The 56th Armored Brigade Combat Team is undergoing a period of leadership transition during post deployment operations. All indications from my initial assessment show the critical leadership problem is within the culture of the organization. The organization has developed a poor command climate that has digressed from an organizational culture based on esprit de corps, which facilitated motivated and competent leaders that were part of a mission ready and cohesive team. 56th ABCT is in its RESET phase after its most recent combat deployment to Afghanistan. Indications from command climate surveys, and my assessment of the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL)’s report on the brigade’s performance in Afghanistan shows the unit’s ability to execute its wartime mission is below the standards. Soldier resiliency, training, unit cohesion, and overall pride in unit are all obstacles that must be addressed and overcome in order for the unit to be a mission ready and effective unit ready to perform its wartime mission.
The bedrock of the 56th Armored Brigade Combat Team is the soldier. In order for our soldiers to be effective members of the unit, they must be resilient; meaning they must be able to withstand stressors placed on them by their environment and continue to perform to standard. I have identified issues of concern that must be addressed. First, we are in the RESET phase and will be losing a significant portion of our staff and soldiers from subordinate units. What this means for everyone involved is there should be an expectation the workload is only going to get heavier in the coming weeks as we prepare to receive our unit containers and redeploying equipment from Afghanistan along with turn in of ancillary equipme...
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...s the unit through engagements with leaders and soldiers. There will be time in my calendar to visit trainings, go to the motor pool, attend physical training sessions and eat lunch with my soldiers. This is my most effective form of sensing and my primary means of judging measures of effectiveness of our strategy, and I would expect my subordinate leaders to do the same.
The 56th Armored Brigade Combat Team will be one of the elite maneuver brigade in the army! We must be “mission ready” when the army calls us to execute our wartime mission. This must be done through building resilient soldiers proficiently trained, who have a sense of pride in self and unit, and are members of an impermeable cohesive unit. We all shared the same vision, we understand the process, we are working cohesively, we are fully prepared to execute our mission and our future missions.