How to Break an Officer as a Leader

[ThunderHorse]

So I'm writing an article for a blog that I'm a regular contributor of. I got this idea after setting in a class for NettWarrior OPNet. My CO and the other PL were talking about our former FISTer and how he was broken as a leader and they talked about the previous CO and how he'd ridden his two PLs almost into the ground and the fact they survived was more about them then not.

That got me thinking about my best friend who left the Army in November, telling almost no one about it. I knew it was coming, but the way it was done was weird. He was an ADA officer stationed at Ft Sill. He was an ECP guy out of Valley Forge before attending VMI so he had three years TIS before he attended BOLC. Originally he was on orders to Bragg, and for the most part an HHC XO in a BOLC Battalion is temp job given to an LT who was physically broken and had to recover. Well his CO changed that up at Ft Sill since ADA is such a small branch he had a lot of pull with HRC. He worked his ass off, orders to Bragg were canceled after he was deferred 6 months. His girlfriend cheated on him with two different guys, she told him about it, and then randomly started dating a guy in the same APT complex he lived in, the other guy was an FA officer. She had no connection to the dude as she was living in VA at the time. His CO put a lot on his plate, he accomplished all of it, but he decided it was time to hang it up and left the Army early.

For me, I can honestly tell you during my ten months at Fort Knox I was well on my way to the Island of Misfit Toys, I was disillusioned, getting out of shape. Then the Army announced 3-1ID was deactivating, so I had a way out, but I was still going down a bad path internally. I was stuck at Fort Knox grinding, working my ass off and not in Afghanistan because I didn't have a tab. I'm a 19A, and the Cav unit I was in had more Infantry PLs (tabbed and untabbed) than it did Armor PLs, the majority of the Armor guys worked in the S3 shop. Command climate in 3-1 from Brigade level down seemed to be bad, or just the climate in general, from the perspective of a lot people the grass has been green as can be on the other side.

It took an injury while I was prepping for Ranger School in July to change my perspective, took me almost two months to a Physical Therapy referral which was down the hallway in the clinic (crazy, I know). Well I stepped on the scale and saw the number, then I looked at my face and knew I had to make a change. I changed my diet up completely committing to Paleo in late August. Because the reality of it is, as Man, Officer, Leader, that I wasn't self motivated to be better than I was showed me how bad of a place I was in mentally. I got myself back to 185, a number I had not seen since before I joined the Army. I spent most of college between 195-205. Right now I'm about 189ish, trying to cut it down to 180 before my next APFT. My current CO is Ranger tabbed but he said to me that he doesn't care if I want to go or not but would suggest it once I go to career course to help my career progression. I'm leading a Recce PLT in 2-1 AD and loving it.

So how do officers become broken and no longer have the desire to lead and serve? How do they get to that stage of Learned Helplessness?

 

[LogDog0402]

From my own experience, command climate has a lot to do with. I was a logistics officer serving in several different units during my time in the Marine Corps. I was usually one of maybe three logistics officers in a battalion, we were the red headed step children. During my time as a 2ndLt and 1stLt I served with armor units and loved it because I wasn't treated any differently. The CO of 2nd Tanks even told me he thought I should have been a tank officer since I proved to know just as much and sometime more about tanks than the tank Lt's did. I always had a first class PFT in 250 to 270 point range, I was never a fast runner usually around 22:00 minutes for the 3 miles. I say that's not bad for a guy that was 6 feet and 220 lbs. One of my friends started a rumor that I had been a professional wrestler in the WWE and junior Marines would always ask me if it was true. Once I made Captain it was all downhill. I went to a Comm Bn and was trated like an outsider from the very beginning. I brought a combat arms attitude to a support unit. I couldn't do anything right even when it was done right. Any logistics support plan I came up with would usually get crushed and changed. Thankfully I was only there for a year before I was assigned as a combat advisor to the Iraqis. Two years working on a small team had given me a new attitude after being miserable before that. Unfortunately, when I returned to a normal unit the CO was friends with the old CO at the Comm Bn and the being treated like shit started all over again. I had SNCO's that felt bad for me because they saw how everything went down. My motivation was crushed right out of me. I would barely PT plus I also ate like shit, gained weight and basically quit giving a damn about anything. I put my paper work in to resign my commission because I knew that I was no longer the Marine officer that I wanted to be and that I should have been. I think I still suffer from those days, PTSD style suffering, and the VA has diagnosed me with PTSD from being in Iraq. Even writing this post has brought up painful memories but I think and hope that it might help you with your article.

 

[0699]

^^^

8th Comm will do that to a man. I avoided that place like the plague. When were you there?

 

[AWP]

So how do officers become broken and no longer have the desire to lead and serve? How do they get to that stage of Learned Helplessness?

The same way you break any other person who cares about their job in any other profession. The trees may be different, but the forest remains the same.

Once you lose your faith in or the support of those above you, you're done; "dead man walking."

 

[Poetic_Mind]

I heard about that ADA fellow when I was going through BOLC here in Ft. Sill. It's sad stuff. Certainly having a Command climate like he had, it's easy to be on the fast-track to destruction.

 

[Totentanz]

Here's an article from about two years back. It's not all-encompassing, but it's pretty good. As @Freefalling said, there's a lot of similarity between military and civilian work environments. The details change, but on the macro level the things that make good and bad work environments are largely the same.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...e/2012/03/05/gIQAxU3iuR_story.html?tid=pm_pop

How to completely, utterly destroy an employee’s work life
By Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, Published: March 6, 2012
Recall your worst day at work, when events of the day left you frustrated, unmotivated by the job, and brimming with disdain for your boss and your organization. That day is probably unforgettable. But do you know exactly how your boss was able to make it so horrible for you? Our research provides insight into the precise levers you can use to re-create that sort of memorable experience for your own underlings.

Over the past 15 years, we have studied what makes people happy and engaged at work. In discovering the answer, we also learned a lot about misery at work. Our research method was pretty straightforward. We collected confidential electronic diaries from 238 professionals in seven companies, each day for several months. All told, those diaries described nearly 12,000 days – how people felt, and the events that stood out in their minds. Systematically analyzing those diaries, we compared the events occurring on the best days with those on the worst.
What we discovered is that the key factor you can use to make employees miserable on the job is to simply keep them from making progress in meaningful work.

People want to make a valuable contribution, and feel great when they make progress toward doing so. Knowing this progress principle is the first step to knowing how to destroy an employee’s work life. Many leaders, from team managers to CEOs, are already surprisingly expert at smothering employee engagement. In fact, on one-third of those 12,000 days, the person writing the diary was either unhappy at work, demotivated by the work, or both.

That’s pretty efficient work-life demolition, but it leaves room for improvement.

Step 1: Never allow pride of accomplishment. When we analyzed the events occurring on people’s very worst days at the office, one thing stood out: setbacks. Setbacks are any instances where employees feel stalled in their most important work or unable to make any meaningful contribution. So, at every turn, stymie employees’ desire to make a difference. One of the most effective examples we saw was a head of product development, who routinely moved people on and off projects like chess pieces in a game for which only he had the rules.

The next step follows organically from the first.

Step 2: Miss no opportunity to block progress on employees’ projects. Every day, you’ll see dozens of ways to inhibit substantial forward movement on your subordinates’ most important efforts. Goal-setting is a great place to start. Give conflicting goals, change them as frequently as possible, and allow people no autonomy in meeting them. If you get this formula just right, the destructive effects on motivation and performance can be truly dramatic.

Step 3: Give yourself some credit.You’re probably already doing many of these things, and don’t even realize it. That’s okay. In fact, unawareness is one of the trademarks of managers who are most effective at destroying employees’ work lives. As far as we could tell from talking with them or reading their own diaries, they generally thought their employees were doing just fine – or that “bad morale” was due to the employees’ unfortunate personalities or poor work ethics. Rarely did they give themselves credit for how much their own words and actions made it impossible for people to get a sense of accomplishment. You may be better at this than you think!

Step 4: Kill the messengers. Finally, if you do get wind of problems in the trenches, deny, deny, deny. And if possible, strike back. Here’s a great example from our research. In an open Q&A with one company’s chief operating officer, an employee asked about the morale problem and got this answer: “There is no morale problem in this company. And, for anybody who thinks there is, we have a nice big bus waiting outside to take you wherever you want to look for work.”

A good quote to keep in your back pocket.

 

[AWP]

BOOM!

One man's database rollout or marketing strategy is another man's FTX or "motor stables."

Bad leadership or management is the same whether they wear a tie or camouflage to work.

 

[LogDog0402]

8th Comm will do that to a man. I avoided that place like the plague. When were you there?

I was actually at 9th Comm in 2006. Once I got promoted to el capitano I went to the west coast. When I checked in and was introduced to the Marines in the shop I learned that two were awaiting court martials, one was waiting on CM #2, had one that was pregnant, a MSgt that was going through a divorce and about two months later had a Marine arrested in the office for robbing liquor stores.

 

[0699]

I was actually at 9th Comm in 2006. Once I got promoted to el capitano I went to the west coast. When I checked in and was introduced to the Marines in the shop I learned that two were awaiting court martials, one was waiting on CM #2, had one that was pregnant, a MSgt that was going through a divorce and about two months later had a Marine arrested in the office for robbing liquor stores.

Ah. I did get stuck at 7th (86-87) and 9th (87-92) Comm Bns. Those places were soulless hellholes that I was lucky to escape.

Although CSS units are no better. Below is a paraphrase of an actual conversation. I was the communications lead for a detachment going out. I was talking to the det CO, a captain...

Him: "I can get you a 5 ton of gear and 2 HMMWVs on the LST. What kind of comms can you provide with that?"
Me: "It doesn't work like that. Tell me what comms you need and I'll tell you what I need to take."
Him: "We need to get the log plan settled now. What comms can you provide me with a 5 ton and 2 HMMWVs?"
Me: "I'll fill the 5 ton with field wire and run you a hot line from the pier to the training area. I'll bring 2 MRC vehicles and provide you a backup to that hot line."
Him: (after looking at me for about 10 seconds...) "What about computers?"
Me: "You didn't say you wanted computers. If I had known that, I would have planned for it."

It went down hill from there... :wall:

 

[AWP]

I wanted to throw things after reading the above, because I've been there, but I ended up with sadness and tears....because I've been there too.

"Tell me what comms you need..." and people still screw it up.

 

[Teufel]

This entire thread depresses me. Here is the thing. No matter how "hard" we have it as officers I promise you our enlisted have it ten times worse. I had a SEAL Chief tell me once that enlisted men are like sled dogs (random story-I once did a guest stint as a land warfare instructor for NSW at Billy Makin). They will feel the bite of the cold and sting of the lash as they pull the sled to the finish line. They will rest for a moment, thinking their job is done, when a new asshole jumps into the sled, admires the novelty of it, and starts to whip the pups anew. This cycle continues as the sled dog's hair starts to grey, his hide toughens and he realizes through hard learned lessons how to best win the race. Meanwhile the sled driver remains the same age, often fails to listen to his sled dogs and only grows weary from cracking the whip. A task which exhausts him no doubt as he can only handle two to three years in his position as his sled dogs sludge through decade after decade of operational service. Every once in a great while however, the sled dogs will look back in confusion at an empty sled...only to realize that the sled driver is running ahead of them, pulling his harness with no complaint as he suffers through every difficulty and challenge they experience without complaint.

As officers and leaders we often have to suffer through poor leadership above us. Guess who your subordinates see? You. That's it. Hopefully you are the line between sanity and insanity for them. If we lose sight of this fact we can become discouraged, internalize and look inward at our own problems. Being an officer is all about being a servant leader. Learn to serve the men who follow your orders. See what a difference you hopefully make in their lives. This should help you refocus on what is important. Guess why your superiors suck?? Because all the good officers got out. If you get out then you are perpetuating the cycle of failed leadership through your absence. Look below and not above and you will find the answers you seek.

 

[pardus]

This entire thread depresses me. Here is the thing. No matter how "hard" we have it as officers I promise you our enlisted have it ten times worse. I had a SEAL Chief tell me once that enlisted men are like sled dogs (random story-I once did a guest stint as a land warfare instructor for NSW at Billy Makin). They will feel the bite of the cold and sting of the lash as they pull the sled to the finish line. They will rest for a moment, thinking their job is done, when a new asshole jumps into the sled, admires the novelty of it, and starts to whip the pups anew. This cycle continues as the sled dog's hair starts to grey, his hide toughens and he realizes through hard learned lessons how to best win the race. Meanwhile the sled driver remains the same age, often fails to listen to his sled dogs and only grows weary from cracking the whip. A task which exhausts him no doubt as he can only handle two to three years in his position as his sled dogs sludge through decade after decade of operational service. Every once in a great while however, the sled dogs will look back in confusion at an empty sled...only to realize that the sled driver is running ahead of them, pulling his harness with no complaint as he suffers through every difficulty and challenge they experience without complaint.

As officers and leaders we often have to suffer through poor leadership above us. Guess who your subordinates see? You. That's it. Hopefully you are the line between sanity and insanity for them. If we lose sight of this fact we can become discouraged, internalize and look inward at our own problems. Being an officer is all about being a servant leader. Learn to serve the men who follow your orders. See what a difference you hopefully make in their lives. This should help you refocus on what is important. Guess why your superiors suck?? Because all the good officers got out. If you get out then you are perpetuating the cycle of failed leadership through your absence. Look below and not above and you will find the answers you seek.

Fucking A! Great post!

 

[LogDog0402]

Ah. I did get stuck at 7th (86-87) and 9th (87-92) Comm Bns. Those places were soulless hellholes that I was lucky to escape.

Although CSS units are no better. Below is a paraphrase of an actual conversation. I was the communications lead for a detachment going out. I was talking to the det CO, a captain...

Him: "I can get you a 5 ton of gear and 2 HMMWVs on the LST. What kind of comms can you provide with that?"
Me: "It doesn't work like that. Tell me what comms you need and I'll tell you what I need to take."
Him: "We need to get the log plan settled now. What comms can you provide me with a 5 ton and 2 HMMWVs?"
Me: "I'll fill the 5 ton with field wire and run you a hot line from the pier to the training area. I'll bring 2 MRC vehicles and provide you a backup to that hot line."
Him: (after looking at me for about 10 seconds...) "What about computers?"
Me: "You didn't say you wanted computers. If I had known that, I would have planned for it."

It went down hill from there... :wall:

As a loggy I had this type of conversation way too many times. I had a fellow LogO ask me for a 7-ton and I asked for what purpose and he just told me to have one ready. I knew it was for transporting troops but I gave him a flatbed for cargo just to prove a point. I've also been asked about craning a tank onto a ship. It can be done but it's not ideal and no way in hell am I going to be anywhere near a 70 ton tank that is suspended in the air by straps, fuck that shit. I was also asked to plan for having to fly over all of my battalions gear to Iraq, that included vehicles, from the division G-4. I got in trouble because I laughed in the guys face when he asked me. Not to get too specific but it was around 80 C-5 cargo jets, each tank gets its own plane and no other cargo or persons can be in the hold with it.

@Teufel - Great fucking post.

 

[Viper1]

This entire thread depresses me. Here is the thing. No matter how "hard" we have it as officers I promise you our enlisted have it ten times worse. I had a SEAL Chief tell me once that enlisted men are like sled dogs (random story-I once did a guest stint as a land warfare instructor for NSW at Billy Makin). They will feel the bite of the cold and sting of the lash as they pull the sled to the finish line. They will rest for a moment, thinking their job is done, when a new asshole jumps into the sled, admires the novelty of it, and starts to whip the pups anew. This cycle continues as the sled dog's hair starts to grey, his hide toughens and he realizes through hard learned lessons how to best win the race. Meanwhile the sled driver remains the same age, often fails to listen to his sled dogs and only grows weary from cracking the whip. A task which exhausts him no doubt as he can only handle two to three years in his position as his sled dogs sludge through decade after decade of operational service. Every once in a great while however, the sled dogs will look back in confusion at an empty sled...only to realize that the sled driver is running ahead of them, pulling his harness with no complaint as he suffers through every difficulty and challenge they experience without complaint.

As officers and leaders we often have to suffer through poor leadership above us. Guess who your subordinates see? You. That's it. Hopefully you are the line between sanity and insanity for them. If we lose sight of this fact we can become discouraged, internalize and look inward at our own problems. Being an officer is all about being a servant leader. Learn to serve the men who follow your orders. See what a difference you hopefully make in their lives. This should help you refocus on what is important. Guess why your superiors suck?? Because all the good officers got out. If you get out then you are perpetuating the cycle of failed leadership through your absence. Look below and not above and you will find the answers you seek.

Dude, this is a god-send today. Thanks for this.

 

[LibraryLady]

I got out for this reason. Fish out of water and no one cared.

Flash forward to my niece's graduation from AFROTC. The guest speaker was a female general. After the ceremony she was speaking to a bunch of newly minted female LT's as I waited to speak to her. Conversation ensued, with a bit of my history appearing. She promptly called those new LT's back over, and told them my story explaining that one of their most sacred missions as an officer was to prevent what happened to me from happening to the young women under them.

Then she was kind enough to join in the middle of a family photo for my niece.

LL

 

[Salt USMC]

This entire thread depresses me. Here is the thing. No matter how "hard" we have it as officers I promise you our enlisted have it ten times worse. I had a SEAL Chief tell me once that enlisted men are like sled dogs (random story-I once did a guest stint as a land warfare instructor for NSW at Billy Makin). They will feel the bite of the cold and sting of the lash as they pull the sled to the finish line. They will rest for a moment, thinking their job is done, when a new asshole jumps into the sled, admires the novelty of it, and starts to whip the pups anew. This cycle continues as the sled dog's hair starts to grey, his hide toughens and he realizes through hard learned lessons how to best win the race. Meanwhile the sled driver remains the same age, often fails to listen to his sled dogs and only grows weary from cracking the whip. A task which exhausts him no doubt as he can only handle two to three years in his position as his sled dogs sludge through decade after decade of operational service. Every once in a great while however, the sled dogs will look back in confusion at an empty sled...only to realize that the sled driver is running ahead of them, pulling his harness with no complaint as he suffers through every difficulty and challenge they experience without complaint.

As officers and leaders we often have to suffer through poor leadership above us. Guess who your subordinates see? You. That's it. Hopefully you are the line between sanity and insanity for them. If we lose sight of this fact we can become discouraged, internalize and look inward at our own problems. Being an officer is all about being a servant leader. Learn to serve the men who follow your orders. See what a difference you hopefully make in their lives. This should help you refocus on what is important. Guess why your superiors suck?? Because all the good officers got out. If you get out then you are perpetuating the cycle of failed leadership through your absence. Look below and not above and you will find the answers you seek.

Wow. I wish I was still in, so that I could print this off and give it to every single officer in the command.

 

[racing_kitty]

Sadly, I know a couple of officers upon whom Teufel's post would be completely lost.

 

[digrar]

I've also been asked about craning a tank onto a ship. It can be done but it's not ideal and no way in hell am I going to be anywhere near a 70 ton tank that is suspended in the air by straps, fuck that shit.

Get's interesting at about 1.40.

 

[LogDog0402]

Nice video. Lucky it had big tires to bounce with and cushion the fall.

 

[LogDog0402]

Sadly, I know a couple of officers upon whom Teufel's post would be completely lost.

I know several that I served with that wouldn't get this. I got made fun of once because I stood out in shitty weather with my Marines until the job was done while other officers stayed in the command tent. I tried to make sure that I was out there in the crap conditions just as much as they were. You can thank my Dad for giving me that type of attitude as well as having been enlisted and never seeing my commanding officers outside of the office space.