lacks the familiar omnipresent undertone of self-aggrandizement. Rather, Violence of Action transcends the pettiness that, truthfully, turns so many veterans off from reading first-hand accounts from other “warriors.” Glory here goes to the unit that produced so many fine Americans, their parents, their families, and their hometowns. Rangers don’t seek glory, and only relish it among one another, no books required.

Violence of Action has more healing power than any prescription. This book belongs on the bedside table of so many service members and veterans — Rangers or otherwise — when they wake up in the middle of the night, because there is a story in this book that will help them reconcile. It is so very hard to relate combat experiences to others, even veterans from other wars. Yet it is vital to relate and to connect with those who have shared, suffered, and lost on the same ground.

Read the rest and be sure to leave your comments on the page and on Amazon.

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Why “It Is What It Is” is a Stupid Phrase

It’s Baghdad, 2007. I’m a company commander deploying to a contentious area during the height of The Surge. As my unit starts to shadow the unit we’re replacing, and I spend time with my counterpart and his battalion’s staff, I begin to hear a new phrase pop up:  “It is what it is.”

I wouldn’t have thought much of it, but I heard that response from numerous members of the unit, and applied to all types of discussion topics. My buddies and boss picked up on it, too. I heard “It is what it is” so much that I began to think it was an approved mentality of the unit, a sanctioned mindset.

It Is What It Is

Warrior Diplomat Soldiers from 85th Civil Affairs Brigade use teamwork to negotiate obstacles at the Leaders Reaction Course on Fort Hood, Tx., Oct. 9, 2014. Link to photo. 
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Sleep that Sabotages Leadership

Today’s HBR recommendation, “Your Abusive Boss Is Probably an Insomniac,” is a summary of findings from a study published in the Academy of Management Journal. The researchers studied 88 leaders and their teams to find out if the leaders’ sleep habits affected performance at work. The result?…you guessed it, but there’s a twist:

We found that daily leader sleep quality, but not quantity, influenced the leader’s self-control and abusive supervision behavior, and ultimately the degree to which his or her subordinates were engaged in their work that day. It is not clear why sleep quantity did not have the effect we predicted, but the effect for sleep quality was very clear; a given leader engaged in more jerky boss behavior after a poor night of sleep than a good night of sleep, and this influenced his or her subordinates to disengage from work.

sleep

Photo by Odi Mitch. Link to photo.
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How to Write a Change of Command Speech

Chances are you’ve been in one of the following situations:  a member of a formation suffering under a long change of command speech; an audience member embarrassed for the speaking commander because his speech is really bad; or a soon-to-be ex-commander staring at a blank page on the morning of your own departure speech. Sound familiar?

Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. The change of command speech is important but it can sneak up on you in the distracted days before the big event. Here are some thoughts to consider as you prepare for the transition. There are sections for Incoming Commanders, Outgoing Commanders, and some general tips.

Change of Command

Maj. Brian Harber, executive officer for the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, salutes Lt. Col. Jeff Stewart, outgoing commander of the 1-24IN, signifying the Soldiers are ready for inspection during a change of command rehearsal ceremony at Ladd Parade Field here June 29. Lt. Col. Stewart relinquished command of the battalion to Lt. Col. Matthew MacNeilly during a ceremony at Fort Wainwright, Alaska July 2, 2012.
(U.S. Army Photo By: Sgt. Thomas Duval, 1/25th SBCT Public Affairs) Link to photo.
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A Powerful Way to Discover Your Bias

“Whoa, whoa!…What bias?!?! I don’t have any biases!” Was that your response to the title of this post? Well, I had the same thought before I took this test and now I think differently.

Here is a fascinating resource that will help you discover what you think about the world on levels beneath conscious thought. It reveals how your past experiences, upbringing, or even your morning scan of the news can skew your beliefs about race, gender, ethnicity, disability, age, sexuality, and weight.

Why wouldn’t you want to know, especially as a leader, if an unhealthy bias is getting in the way of your leadership?

Bias

Soldiers from Honor Guard Company, 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) and the U.S. Army Special Forces Command stand in formation prior to the start of a wreath laying ceremony, Oct. 18, at the John F. Kennedy gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery, Va.
(U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Luisito Brooks)