Every soldier is a machine with two operating modes. They have “get the job done” mode, and they have “wait out the clock” mode. Regardless of what you may have heard, these are the soldier’s two operating modes and they are his/her only two modes. The challenge of every leader, therefore, is to keep his/her soldiers in “get the job done” mode for as long as there are jobs to do.
A Common Problem
Frequently, a leader will come upon a group of soldiers sitting around in “wait out the clock” mode. If this has happened to you, you know how infuriating it can be. When you’re up to your combat patch in administrative tasks and stressful deadlines, the last thing you want to see is a gaggle of carefree soldiers with an uncanny immunity to the urgency of your situation. That is why most leaders will immediately assume (either consciously or otherwise) that the soldiers are being lazy, and will issue a vague decree like “Get to work!” or “Find something to do!” I cannot overstate how destructive such snap-judgments are to unit moral and mission success. Group inactivity is rarely, if ever, a result of laziness.
The Myth of Soldier Laziness
There are some very lazy soldiers. This fact cannot be denied. Most soldiers, however, are not lazy. Most soldiers, when given the chance to do something demonstrably productive, will choose to do it rather than to sit around, even if the task is difficult or unpleasant. After all, the number one complaint given by soldiers about drill weekend is not that they dislike doing this or that, but that they dislike doing nothing! That is because soldiers, like all human beings, crave meaningful and validating work. Why then does inactivity occur? Because leaders fail to provide soldiers with the three things they need to stay in motion: Mission, Materials, and Motivation.
Mission
This is a no-brainer. Or, at least, it should be. If soldiers are to accomplish a task they must be given a task. If they are to accomplish another task they must be given another task. Why am I stating the obvious? Because instead of determining if soldiers have been given a task, too many leaders are still saying things like “Get to work!” every time they see inactivity. “Get to work!” is not a task. If soldiers do not have a task, “Get to work!” will not help them. Leaders must also set clear standards to ensure that the task is performed properly and contributes to overall unit success.
Materials
For every task there are required supplies and equipment. Leaders must anticipate what materials will be needed for each assigned task and ensure that soldiers have access to them. This is more difficult than it seems. That is because, in addition to physical tools, there are a number of essential supplies which leaders often overlook. Here is a just a short list:
- Time: The time required to complete each task should be realistically evaluated to ensure that it is at least possible to complete them all.
- Training: Soldiers must actually know how to do what they’ve been instructed to do.
- Personnel: If the task requires a certain number of people, or people with certain qualifications, those people need to be made available.
I know what you’re thinking. “Motivation shouldn’t be an issue. If I tell my soldiers to do something that should be motivation enough!” Guess what? It’s not. A leader who only invokes his/her authority to motivate soldiers is like a man who draws water from the shallowest, muddiest well simply because it is closer. “Yes”, you have authority. And “Yes”, you are justified in invoking it. But your actions shouldn’t simply be justified. They should be effective!
The reason invoking authority alone is ineffective is that it doesn’t address a soldier’s natural and healthy curiosity about why tasks are done and how they relate to the overall mission. The most trivial tasks can be infused with significance by just a few words showing their necessity to troop safety or mission accomplishment. Leaders who consistently fail to explain why tasks are important are not only failing to motivate their soldiers properly, but are robbing them of the satisfaction of accomplishing an important task.
5 comments:
first off, "in all likelyhood nobody cares." thats motivating. Despite you not heeding your own advice, i agree with what you have to say and liked how you formated and and clearly articulated your thought in a way thats meaningful to all. Since im not in a leadership position i cannot share the same perspective on the stress and tasks that need to be accomplished. However, it is frustrating to be taskless wondering what should be done, especially when chain of command is off somewhere unable to communicate to those not in leadership roles. Are there common tasks that need to preformed every month that are on the individual or team level. ie pmcs vehicles. if there are more tasks like that maybe a list could be posted and certain tasks could be doled out to different teams.
As far as certain tasks being set to specific teams, that is the basic idea. But there is not always a set task that can be acomplished on an individual or team level. This problem falls on the first line leadership. Team leaders, your job is to teach. That is why you are team leaders. You are the more experienced soldiers and you should be sharing that experience at every chance you get. The fact that we only get together once a month for roughly 20 hours compounds this even more so. And its not hard, you dont always have to have a plan for your training. And you do not have to have your leaderships approval. For example. Its 1430 and all of the administrative tasks for your team have be finished for the day. Instead of letting your team sit around the bull pen and shoot the shit, get them together and teach a first aid class. Go over fire base operations. DO ANYTHING BUT LET THEM SIT! Im not trying to say that im not guilty of letting things like this happen, what im saying is that we all need to look at the way we lead. And make the appropriate adjustments.
If you really think about it, there should be no soldier left without a task, only without resources to complete a task. Everyone want’s to learn something about being a better MP, which is why I always ask my squad “what training do you want” near the end of every drill weekend. I’ll then do a bit of bookwork and have a block of instruction on hold so when the opportunity is there; we can train on what the soldiers want. Lately, the problem has been the lack of opportunities due to the overloaded Company training schedule for the leadership. However, there is no reason why our lower enlisted cannot get together in small groups and train the same way. Even without a list of tasks to train on, every discussion about the MP job can be considered training. The only question left is how good will that training will be. The answer lies with how dedicated you are.
SGT Altmann
As an Army Reservist we can take pride in our camaraderie and the sense of family within our unit. It’s what makes the reserves different from the Active Duty, and National Guard. We will go and fight not only for our country, but for the soldier next to us. We know each other on a personal level and take interest in others civilian lives. It’s what makes us different. However we have on average 28 days a month to do this. Thus leavening two days to fulfill our duties we so swore to do. We should never forget that when the day is over we are family; but intern we should recognize our roles during duty hours as they so deserve. From the Company Commander to the Team Member, we are all Soldiers. And every Soldier is responsible for a specific level of self dedication. There will always be incidents that lead Soldiers to believe that an opportunity to make something happen hasn’t presented its self yet. But it’s when that moment is upon us, that we find out our real level of self productivity. We must then adjust fire, and find a solution to the problem facing us. And it’s that proactive approach we all should take into consideration when finding or being apart of a “wait out the clock” kind of group.
CPL. HEINEMAN
Those two attitudes permeate the thinking of more people than soldiers. I'm afraid there are too many Christians who are "wait out the clock" believers, i.e. "when will the service end?" This sort of view lends not only to spiritual laziness in one's self (all too easy), but affects those around with the same attitude. I have no doubt that your main concluding phrase applies to our spiritual lives to a certain degree as well:
"The most trivial tasks can be infused with significance by just a few words showing their necessity to troop safety or mission accomplishment."
May the army do its duty and those outside of it be ready to enjoy doing theirs! Thanks, Matthew.
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