International NCO Advanced Leadership Course in an Multinational Environment
by CWO1 Giuseppe Di Blasi ( ITA ) LANDCOM Deputy Commader Staff Assistant
Course Group photo
Overview
This course is fully accredited by NATO and gives senior NCOs a very good and deep idea about leadership . It also provides them with the necessary tools for their daily work in a multinational environment by enhancing also cultural awareness . The NCO Leadership Course is accredited by Allied Command Transformation ( ACT ) and is aligned to the NATO NCO Bi-SC Strategy and Recommended NCO Guidelines ( ref . SH / DOM / SWM / 10-270697 dated 13 Oct . 2010 SHAPE ).
Participants
The course is dedicated to NCOs at OR 8 / 9 level from NATO and Partner nations .
Objectives
a . Further develop appropriate leadership skills in order to supervise his domain and give advice and support to the commander ;
b . To be able to mentor and set up a counselling system and advise the commander ; c . To develop his / her own communication skills in order to enhance effective communication within their unit ;
d . To be able to supervise ethical and moral awareness in an international environment .
Situation
My personal experiences on this course were truly amazing . We first started with a distance e-learning portion of the course which created a mindset of what to expect during our training in Lucerne .
On 15 January 2017 , I arrived in Lucerne , at the Swiss Armed Forces Professional NCO School . The first day of course started off with a good intro of the Course Staff and School Commander , BG H . NIED- ERBERGER . Our very diverse class of 28 people , from 19 different nationalities , were immediately divided into two groups of 14 ( Class 1 & Class 2 ). Straight off the bat , we were assigned with our course project to be presented by Syndicates at the end of course , called exercise “ INNATOGROUS ”, which means to explain NATO ’ s structure , history , task and purpose and how NATO works . That evening , we had our “ Ice Breaker event ” which took place in an underground fortress called “ Fortress Füringen ”. Outside of the fortress , we were greeted by two musicians playing Alpine Horns ( also known as Alphorn ). The sound of the horns playing brought calmness to the group like no other and set the mood for the entire evening . We even had the chance to try the alphorn if we wanted to . We were then greeted by our tour guide and toured the interior of the underground fortress . After the tour , we stayed in the fortress for a wounderful meal called “ raclette ”.
The first week consisted of group exercices , very interesting guest speakers and communication training . The Persolog Personality Factor Model describes human behavior on the basis of the four behavioral patterns : Dominant , Influencing , Steady and Cautions ( DISC ), was a tool used to help show who we really are as person and the way we react or not react to certain situation and increase personal effectiveness . It was said that it was only a tool or guide but I think it was pretty accurate when I
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