From the outset of Chief Petty Officer Academy (CPOA), I was consumed with nervous anticipation of challenges that lie ahead. Even so, I was excited and ready to conquer the challenges propelled my way. The CPOA employs a diversity of teaching techniques to assist CPOs when confronting personal and professional struggles. Whether it’s the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) to assess leadership characteristics, the President’s Challenge to help develop better fitness, or team building exercises designed to cultivate group cohesion; these tools provide a means to address the most burdensome obstacles to personal and professional leadership growth. Constructive feedback is a gift, a phrase that has been repeated on several occasions throughout …show more content…
This challenged and formed us into a strong unit. The Academy strategically developed a curriculum that guided us through the four stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, and performing. Team building exercises were implemented on day one in low ropes to familiarize individuals with each other, generating trust and start working towards forming. Once formed, group presentations and strategic thinking assignments were set in motion to test us through the storming stage. Third stage is norming where we developed a stronger commitment towards accomplishing goals and appreciation for our fellow Chiefs’ strengths and weaknesses. I enjoyed peer review of our essays during writing class which opened the opportunity for honest and constructive feedback and utilized the strengths in each other. By the end of week three, our team overcame many obstacles and experienced a win with our 40-minute strategic thinking presentation which brought us into the performing stage. Because of my positive experience, when I return to my unit, I intend to approach the Chief of the Mess to coordinate a team building event that will assist in producing a united team and solidify the strength of the Chiefs
Chiefs Petty Officer Academy (CPOA) is an extremely effective tool to help refine leadership and understand one’s self. The CPOA course offers a vast opportunity for self reflection and learning how to communicate with a multitude of different personalities. There were a plethora of topics taught during the 5 week course; however the topics that had the greatest influence and inspiration for me personally were the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), Disc profile, and ropes course.
During the norming stage, team members began to resolve the tensions and difficulties from the storming stage. The members began to cooperate and work together on a common ground. The group has encouraged open communication which results in increased productivity.
Despite the tendency to treat West Point as if it is a world apart from the Army, the choices I make here and now form who I will be when it matters even more. Just as leadership lessons can be learned in a History of the Military Art class in an interdisciplinary manner, I need to focus on pulling as many lessons from my time at West Point so I can apply them when the stakes are potentially much higher. References Avolio, B. J. & Co. (2005). The 'Secondary' of the Leadership Development in Balance: Made, Born.
The case study provides good examples of a commander working to develop his leaders. LTC Fullerton first scheduled interviews with his primary staff and senior NCOs to identify their skills, strengths, and weaknesses. Fullerton noted during the interview with MSG Regan that he had gaps in technical expertise regarding the battalion’s mission and made a note to address it in his personal leader development program. This is one example of how a commander ...
Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education (U.S.) United States. Department of the Air Force. (2012b). Full Range Leadership Development (CF01). Maxwell-Gunter Annex, AL: Department of the Air Force.
As a Marine, it is imperative to have leadership skills along with being capable of working with others. This book was written to enhance the reader’s mentality of how the Marines operate. It informs those who are looking into the service, and provides an in depth look into the trials and tribulations it has been through—as well as conquered. This book substantially explains the vigorous training platoon 3086 went through in order to earn the title of being a Marine.
As our forefathers before us stated, ‘‘No one is more professional than I. I am a Noncommissioned Officer, a leader of soldiers. As a Noncommissioned Officer, I realize that I am a member of a time honored corps, which is known as “The Backbone of the Army (“The NCO Creed writing by SFC Earle Brigham and Jimmie Jakes Sr”). These words to Noncommissioned Officer should inspire us to the fullest with pride, honor, and integrity. The NCO creed should mean much more than just words whenever we attend a NCO’s school. For most of us this is what our creed has become because we learn to narrate or recite. The military from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard has an overabundance of NCOs who fall under their pay grade of E-5, E-6 and etc. Yet somehow there still not enough leaders. I believe that the largest problem afflicting the military today is our lack of competent leaders, ineffective leader development, and how we influence our subordinates under us who are becoming leaders.
CF02,Full Range Leadership Development. (2012). Maxwell Gunter AFB. Thomas N. Barnes Center for Enlisted Education (AETC)
Looking back over 20 years of service and experience, I have determined that leadership has many attributes. Leadership is not simply “Influencing others to achieve a goal” like the definition the Coast Guard provides. Every leader wants to set and achieve goals for themselves, their subordinates, and the organization but leadership is much more than just achieving those goals. Leadership incorporates elements of respect, dependability, trust, service and empathy; when put together a leader can inspire others to accomplish nearly anything. I have encountered both a positive and negative characteristics to these traits, throughout my career, giving me learning moments for what I would like to be and what I don’t ever want to be.
Non-Commissioned Officers are deficient in vital areas of leadership due to a lack of training. This leads to inexperienced Soldiers becoming inexperienced leaders. The NCO corps needs to develop and enforce comprehensive interactive training that will challenge the next generation to achieve a functional level of communication skills before advancing to leadership positions. This will generate leaders who can write effectively, speak meritoriously and teach adaptively while training others to do the same.
Horner (1995) describes leader development as, “a lifelong process that attempts to produce positive attitudinal, intellectual, and behavioral changes in individuals to make them more effective leaders; increase their capacity to lead and prepare them for new and greater responsibilities consistent with the accomplishment of organizational goals.” Among junior Nurse Corps Officers, most are unprepared for leadership responsibilities when faced with the opportunity because they are not natural born, well balanced leaders and have received very little training on the subject. This is one reason why the Navy Nurse Corps must attempt to integrate more leadership training within the
As an officer in the United States Army, it has been imperative for me to understand every facet of leadership and why it remains important to be an effective leader. During this course, I have learned some valuable lessons about myself as a leader and how I can improve on my leadership ability in the future. The journal entries along with the understanding of available leadership theories have been an integral part of my learning during this course. For all of the journals and assessments that I completed, I feel it has given me a good understanding of my current leadership status and my future potential as a leader. All of the specific assessments looked at several areas in regards to leadership; these assessments covered several separate focus areas and identified my overall strengths and weaknesses as a leader. Over the course of this paper I will briefly discuss each one of these assessments and journal entries as they pertained to me and my leadership.
This is not to say that we should always have to accept feedback or the manner in which it is sometimes given. We all have the right to refuse feedback, and we can expect feedback to be given in a respectful and supportive manner. But for every positive and open way of accepting feedback, there's an opposite; a negative and closed manner which pushes feedback away and keeps it at bay.
Feedback is an important yet often overlooked part of the communication process. Compliments, strokes, and other positive feedback can be motivating and greatly appreciated. Feedback can also be motivating and appreciated when it takes the form of constructive criticism.
“An Army leader is any one who by virtue of assumed role or assigned responsibility inspires and influences peoples to accomplish organizational goals. She or He motivates people both inside and outside the chain of command to pursue actions, focus thinking, and shape decisions for the greater good of the organization.1” But for him to do that effectively and efficiently , he has to be prepared, shaped and refined. There are few institutions to prepare such leaders and CGSC is one of those institutions which are mandated, organized and equipped to prepare such leaders. In implementing its mandate, CGSC has programmed ILE common core C 100 to provide foundations for effective leadership development. The lessons covered in this block of instructions are important pillars of leadership development and impact on officers differently depending on the fields/specialties and the level of positions held. This paper therefore attempts to discuss the relevance of critical thinking and problem solving, group decision making, overcoming biases, planning and order production lessons on my future assignment as a logistics staff officer.