Blog 4: Team Leadership Structure and Organization
In high school, I was a member of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) for all four years, actively participated in several teams within the program each academic year, and had a goal of being promoted to the highest position within the school battalion. By my Junior year I had reached the third highest position within the battalion, Command Sergeant Major (c/ CSM) and had enough experience in military drill movements that I had to teach new recruits the basics of drilling.
As the Cadet Command Sergeant Major, my main responsibilities involved working with the five company First Sergeants as each had a monthly company task, organizing monthly meetings with the First Sergeants, and selecting the Cadet of the Month and Cadet of the Year. I also was responsible for supervising the Color Guard team, the individuals that carry the flags flanked by two riflemen on either sides at parades or sports games, but this was supposed to be a more minor task as there was no prerequisite that a Cadet Command Sergeant Major had to have Color Guard experience.
That year, supervising the Color Guard was the most time consuming responsibility of my position because the Captain of the Color Guard rarely ever showed up to any of the morning practices at 0630 hours or 6:30 AM twice a week. I ended up training the freshmen Color Guard team with the Sophomore Executive Officer (XO) or Vice Captain, of the Color Guard for the annual city wide drill competition between all of the JROTC programs in Chicago. We only had from the beginning of the school year until mid December to prepare the freshman Color Guard team for competition.
In the beginning, we had a rough start as neither of us had experience in managing and setting up a training schedule for an entire team but neither did many of the other team captains in JROTC. We started with the basics of drill movements which essentially is how to march then after a week or two incorporated flags, rifles, and calling commands. The Executive Officer and I viewed each other as equals in terms of team hierarchy, requested feedback from each other and the freshmen frequently, and established a training schedule with contingency plans if the freshmen were not making enough progress.
I believe this leadership structure within the Color Guard team would best be described as a dual authority management because the Executive Officer and I would, ideally, report to the instructor that accompanied the Color Guard. We did not have to report to the instructor as they were with us most of our practices. In reality, it was just the Executive Officer and I managing all aspects of the Color Guard.
The Executive Officer and I inspired the freshmen to show up to every morning practice and as competition grew close we were having practices in the morning, during our lunch break, and after school five days a week. I think an important part of this process was being lucky enough to have motivated freshmen that wanted to succeed and also we had an unofficial policy of celebrating each other’s birthdays with a red velvet cake from Jewel Osco. The freshmen Color Guard that year placed first place in the city wide competition.
The leadership structure that naturally developed over time, open communications, establishing a clear goal with measurable performance check points, a manageable team size of six, and playing to our strengths is what I believe lead to the freshmen Color Guard’s success in the competition.
Looking back there were aspects, we could have improved such as the upperclassmen Color Guard team was neglected and I should have met with the Color Guard Captain to discuss that she needed to attend practices as it was her responsibility. I am not sure what the upperclassmen Color Guard team did during this time as the Executive Officer and I were too focused on training the freshmen team.
The next year, the Executive Officer, who was the new Captain of the Color Guard, and I had a falling out because we did not agree on the training method for that year’s freshman team. The Executive Officer was training the new freshman team of four with last year’s freshman team of four. In other words, instead of having two main instructors that year’s freshman team had five instructors, would be six but I left the team. I disagreed with her training decision because I believe that there were too many instructors with insufficient experience that would have made organization more difficult. That year the freshman Color Guard team placed seventh place city wide from first place just a year prior.
As the Cadet Command Sergeant Major, my main responsibilities involved working with the five company First Sergeants as each had a monthly company task, organizing monthly meetings with the First Sergeants, and selecting the Cadet of the Month and Cadet of the Year. I also was responsible for supervising the Color Guard team, the individuals that carry the flags flanked by two riflemen on either sides at parades or sports games, but this was supposed to be a more minor task as there was no prerequisite that a Cadet Command Sergeant Major had to have Color Guard experience.
That year, supervising the Color Guard was the most time consuming responsibility of my position because the Captain of the Color Guard rarely ever showed up to any of the morning practices at 0630 hours or 6:30 AM twice a week. I ended up training the freshmen Color Guard team with the Sophomore Executive Officer (XO) or Vice Captain, of the Color Guard for the annual city wide drill competition between all of the JROTC programs in Chicago. We only had from the beginning of the school year until mid December to prepare the freshman Color Guard team for competition.
In the beginning, we had a rough start as neither of us had experience in managing and setting up a training schedule for an entire team but neither did many of the other team captains in JROTC. We started with the basics of drill movements which essentially is how to march then after a week or two incorporated flags, rifles, and calling commands. The Executive Officer and I viewed each other as equals in terms of team hierarchy, requested feedback from each other and the freshmen frequently, and established a training schedule with contingency plans if the freshmen were not making enough progress.
I believe this leadership structure within the Color Guard team would best be described as a dual authority management because the Executive Officer and I would, ideally, report to the instructor that accompanied the Color Guard. We did not have to report to the instructor as they were with us most of our practices. In reality, it was just the Executive Officer and I managing all aspects of the Color Guard.
The Executive Officer and I inspired the freshmen to show up to every morning practice and as competition grew close we were having practices in the morning, during our lunch break, and after school five days a week. I think an important part of this process was being lucky enough to have motivated freshmen that wanted to succeed and also we had an unofficial policy of celebrating each other’s birthdays with a red velvet cake from Jewel Osco. The freshmen Color Guard that year placed first place in the city wide competition.
The leadership structure that naturally developed over time, open communications, establishing a clear goal with measurable performance check points, a manageable team size of six, and playing to our strengths is what I believe lead to the freshmen Color Guard’s success in the competition.
Looking back there were aspects, we could have improved such as the upperclassmen Color Guard team was neglected and I should have met with the Color Guard Captain to discuss that she needed to attend practices as it was her responsibility. I am not sure what the upperclassmen Color Guard team did during this time as the Executive Officer and I were too focused on training the freshmen team.
The next year, the Executive Officer, who was the new Captain of the Color Guard, and I had a falling out because we did not agree on the training method for that year’s freshman team. The Executive Officer was training the new freshman team of four with last year’s freshman team of four. In other words, instead of having two main instructors that year’s freshman team had five instructors, would be six but I left the team. I disagreed with her training decision because I believe that there were too many instructors with insufficient experience that would have made organization more difficult. That year the freshman Color Guard team placed seventh place city wide from first place just a year prior.
I didn't previously know about JROTC. You wrote your piece as if the reader was already informed about it. So it would be good to provide a brief explanation of what it is and how it connects to ROTC. I found myself struggling to follow what you said, because I lacked the background to make sense of it all.
ReplyDeleteIn particular, in the second paragraph you wrote about supervising the First Sergeants but then you segued into talking about the Color Guard . The rest of the post was about that. I didn't understand why that was. It seemed like the Color Guard was less important than your other responsibilities, but that's what you emphasized. I didn't get it.
The other part I didn't get was whether there was a teacher or other adult who was ultimately responsible for the unit. You said that as a junior you reached the third highest position. Was the highest position filled by a student or an adult. It would help me to clarify that. The way you wrote this, students made all the decisions. That seems strange to me in a group that has official sanction.
If you had written that extra paragraph I wanted up front, at the conclusion you could then talk a little about how the entire experience has affected you. Are you in ROTC now? That would be interesting to know. Also, if you are, could you have been in it without JROTC? I know you wanted to answer the questions in the prompt, but it also helps for the story to be coherent on its own.
I am not in ROTC now and being in JROTC is not a requirement to join ROTC.
DeleteJROTC is the high school version of ROTC that teaches high school students army values, basic drill/marching, and provides leadership opportunities in the form of the chain of command that consists entirely of students. Each school that offers JROTC will have its own battalion that operates with its own student leadership and the number of instructors, retired adult military members, at each school is determined by how many students are in the program. It is required that an instructor is present at all team practices.
Being in a leadership position does not take up much time outside of weekly practices and meetings. Supervising the First Sergeants mostly entailed checking that they did their assigned monthly jobs: cleaning the two classrooms, distribute the newspaper, raising and lowering the flag in the morning and afternoon, and playing the national anthem in the mornings. Along with this, once a month we had Cadet of the Month in the morning before school for an hour; each First Sergeant selects a cadet from their company to compete for the Cadet of the Month. Since the First Sergeants were not very time consuming I was able to put in more time training the Color Guard.