I'm on Amazon

I've reviewed a number of books on this blog, and when doing so I've linked pictures of the books to their Amazon.com pages. It's been a standard practice for me, but I never thought I'd be able to do one on my own book.

*****
The Army has a lot of books that talk about leadership -- about how to be -- but since the Global War on Terror began there haven't been any that talked about what to do.

Even more frustrating was the way the Army itself didn't really prepare officers for company command -- neither the Basic Course nor the Captains' Career Course address what the job's really about. There's a week-long course at the installation level, scheduling time is awkward, and it doesn't compare with the six months spent in the captains' course.

I wrote Mechanics of Company Command specifically to address this gap. It doesn't pretend to advise anyone on what their priorities should be; rather, it lists the roles a commander plays within their company (what they do) and how to position oneself for success. If anything, I'd describe it as a technical manual for a company grade officer, divided into four sections.

The first part deals with some management principles. In my time with the Army, I've seen a tendency for leaders to assign jobs based on trust (who's my "go-to" guy) rather than position, which short-circuits the evaluation process. Some people get overloaded, while others malinger, and no one gets an accurate evaluation. From a leadership perspective, it's understandable ("I don't care who does it! I just want it done!") but it's unprofessional.

The second part deals with how you get a command. There's where to look, how to approach the brigade commander, how to interview, and how to do the change-of-command inventory. Up to this point, the book is organized somewhat chronologically.

The third section is organized topically, and talks about the five roles of a company commander -- Administrator, Resource Manager, Conscience/Counselor/Coach, Hammer, and Training Manager.

The Administrator talks about how to handle the digital mountain of paperwork you have to do. The Resource Manager talks about cyclic inventories and money.

The longest section, Conscience/Counselor/Coach, talks about how to take care of people. By contrast, Hammer explains how to apply the range of disciplinary actions. Finally, Training Manager covers how to plan out the company's activities for each quarter.

The last section lists some digital best practices I'd learned from years as a computer technician before joining the Army, as well as tips on how to transition things to the next commander.
*****

My hope for the book was to help the Army become a more professional place. I think there's a lot we all can learn about how to do our jobs well, and we owe it to taxpayers to execute our responsibilities as efficiently as possible. Perhaps this is a step in that direction.

If I get the chance for a second edition, I'd include sections on barracks management and ethics, but as an author I'm proud of the result.

Now if I could only get West Point to make it required reading....