Leadership as Process
Study.
Eight Troop Leading Procedures
The US Army, historically, has an evaluation model for cadets training to be junior officers that is not dissimilar to a consulting case interview. Nominally a team activity, cadets are individually evaluated while rotating through a squad leadership role to complete a puzzle or obstacle bearing a loose resemblance to a real world challenge. For example, crossing an invisible river.
Given only two boards, one barrel, and one rope, how will you lead your squad across this 15-foot-wide invisible river?
Just as there is fairly formulaic case training to get a prospective consultant off to the correct start in an interview, the US Army has a specific leadership methodology it expects to be deployed by every leader, not just in these evaluations, but also in every future activity. The invisible river is not exclusively, but very explicitly, checking whether a cadet can and will successfully deploy the Eight Troop Leading Procedures.
The Eight Troop Leading Procedures are a standardized leadership process for all US Army leaders. They are first applied by squad leaders - Sergeants and Staff Sergeants - leading groups of eight to ten Soldiers, but the framework and logic is applicable at all levels.
Ask yourself: Is leadership a process?
Weekly Materials: 3 - 7 March, 2025
Requested reading:
FM 5-0, Planning and Orders Production
Pages 149 through 154 based on printed document (PDF pages 161-166)
An overview of the eight troop leading procedures. You can definitely handle five pages.
Optional reading:
ATP 3-21.8, Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad
Pages 2-9 through 2-39 based on printed document (PDF pages 49-79)
If you really want to go deep, these thirty pages describe the troop leading procedures in detail.
While you read, always be asking:
1. Where does this fit with my professional life?
2. Where does this fit with my personal life?
3. What can I borrow with pride to use this week?
Start the Week Strong
Revisit or Catch Up from Last Week
Each week we’ll share links to the prior week’s dispatches.