The "vision thing" for lieutenants.

Ever since I was a cadet at the US Military Academy at West Point, I have heard about the "vision thing." I learned that a great leader has a vision and is able to communicate that vision to his troops. The reverent tones and mystical references made it all seem very mysterious to me. Time and again, I was told how crucial it is that a leader have "vision."

But as a cadet and, later, as a lieutenant, I concluded that I must not be destined for greatness because I just didn't "get it." I remember taking over my platoon and not having a clue what my platoon was going to be doing (except, of course, lobbing 100-pound projectiles many miles downrange to render death and destruction on the godless enemies of our country), much less my role in the platoon. So how could I have a platoon vision?

As a brand new firing battery platoon leader, I just didn't know very much about platoon operations. My half-day as the advance party man during FA Officer Basic Course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, just didn't spark that celestial dream of how I would one day mold my firing platoon into a fearsome, death-dealing bastion of indirect firepower.

Fortunately, I had an absolutely superb platoon sergeant, then-Sergeant First Class George Harvey, who taught me much of what I needed to know.

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Fourteen months later, I had a pretty good idea of what my platoon could accomplish and, more importantly, where it could go, in terms of capabilities and performance. My platoon sergeant had gotten me to stick my nose into FM 6-50 Tactics Techniques and Procedures (TTP) for the Cannon Battery (now FM 3-09.70) and read up on the TTPs of the cannon battalion. I learned what a mission-essential task list (METL) was and what it had to do with me. I spent a great deal of time tapping into my platoon sergeant's experience base and interacting with my Soldiers.

But by then, I was finished with my gun line time and went off to the battalion S2 shop where I couldn't even spell AR 190-11, the regulation governing the physical security of arms, ammunition and explosives.

Eighteen months later, I took command of a battery at Fort Sill. I had been in command for a couple of months and knew things weren't quite humming the way they should have been when the battalion commander called me in and told me what I already knew. His assessment was that my battery was drifting due to my failure to communicate my vision for the unit to the Soldiers.

"Crap!" I thought, "that damn vision thing again." I told the boss I was struggling with that whole vision concept, and he said, "You know, your vision is where you want your battery to go." Oh, no kidding.

We talked for a few more minutes (to no avail), and I went off and made a PowerPoint briefing to help me tell my Soldiers what I thought I wanted. I held a battery meeting and gave them my pitch, and everything just took off as if by magic, right? Wrong.

It was only after I had been in command about a year that I was able to articulate clearly what I wanted. After I dug into the program of instruction (it was a basic training battery), delved into my battery METL, figured out how we measured our performance as trainers and spent some time with my NCOs, I was able to see the possibilities that lay before my battery.

I had puzzled over this vision thing for many, many moons, and only after I was a senior captain well into command did I finally "get it." And I figured out how to come up with a vision a little more quickly than 12 months on the job.

So, Lieutenant, if you are a young Patton or MacArthur, go on to the next article. If not, read on. This may help you determine a vision before you are captain in command of a battery.

Defining Vision. Let's start with a definition of "vision." Warren Bennis, the author of several books on leadership and widely considered to be a really smart guy on the subject, describes it this way: "a vision articulates a view of a realistic, credible, attractive future for the organization, a condition that is better in some important ways than what now exists [emphasis added]" (Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge, Harper & Row, New York, 1985, Page 89.)

Wow! Sounds impressive, but what does it mean? First of all, you must realize we're talking about the future. This is something out in front of where you are today in terms of both time and performance. Vision is more than a goal. Goals should be more specific. A vision is broader and more general. It usually is measured in terms of several goals across different areas.

Making Your Vision "Realistic." That means achievable. This is subjective. The problem with realistic is that it varies from leader to leader.

Just as a leader must be careful when setting goals for his unit, a realistic vision can be tricky. If you set the bar too low, there is no pride in achieving the vision and you need a new vision.

Additionally, low-bar vision can undermine the Soldiers' confidence in the leadership--they actually may feel insulted. For example if part of your vision is to improve the physical fitness of your platoon with the goal of each Soldier's achieving a score of 200 on the physical fitness test (PT), your Soldiers' reaction very well could be, "The Lieutenant wants me to score 200 on the PT? Ooooooh, I'm scared."

Set the bar too high and Soldiers will become discouraged and view it as unachievable--"The Lieutenant wants a 295 average? It's time he gets a urinalysis test."

You must know what you are asking of your unit when you set goals or determine your vision for your Soldiers' future performance. To do that, you must know what tasks the Army needs them to perform under what conditions and to what level of standard, how your Soldiers are performing now and how much more they are capable of with effort. Figure 1 outlines a five-step process for doing your homework before determining your vision.

1. Study Doctrine. The first place to begin is with doctrine and the professional knowledge base. This means you dig into field manuals (FMs), mission training plans (MTPs), Field Artillery Journal (FAJ) articles and Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) publications. FMs and MTPs will tell you the by-the-book way. Consider this the ground-truth, the foundation for everything else. FAJ and CALL articles give the latest scoop on how people are adapting doctrine and devising TTPs to meet their current needs and situations.

2. Review your battalion's mission and METL. Your mission will tell you your one-over-the-world job, something like, "To deploy worldwide and provide close supporting fires, counterfires and shaping fires in support of the 2d Brigade Combat Team's operations." Your vision statement may closely parallel this mission statement, only written at your level. Most of the time they do--but not always.

Another good place to look is your chain-of-command and their vision statements. None in my chain were helpful, but those in your chain might be very helpful. I did have a brigade commander who had a superb vision.

The example in Figure 2 was adapted from Colonel Michael W. McKeeman's vision statement as the commander of the Field Artillery Training Center at Fort Sill. Although this vision is for the brigade level, the point is that instead of conveying specific mission performance, it conveys a manner, an attitude of performance, if you will, as an option.

3. Research your unit's performance. Examine the battery and battalion's performance on the last field exercise, to include any formal and informal after-action report (AAR) comments. Look at command inspection (CI) program results and the current statistical picture (PT averages; marksmanship scores; measures of expertise, such as performance levels on the gunner's test; etc.) as well as any other type of unit measure you can find. This information will help you understand all the tasks your unit performs and its proficiency at them. These results should point out some of the unit's strengths and weak-nesses.

For example, if in looking over the results from the last round of gunners' tests you see that your platoon had the least number qualify as expert and that in section evaluations, your gun sections came in, in the bottom one-third, then you can see there is room for improvement. And if in examining the fire direction center (FDC) competition you discover your FDC come in dead last, there is definitely room for improvement. You can incorporate these upgrades in your vision to read something like, "to be the most technically proficient platoon in the battalion." The platoon's progress easily can be assessed through regular competitions in the battalion.

4. Talk to your NCOs, your platoon sergeant and first sergeant. Doing Steps 1 through 3 will help you understand what your platoon sergeant will tell you. This discussion should cover the unit's strengths and weaknesses--what it can do and what it should be able to do, but can't--and where the NCOs see the unit going (improving, getting worse or standing still).

I also recommend you talk with the section chiefs separately to get more candid feedback.

5. Talk to your Soldiers and get a feel for their levels of confidence, competence and morale. This does two things for you. First, it allows your Soldiers to get to see you up close, get to know you. Second, it lets you get to know your Soldiers individually.

Ask your Soldiers questions and then listen to their answers. Ask about their families; but most importantly at this stage, ask them how the unit is doing. How long have they been in the unit? How was the last field problem? "Are 'we squared away'?" Which platoon is the best in the battery, in the battalion? (You should hear, "This one is." If not, you might want to incorporate that into your vision.)

Creating Credibility. Bennis' definition of a vision as "credible" means there must be some basis for the vision. This is closely linked with the "realistic" aspect of the vision.

What's more, credibility stems from the leader himself. The led must see that the leader is basing his vision on more than just a "gut feel" or worse yet, a "swag." If you walk in on Day 1 and begin sharing your vision, you are going to lack credibility.

It may be possible for you to do all or most of the five research steps to ensure your vision is "realistic" before you assume the leadership position. But generally speaking, your Soldiers will wonder how the heck you know what you're talking about only 24 hours into the job.

I recommend you wait at least two weeks before sharing your vision, and you can take up to 30 days. However, at the end of that first month, you should be able to articulate the destination you are leading your Soldiers to and how you are going to get them there. (Obviously, there are exceptions to this, such as taking over in combat.)

Credibility also comes from your personal performance. Study up before you get there, so you get a running start. Admit when you don't know something. No one expects you to know everything right away. It demonstrates honesty (and courage) to admit what you don't know and inspires confidence when you do speak because the assumption will be that you know what you are talking about (because you admit when you don't).

PT is one of the foremost places to gain credibility. You should be at the 270 level or above. You may not be the fastest troop in the platoon or able to do the most push-ups, but you should be near the top.

Another obvious place to enhance your personal credibility is with your appearance. A good haircut and a well-kept uniform worn correctly go far. Lieutenant, figure the beret out ASAP.

Making Your Vision Attractive. Bennis' "attractive" means your vision is of a place or condition to which people want to go. This is usually in terms of eliteness, effectiveness, capabilities, excellence or another dimension along those lines.

No one truly aspires to mediocrity. Soldiers (and people in general) want to be in a better unit/organization. They want to be able to brag that their platoon is the best platoon in the battery/battalion/division artillery/Army.

Your vision will enable your Soldiers to see what they will look like in the future. It has a basis in the here-and-now, but it is a destination, a state of being that is demonstrably better than where they are now.

Bennis wrote, "When individuals feel that they can make a difference and they can improve the society in which they are living through their participation in an organization, then it is much more likely that they will bring vigor and enthusiasm to their tasks and that the results of their work will be mutually reinforcing" (Strategies for Taking Charge, Page 91).

This is a bit of basic psychology that leaders need to know and tap into. What does it have to do with vision? It shows the impact of giving Soldiers purpose. Purpose will help you craft an attractive vision that your troops will want to be part of.

Communicating Your Vision. Now that you've created your vision, you need to share it with your Soldiers. Do it in three steps. First, explain it to your NCOs--your platoon sergeant, gunnery sergeant, section chiefs--and then your battery commander (BC).

I recommend you bounce it off your platoon sergeant one-on-one first and get his feedback. He makes an excellent sounding board for all your ideas, but this one is especially important.

Then take your vision to your BC. Running anything you want to put out to your platoon as guidance by the BC is always a good idea. The last thing you want is to have to retract your vision when the BC does not agree with it.

Then take it to the rest of the NCOs. This can take a variety of forms, such as a speech or a PowerPoint presentation. You should pick a medium you are comfortable with, so you can focus energy on your message, not on struggling with your means of delivery.

Speaking of energy, you need to show some during your deliveries, both to the NCOs and to Soldiers. Your vision is something you should be passionate about. You don't necessarily need to be screaming and yelling, but you definitely need to put out positive vibrations.

Next, you share your vision with all your Soldiers. This can be done in formation, in a classroom, in the motorpool, in the field or somewhere else. You should pick the location deliberately to help emphasize your message. For instance, if maintenance is problem area and a significant part of your vision, the motorpool might be a great place to deliver your message.

The third step is to share your vision continually. Everyday look for opportunities to reinforce your vision: what it is, how the platoon is moving toward it and the progress the platoon already has made. Encourage your subordinate leaders to do the same. This should to be one of the points you make when you meet with your NCOs initially--that you need them to buy into the vision and help make it happen.

A vision unites, inspires, motivates and points the way. It helps the leader take his unit to a better state of being, a higher level of performance. It allows Soldiers to see where they are going and how they are going to get there.

FM 22-100 Army Leadership leaves the discussion of vision to the strategic level of leadership. But as a Lieutenant, if you elect to read Chapter 7 of that manual, you will see much of what I have covered in this article.

I submit that vision is for lieutenants, not just generals.

1  Study doctrine.
2  Review the mission and mission-essential task list (METL).
3  Research unit performance.
4  Talk to top NCOs (platoon sergeants and first sergeants).
5  Visit with Soldiers.

Figure 1: Research Steps to Forming a Vision

Spirit is pride--pride in what we do as Soldiers for our country, in how
  we wear our uniform and in how we conduct ourselves on and off duty.
Discipline is maintaining Army values and doing our duty without regard
  to the consequences or level of supervision.
Teamwork is valuing each Soldier and his abilities, working together to
  accomplish each mission and putting more effort toward the unit's
  success than our own personal success.
Time-on-Target is when devastating artillery fires are massed at
  precisely the right spot at precisely the right time to determine the
  outcome of the battle.

Figure 2: Spirit, Discipline and Teamwork Equal Time-on-Target (SDT=TOT)

By Major S. Mark McMillion

Major S. Mark McMillion is an Assistant Fire Support Coordinator (AFSCOORD) for the 3d Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Fort Stewart, Georgia. In his previous assignment, he taught in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Among other assignments, he commanded A Battery, 1st Battalion, 19th Field Artillery (Basic Training) (A/1-19 FA) at the Field Artillery Training Center, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and served as an Assistant Brigade Fire Support Officer (FSO), Company FSO and Platoon Leader in 2-3 FA plus as a Combat Observation Lasing Team (COLT) Platoon Leader, all in the 1st Armored Division in Germany. He holds an MA from Ohio State University.