Get Away From That Desk!
Years ago, while working at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, someone said NCOs could not lead from behind a desk. I have always appreciated the sentiment of this statement because I believe it is true. However, working in a hospital as a senior NCO required a lot of time to manage things that I did not care about. Most of these things occurred behind the desk. More and more, senior NCOs, and even some junior NCOs, are finding themselves stuck behind their desks trying to accomplish all the administrative tasks that come with increased responsibility.
The idea that NCOs should come out from behind their desks is something that I feel strongly about, but the Army does not make it easy. As a Platoon Sergeant or First Sergeant, we find ourselves trying to manage medical readiness, personnel readiness, going through GEARS to process all administrative actions, ensure Soldiers are getting counseled, update training slides, attend meetings, and top it off with the emails that you haven’t had a chance to check. By the way, you have two Soldiers standing at the door that want to talk to you about some significant life issues.
Managing these tasks can be overwhelming because you don’t want to let your leadership down. You put in all your effort to pleasing your boss and try to show them how great you are at “leading,” but have you been leading?
What if you decided to shift your focus from your bosses to your subordinates? What would happen if you chose to blow off looking at GEARS, spreadsheets, PowerPoints, and emails for a day or two so that you could just go out there and get involved in the day-to-day lives of your Soldiers? As it turns out, great things will happen.
As leaders, we tend to think that everyone seems to know what they are doing because the job is getting done. While it may be true that they are accomplishing the tasks, they are missing out on the knowledge and perspective that we can provide from our years of experience. Your knowledge and experience cannot be shared by sitting at your desk!
As a First Sergeant, I would dedicate uninterrupted time slots to go out and spend time with Soldiers; Motorpool Monday, Sergeant’s Time Training on Thursday, and various training events we did throughout the week. Doing this allowed my subordinates to ask me questions about my experience, and it also showed how much value we as leaders place on these events.
The experience we bring as senior leaders is vital to our organization’s success. I can say with 100% certainty that if a pressing issue must be dealt with immediately, it will not come to you in an email. If I’m honest, I got to a point where I was very selective about the administrative tasks I executed. I believe my time was better spent on sharing my knowledge and stories with Soldiers. I was rewarded in trust and communication. By being open and honest about my experiences, my subordinates were more open to communicating with me, which led me to understand the organization better. In turn, I noticed the gaps in knowledge that we as leaders needed to focus on to ensure our organization’s success.
Leaders, my challenge to you this week is to get away from your desk and share your knowledge with others. Be practical about it, and don’t bring up unrelated topics because you want to sound smart. You have a lot to offer your organization. However, this will come at the expense of another task. Notice that I said, “at the expense of another task.” Do not sacrifice your family or personal time to go back and do that task. I can assure you from experience, most of the tasks you do on your computer are not that important, and someone is going to ask you for that information on the phone even after you’ve emailed it to them three times this week.
~Rey