Identifying and Retaining the Army's Best Midgrade Officers

Within the next several years, dynamic environmental and generational factors colliding within the ranks of the U.S. Army will place demands on our leadership every bit as challenging as the last 14 years of combat.1 Under these difficult circumstances, the need to identify and retain the best midgrade officers remains foundational to the Army's success. The critical tasks linked to the necessity to adapt retention strategy will fall largely on brigade and battalion commanders, together with the burden of managing the Army's talent into the future.The situation is uniquely challenging today as compared to the Army's past experience because generational differences, according to some, have created a cultural divide between older senior commanders and younger midgrade officers that is difficult to reconcile. If this is so, the institution and its senior commanders will need to modify their traditional approach to managing midlevel officers to bridge the gap between generations in order to ensure the force retains the best talent.The key to managing officers from the millennial generation (people reaching adulthood around the year 2000 or later) will be establishing a positive command climate attuned to future mission requirements. To accomplish this, commanders must adjust their mentorship style and content to provide positive vision and direction to junior leaders, while coaching them on the availability and value of broadening assignments to prepare them for the future as well as enhance their perspectives in current assignments. Additionally, the Army must concurrently adapt its human resources systems to enable brigade and battalion commanders to administer new talent-management venues to support this kind of holistic process. To achieve the necessary internal cultural change, the Army has already begun to overhaul its human resource systems to identify quality leaders. This overhaul includes a new officer evaluation report, a multisource assessment feedback tool, and restructured promotion timelines.2 However, if declining promotion rates from the postwar military drawdown reduce opportunities for advancement, and candid performance evaluations contain unwelcome criticism, promising talent not properly incentivized may behave just as their millennial civilian peers frequently do-by readily seeking employment elsewhere.3Retaining the best of the Army's millennial leaders will have to start with battalion and brigade commanders tailoring a positive command climate that appeals to millennial sensibilities and values. Midgrade officers' sense of self-worth, together with optimism that a career in the military will offer good opportunities for success, heavily influences their career decisions. Cultivating this type of optimism begins with a command climate in which all members of the organization feel appreciated and valued for their contributions. Brigade and battalion commanders may find a special challenge in managing midgrade officers with extensive deployment experience and multiple combat tours. Such midlevel officers will expect the same kind of command receptivity and recognition for their contributions they experienced when leading soldiers in combat, where many made life-and-death decisions on a daily basis.Additionally, in creating the right command environment for now and in the future, commanders must appeal to midgrade officers' sense of purpose and adventure by striking a balance between training and family time. Not unlike their predecessors of previous generations, midgrade Army leaders expect hard, rigorous, and meaningful training. They understand the necessity for the hardship and sacrifice of family separation during wartime. However, they are likely to be much less tolerant than previous generations of what they consider make-work reasons for family separation in a garrison army that is no longer fighting a war.4 This is not a criticism of midgrade officers' commitment to duty. …