Leadership Lesson

Major Josh Richardson
Student, Command and General Staff School
U.S. Army Combined Arms Center
Fort Belvoir, Virginia

Leadership Lesson

Have you ever been to a marksmanship range with no ammo, or night driver’s training with no vehicles? Have you ever conducted a tactical reconnaissance in a high threat area with an unclear picture of exactly what questions you were supposed to help answer? Have you ever cancelled family plans and coordinated for a babysitter, just to realize that the company Christmas party never materialized? We’ve all fallen prey to poor planning, whether in training, combat, or in garrison. Military organizations are designed to operate in very dangerous and complex environments, using terms such as mission, commander’s intent, key tasks, and end state to frame the definition of success. Effective plans revolve around how to communicate to all levels what must be done to achieve success; all the while anticipating friction and variables that will cause the plan to change. The most important lesson I have learned as a leader is that success in any environment requires detailed planning.
As a company commander in training and in combat, my unit’s day to day tasks were inherently dangerous. Whether conducting live-fire training at home-station or conducting full-spectrum combat operations in Baghdad, Iraq, risks had to be accounted for and minimized as much as possible. The Army uses the Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP) to analyze problems and guide the formulation of plans (operations order) in combat as well as training situations. Another tool used to plan training is the Eight-Step Training model. Both processes, when properly used, force leaders to address a plan’s risk and adjust as necessary to reduce the dangers faced during execution. For example, while conducting a site reconnaissance at a live-fire training range (step #2 of the Eight-Step Training Model), a leader revises his tentative plan, simplifying the maneuver in order to better fit the given terrain. He will later validate this with other leaders in the unit during the train-the-trainer step. Likewise, during the MDMP, leaders analyze the scheme of maneuver in detail, comparing various courses of action in order to arrive at the plan most likely to succeed. In all cases, leaders that rely on detailed planning reduce risk and increase the chance of mission success.
Army units operate in very complex environments. As a company commander during Operation Iraqi Freedom, it was routine for my company to have three separate combat operations ongoing simultaneously, with each of these three platoon operations requiring detailed coordination with other Department of Defense (DOD) elements, host-nation forces, and local leaders. Failure to plan in detail in environments such as this is at worst catastrophic, and at best yields poor results that don’t meet the defined end state for successful operations. Proper planning using the MDMP ensures efforts are synchronized, support (lethal and logistic) is pre-positioned, and coordination is completed prior to the execution phase of the operation. In addition, any good leader values input from other members of the unit. Good planners become skilled at incorporating ideas and input from experts within the ranks early in the planning process, before the plan is finalized and moving into the execution phase. As in combat, quality training events are immensely complex and require just as much, if not sometimes more, coordination and synchronization. For that matter, morale functions designed to reward the unit and build esprit de corps should be planned with comparable seriousness – failure in this instance can produce very embarrassing results.
Finally, it is well-recognized that even the best plans don’t survive LD (line of departure). This is a harsh reminder that conditions on the battlefield will change and the unit must adapt to unforecasted obstacles in order to achieve success. Contingencies such as road blocks along infiltration routes, failed coordination with friendly adjacent units, and loss of planned aircraft come to mind from my time as a company commander in combat. As skilled as we became at anticipating friction, there were always developments for which we hadn’t planned that would pop up at some point in any operation. Understanding this underscores further the need for detailed planning. If, as a leader, you are able to clearly communicate the mission, intent, key tasks, and endstate, then your unit will be armed with the tools to overcome friction and achieve success. Leader preparation for training is no different. “Murphy” will cast his vote at the worst possible time, and coordinated and confirmed resources will fall through. A detailed training plan allows for this and prevents wasting Soldiers’ time.
The much-used maxim “hope is not a method” as applied to military planning stands as a reminder that it is a leader’s duty to plan in detail, and reminds us that the failure to do so can have disastrous effects. This most important lesson is as applicable to training and garrison operations as it is to combat operations, and, as much as anything else, will define the morale, character, and effectiveness of a unit.

"The views expressed in this essay are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government."