Leader development in the regiment

Army Communicator, Wntr, 2009 by Jeff Foley

There is no more important task on my plate as Chief of Signal and Commandant of the Signal School than developing leaders. Not only am I responsible for developing leaders inside the brick and mortar of the school house at Fort Gordon, but also through all phases of the Army Force Generation cycle, or ARFORGEN. There should be no mystery as to how seriously I take that responsibility--for we remain in relentless pursuit of providing world class leader development opportunities to all, wherever you may be.

A leader is defined in many ways--one only has to go to the nearest book store or google it on the web to see how much has been written describing it or those who perform it. In the Army's FM 6-22 Leadership, a leader is defined as "... anyone who by virtue of assumed role or assigned responsibility inspires and influences people to accomplish organizational goals. Army leaders motivate people both inside and outside the chain of command to pursue actions, focus thinking, and shape decisions for the greater good of the organization." One enduring expression we have used for many years for leadership is "BE-KNOW-DO" which is such an easy way to think of the three subparts of what being a leader is.

If you have not looked at FM 6-22 lately, you should. That manual is perhaps the best FM the Army ever produced--as it contains so much information that will help people become better leaders. The manual is a powerful document that contains detailed descriptions of what leading is all about and stories that exemplify the traits and values we hold so dear to our profession. It is not a manual that you read through once and set aside. On the contrary, it is a reference manual that merits continuous review and application to your life, your organization, and your people. There are many other books on leadership --my favorites can be found on the Signal Center web page. They all have some valuable lessons and models for leaders to consider. Whether you like the ones that have made an impact on my life or not is immaterial--your task is to never stop listening and learning. The day you stop learning is the day you stop leading.

At the Signal School we invest considerable resources in revising our programs of instruction for every course taught for all ranks--Soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers. It is imperative that our training and education programs remain relevant--relevant to the current fights in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as preparing for other contingencies else where in the world. We just opened up new fiber optic training for 25L in advanced individual training and the Basic Non-commissioned Officer Course in the last three months. We are now teaching Tropospheric Scatter Radio for the first time in our center's history. Our recent establishment of our digital tactical operations center (with considerable help from PEO C3T and PM Battle Command and PM Command Posts) now gives our leaders unprecedented ability to learn about IOM networks in brigade and battalion TOCs. Our training for certainty and educating for uncertainty are designed to compliment the most important part of leader development--experience. Those three elements of leader development are all essential to our growth as leaders.

We also invest considerable resources in providing lifelong learning opportunities for our Soldiers 24 X 7 where ever they are in the world through our LandWarNet eUniversity. This eUniversity, which many of you are familiar with, is our premier distance learning center that just earned Training and Doctrine Command's highest award in fiscal year 2008 for DL. Dramatic growth in available products, focused programs, creation of "unit universities" and much more are clear indicators of the success of this effort to date. eUniversity is a work in progress--as we continue to determine how best to serve our Soldiers and customers. We welcome your advice anytime.

One last capability we continue to pursue with our partners at Forces Command, Network Enterprise Technology Command and Communications Electronic Command are our mobile training teams. Over the past year we have exponentially increased our deployment of MTTs throughout the world to train BNCOC, Information Assurance, pre-deployment assistance, and others. These training opportunities occur through Reset/Train, Ready, and even available stages of the ARFORGEN as we have deployed teams to the GWOT theater of war to help Soldiers and leaders.

I remain so very proud of the team assembled here at Fort Gordon and our partners in the training program for the remarkable improvements we have made to date--for they are making a difference. We value the input we have received from YOU--all those attending our resident schools and MTTs, and those engaged in our life long learning programs, for you have made a difference. We know, however, that we are not where we need to be. You can be assured that we will continue to pursue all avenues to improve our training and education programs to support and serve you--that remains our core mission.