The Effectiveness of Leadership Development Training for Warrant Officer Candidates

WOSC-09-07, CW3 Jermain C. Williamson

I served as a TAC Officer from July 2006 until February 2008 and as the SR TAC Officer from March 2008 until April 2009 while assigned to the 1st Warrant Officer Company, Warrant Officer Career Center, Ft Rucker, AL. My duties included developing, advising, and coaching Warrant Officer Candidates from 15 branches and over 43 specialty fields; specifically provide leadership and create a positive learning environment which encourages all Candidates to demonstrate their physical, mental, and leadership abilities as they transition from Enlisted to Warrant Officers, supervise, train and coach 20 Warrant Officers serving as TAC Officers, standardize and supervise all Candidate and TAC Officer training, supervise hands on training for National Guard TAC Officers as part of the RTI initiative.

Observation 1: Leadership Development training provided by the Warrant Officer Career College for Warrant Officer Candidates has successfully changed to meet the needs of the operational Army.

Discussion: The Warrant Officer Career College was challenged by TRADOC to restructure the training that is provided to Warrant Officer Candidates to better prepare them for their role as Officer leaders in the Army. The Commandant, COL Jones took this tasking on with passion and intensity. He immediately started re-looking old and outdated practices of not only Candidate leadership training but just as important TAC Officer training. Col Jones decided that Warrant Officer Candidate School (WOCS) needed to evolve to better align its philosophy and activities to meet the needs of an Army at war. The driving force is the desire to produce Warrant Officers better qualified to operate effectively in the demanding operational environment (OE). The current focus emphasizes officer roles and responsibilities more, and individual activities less. Candidates are required to meet high standards for maintaining their personal living areas; however, the standards are based on the need to maintain a clean and orderly living environment rather than what many in the past perceived as arbitrary specifications designed to heighten stress levels. There are experiential learning events throughout the program, particularly warrior tasks and battle drill related activities that provide leadership opportunities while emphasizing lessons relevant to the OE. These activities culminate in a field leadership exercise (FLX) that draws heavily on recent lessons learned. This capstone event provides candidates expanded opportunities to apply flexible, adaptive leadership principles in stressful, sometimes ambiguous, situations to reinforce and build upon previous classroom theory studies and discussion. Training, advising, and Counseling Officers (TACs) and academic instructors concentrate primarily on overall development and secondly on assessing candidates’ performance through mentorship and counseling. This becomes apparent in the time and effort TACs and instructors devote to serving as role models, mentors, and coaches.

Throughout all the changes, rigor is maintained even increased and the goal continues to be to provide candidates the foundation they need to succeed as warrant officers in a changing Army, and to be adaptable to the ever increasing challenges of the Operating Environment.

As a member of the organization I could easily say that of course we are doing a great job, and quite possibly an immaterial aspect of all this, is that all of the Cadre actually enjoy and are extremely passionate about the most difficult assignment in their Warrant Officer career. From a purely objective standpoint, it is the feedback we have received from the newly appointed Officers as the real or actual indication that the program is a success. The process of providing students the opportunity to critique the program and allow to voice their opinions both anonymously and openly gives us a clear indication that this is exactly what the these “young” Officers and the Army needed. We continue to get letters of gratitude and appreciation from recent graduates as well as just simple e-mails that say “thanks”.

Recommendation: One of the only drawbacks to the current program is its resources. There are currently 20 TAC Officers assigned to the 1st Warrant Officer Company, with the average size of classes being 70-90 students, the Warrant Officer Career College falls under the recommended student-to-instructor ratio set forth by TRADOC of 1-15. USAREC and USAAC in concert need to work on keeping the maximum number of students for each class to 60. The decrease in number will better suite the program to allow the TAC Officers and Academic instructors to interact with the students on a more intimate level, which in turn will provide a more accurate assessment and evaluation of each individual student which is the cornerstone of the Leadership Development process.

Summary: WOCS is a challenging course, where each Candidate is tested to ensure they meet the moral, mental, and physical requirements to become the Warrant Officers of the future. Through its’ Leadership Development program, WOCS should continue to provide the Army with confident, competent warrior- leaders that are self aware, flexible and adaptive who demonstrate the leadership potential to become Army Warrant Officers who are morally grounded in the seven Army values and the Warrior Ethos. “Strength In Knowledge”!

References:
WOCC Homepage, dated 11 April 2009
1st WOC SOP, dated September 2008
P.O.C. CW3 Jermain C. Williamson, (334) 255-1955, DSN 558-1955
AKO: jermain.c.williamson@us.army.mil