Military Review English Edition November-December 2013 | Page 78

One successful brigade commander described this
skill as discernment—a vital meta-competency for
senior leaders.

Discernment:
The activity of determining the value and quality
of a certain subject or event.

(Wikepedia)

The quality of being able to grasp and comprehend
that which is obscure .

(Merriam-Webster)

The ability to judge people well.

(Cambridge Dictionary Online)

The following are five methods a unit commander
can use to help assess subordinate units without
“disturbing the electrons”:
Continual presence. The “continual presence”
solution involves continuous iterative actions on
the part of the senior leader where the leader’s
presence is so frequent it no longer creates the
“agitation of light on the electron”—the leader’s
presence becomes part of the environment. At this
point, the leader has gained the ability to see the
unit in its natural state. The obvious difficulty with
this solution is that it is not sustainable. Continual
presence demands too much of the leader’s time,
and will inevitably result in some units being
left out or the leader’s neglect of other important
responsibilities.
Use of bellwether units. An alternative to the
constant presence solution is the selection of bellwether units. A bellwether unit is an organization
that, because of its mission, location, or any other
specific and appropriate dynamic, would serve to
represent a larger number of units. Thus, through
inference, the bellwether unit would allow the
leader to “see” more units that he or she can actually visit. Clearly, the leader must exercise great
caution and judgment in the selection of bellwether
units because the units should represent the composition, character, and nature of other units.
Use of surrogates. A third solution to the presence problem is for a leader to allow a surrogate
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to serve as the eyes and ears at the units. Leaders
have often used sergeants major, chaplains, or
inspectors general to perform this role, but these
representatives face the same problem of agitation
or “dog and pony show” by their presence. The
ability of a surrogate to truly “see” a unit is often
dependent on what happens after they leave. If the
visit is routinely followed by some sort of negative outcome, the subordinate command or unit’s
openness and trust will evaporate, and the surrogate
will be no better able to see the unit than the senior
leader. Here, transparency is key.
One proven successful technique is to have
relatively junior soldiers help the senior leader see
the units. For example, a number of senior leaders
have used their drivers to go out and talk to people
to try to get a feel for the unit. Drivers are easily
recognized by their position and association with
“the boss”—it is common for soldiers to open up to
them. Often, junior soldiers take advantage of this
opportunity to get a message to the boss without
having to actually see the boss using an “open
door” policy or other opportunity.
Again, this becomes a matter of trust between
leaders. Senior leaders should be open to insights
from sources of information such as these while at
the same time tempering their responses until they
have sufficient understanding of the context, usually
gained in discussion with the unit leaders. As is the
case in most operational environments, overreaction based on a single data point can sometimes be
worse than no reaction at all.
A commander within the Army Training and
Doctrine Command and with basic combat training
used to travel to different posts with “drill sergeants
of the year.” After arriving at a training base, the
post leadership would often escort the commander,
but the drill sergeants were able to get out, explore,
talk to their peers, and then report what they saw,
heard, and perceived. This feedback was timely
and priceles s.
Another common technique for a senior leader
trying to see reality in their units is to require
some sort of standardized presentation, probably
PowerPoint, where subordinate leaders brief their
“charts.” We have all sat through training briefs with
a multitude of slides that measure all things senior
leaders need to see and know. The briefings often
include key readiness indicators—qualified crews,
November-December 2013

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