My Cruicible Experence

Most dictionaries define a crucible as a severe test or a place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development. In their article Crucibles of Leadership, Warren G. Bennis, and Robert J. Thomas describe a crucible experience as one of the most reliable indicators and predictors of true leadership is an individual’s ability to find meaning in intense, often traumatic, and usually unplanned experiences in one’s life. Like myself, many if not all people have several experiences that classify as a crucible. I believe attending Command and Staff General College (CGSC) presents a great opportunity to professionally developing the future leaders of our military. My personal CGSC experience consisting of factors influencing my decision and timeline to attend CGSC, applying the skill of time management as I pursued a masters’ degree while attending CGSC, and learning to deal with and overcome failure has definitely become my crucible experience.
Around mid-July 2012, I received notification of my selection to attend the CGSC resident course. My tentative report date to Fort Leavenworth Kansas was 4 January 2013 according to the Request for Orders (RFO) email that I received from my branch. Although I had high aspirations of attending CGSC, the timing of this move was not the way I had personally planned the next couple of years of my military career. I had just took command in May of 2012 of the Ranger Support Company (RSC) of 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, a position that I had worked very hard to obtain. Additional, I was preparing for a combat deployment as commander of the RSC. Having previously deploying twice with the 3rd Ranger Battalion in a staff position, this depl...

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...ught me how to make better decisions, both personally and in my professional life. Now that I am going back to Fort Benning upon completion of CGSC, leaving my family there was one of the best decisions of my life. It has taught me how to manage my time better; a skill that always needs to be refined. Most of all, it has taught me to deal with and not just overcome, but also learn from failure. As an organizational-level leader, sometimes I will have to make the unpopular decision for the staff, but that decision will always be for the good of them. It may also be a decision on how I am managing the staff’s time. Most of all, it will help me in teaching my subordinates how to deal with and learn from failure. Therefore, I feel the educational and life lessons I have learned during my CGSC experience has already and will continue to make me a better leader.