ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Most people assume followership to be the act of following a leader’s orders. Though followership requires a commitment to achieving organizational goals by following a leader’s instructions, it is not about mindlessly conforming to the influence of whoever is in charge. Instead, followership is the art of adapting and applying the values and principles of the organization while responding to a leader’s influence.

Discussing followership is relevant to leadership. Recognizing effective followers and cultivating followership is as vital to the U.S. Army’s success as leader development...

The U.S. Army Materiel Command and the U.S. Army sustainment enterprise remain focused on projecting and sustaining combat power, because sustainment is about warfighting, period.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George made this clear last fall when he assigned Army Materiel Command (AMC) as lead for one of the service’s key focus areas: delivering ready combat formations. His charge, in an October “Message to the Army Team” also signed by Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer and Army Secretary Christine Wormuth: “We must be ready to get our formations to the fight and sustain them there.”

Have you ever thought about the cost of loneliness? Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, around 50% of American adults reported being lonely, according to the U.S. surgeon general. Chronic feelings of loneliness or social isolation have an impact on one’s lifespan that is similar to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.

According to the May 2023 U.S. surgeon general’s advisory, “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation,” loneliness increases the risk for cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety and premature death. Loneliness has proven to be more deadly than obesity and...

Have you ever thought about the cost of loneliness? Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, around 50% of American adults reported being lonely, according to the U.S. surgeon general. Chronic feelings of loneliness or social isolation have an impact on one’s lifespan that is similar to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.

According to the May 2023 U.S. surgeon general’s advisory, “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation,” loneliness increases the risk for cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety and premature death. Loneliness has proven to be more deadly than obesity and...

Know how many soldiers you are responsible for and ensure their readiness, both professionally and personally. This is the fundamental requirement given to leaders at all levels of the U.S. Army. Personnel systems reflect the unit a soldier is assigned to, without effectively considering the location they work at.

Yet, most Army services for health, welfare and morale are based at installations to serve the population working at or near that location. This presents a challenge for garrison and senior commanders who must take care of all soldiers within a particular geographic area, but do...

Know how many soldiers you are responsible for and ensure their readiness, both professionally and personally. This is the fundamental requirement given to leaders at all levels of the U.S. Army. Personnel systems reflect the unit a soldier is assigned to, without effectively considering the location they work at.

Yet, most Army services for health, welfare and morale are based at installations to serve the population working at or near that location. This presents a challenge for garrison and senior commanders who must take care of all soldiers within a particular geographic area, but do...

Know how many soldiers you are responsible for and ensure their readiness, both professionally and personally. This is the fundamental requirement given to leaders at all levels of the U.S. Army. Personnel systems reflect the unit a soldier is assigned to, without effectively considering the location they work at.

Yet, most Army services for health, welfare and morale are based at installations to serve the population working at or near that location. This presents a challenge for garrison and senior commanders who must take care of all soldiers within a particular geographic area, but do...

The U.S. Army Reserve soldier’s career development autonomy and agency are unmatched in the U.S. military. That is for a good reason, as the Army Reserve is the second-largest reserve component of the military, without the state-specific limitations of the Army National Guard. The Army Reserve must find a staffing sweet spot that balances the component’s requirements with enough flexibility for fulfilling civilian employment.

This structure most benefits those in the know and demands that Army Reserve leaders share their understanding of and experience in the component. Geography is a...

The U.S. Army Reserve soldier’s career development autonomy and agency are unmatched in the U.S. military. That is for a good reason, as the Army Reserve is the second-largest reserve component of the military, without the state-specific limitations of the Army National Guard. The Army Reserve must find a staffing sweet spot that balances the component’s requirements with enough flexibility for fulfilling civilian employment.

This structure most benefits those in the know and demands that Army Reserve leaders share their understanding of and experience in the component. Geography is a...

Changes are coming and signature programs are set to grow as the Army’s talent management initiatives enter their fifth year.

A top priority for senior Army leaders, the service has worked to implement programs designed to better identify, manage and use the talents of soldiers and civilian employees across the force.

“The United States Army exists for one purpose, to protect the Nation by fighting and winning our Nation’s wars as a member of the Joint Force, and our readiness depends on a quality All-Volunteer Force,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and then-Army Chief of Staff Gen...

In 2011, when I was deputy chief of staff for operations for the U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia, now known as Fort Moore, Gen. Robert Cone, then-commander of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, said, “Not everyone deserves a mentor.” This bold statement, made at the Maneuver Warfighter Conference, came at a time when the Army was promoting an initiative to formally assign every soldier a mentor.

The context of Cone’s message was that to earn the position of mentee, you must fully embrace your profession. A soldier who simply shows up for duty is...

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, I enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve before joining the University of Puerto Rico’s ROTC program to become an officer. There, the cadre, staff, students and our families all played critical roles in my mentoring experience.

I graduated at the top of my class. I was selected to join the Regular Army in military intelligence, serving at home and around the world, including in Germany and Southwest Asia during the First Gulf War. Ultimately, I was the first Puerto Rican woman to attain the rank of general in the Army Reserve.

Reflecting on my ROTC years, my...

Every major achievement in my life over the past half-century-plus can be attributed to the leadership lessons learned during my service in the U.S. Army. The Noncommissioned Officer Candidate Course during the Vietnam War was dubbed the “Shake ‘N’ Bake” school. It provided truly outstanding leadership training and allowed me to become a staff sergeant less than 10 months after being drafted at age 24.

The skills taught to me and my fellow “Shake ‘N’ Bakes” by awesome, demanding NCOs were validated in Vietnam a few months later, and they have served me well since then. Up to that point in...

After being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the South Korean army in 1981, I had a short leadership position as the leader of a rifle platoon. I then spent three years as an aide-de-camp to the chairman of the Republic of Korea, which is highly unusual for a lieutenant. 

South Korea in the early 1980s was different than it is now. The country enforced a curfew from midnight to 4 a.m. each day. Anyone moving around during this time would end up in jail under suspicion of sabotage or criminal intent. North Korean armed infiltrators were often caught and killed by South Korean troops...

Growing up in the 1930s in Memphis, Tennessee, Philip Larimore Jr. was the ultimate Boy Scout—able to read maps, put a compass to good use and traverse wild swamps and desolate canyons. While visiting relatives’ farms, the youngster found great joy in hunting, fishing and, most of all, caring for and riding horses.

His father taught him to shoot guns, and, by his sixth birthday, Phil could knock corn kernels off a fence post with a .22-caliber rifle at 25 yards. He was a daring lad and even swam back and forth across the Mississippi River during flood stage.

But Phil did poorly in...