Teaching and Leading (OT)

[kato13]

Webstral 03-14-2004, 07:50 PM I am a month into my graduate school program, and I am seeing how much teaching and training/leading troops are alike. Certain specifics will change, naturally, but the basic concepts are there.


Based on this, I am realizing that I need to adopt a very different MO than I am seeing in my Guard unit to date. So far, I've been laying back because I don't have a lot of 11B skills. Also, I don't believe in making a big splash in a new unit if I'm not certain of my role and my ability to lead. Some things take time to evolve.


Anyway, now I'm thinking that my next step is to sit down with my fire team and explain my vision. We're getting ready for war, just like the active duty units. The real difference is that I only get 24 training days with my people per annum, versus 300 or so for active duty units. Based on that, a solid familiarity with the basics is a reasonable goal, I think. We should know how to march, how to respond to indirect fire, how to move and fight as individuals and as a team/squad, and so forth. Real expertise won't come in 24 days a year, but we can at least get the point where we won't be cannon fodder is the brigade is called up without 30 days for retraining.


One of the big issues I'm facing is motivation. Not surprisingly, motivation is somewhat less than it would be for, say, the 82nd Airborne. Compared to lots of other National Guard units, motivation is pretty darned high. We get into the field every drill, if the drills I have seen so far and the training schedule are any indication. Nevertheless, I think there are lots of guys who don't think about the very real prospect of being called up. This colors everything that happens during the drill.


We were told last drill that we are going to JRTC (Joint Readiness Training Center) in 2006. After that (and assuming we pass), we will be considered deployable for 2007. This means we WILL be deployed in 2007, unless we get deployed sooner than that. Sure, 2007 is three years away. But with 24 days of training a year, that's only 72 days of training before we are sent somewhere. When one accounts for admin time, drawing and cleaning weapons, etc., there may be less than 40 days of real training time left before we are scheduled to be deployed. Forty days is not a long time to get ready for a real-world mission. I need to get my fire team convinced of this reality next drill.


Of course, anything could happen before then. An upsurge of violence in Iraq could mean that more US troops stay there through the end of 2004, which will mean that 29th Infantry Brigade will be moved up the deployment roster. Or a new war could break out with Iran, Syria, or even North Korea. None of these events is likely, but even astronomically unlikely events do occur. Members of an enhanced readiness brigade need to take the possibility of deployment seriously when more than two-thirds of the active duty Army have been deployed already.


Getting back to teaching, I see some very close parallels. I'm reading some fabulous material now on teaching methodologies. This stuff is great! It's also germane to Army leadership. In a nutshell, teachers and leaders must create a vision of how things are supposed to be. Rules must be established. Expectations must be established. It's not enough to tell my soldiers that failure to meet standards will be punished. This is how the Russians do their business. No, I must get my charges to take possession of my vision--or a reasonable facsimile thereof--and behave accordingly during the training time that is available. Buy-in is the critical aspect for teaching children and leading troops.


Okay, enough of that. Must get back to studying. Please feel free to enter your comments, observations, etc., my friends.


Ian

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Antenna 03-14-2004, 08:49 PM There is an excelent book written in finnish covering a lot of leadership issues as a novel. But I'm afraid that it aint translated to English


It was written after WW2 by a finn named Vaeinoe Linna and is called 'unknown solider' or 'Tuntematon Sotilas'


The book would give very good insights of the life in war and the different leaders that was in that finnish battalion that the book follows.

To get a grip on the undertones you really need to know some early 20th century history from finland, it would help to clear soem things out


I've tried to find it in english but I'm afraid that it aint translated to english...


BTW it was one of my novels I used to get a grip on the T2k style I use in the late 80's.


Antenna

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