Subscribe
By Sgt. 1st Class Jacob Boyer
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Lt. Gen. Jeffrey W. Talley, Chief of Army Reserve and Commanding General of U.S. Army Reserve Command, told senior Army Reserve leaders that developing leaders was crucial to navigating the constrained fiscal environment at the USARC Commander’s Conference here July 23.
“We don’t know what the future holds. What we do know is the way that we’re going to get through it is leader development,” Talley said. “We’re going to lead ourselves through this. We’re never going to know exactly what the problem is until it’s upon us, so my argument is invest in leader development and invest in a reserve component.”
During a question and answer session, Talley said the Army was “leadership rich.”
“On our worst day, you’re probably ranked as some of the best leaders we have in the United States, private or public sector. When people want to learn about leadership, when people want to know how to be a leader, they don’t go to academia. They come to the United States Army,” he said. “We have the tradition and the reputation of being the best organization in the world at developing leaders at every level.”
Beyond fiscal uncertainty, Talley said Army leaders have to be prepared for a variety of missions without knowing what the next threat will be. He used current tensions between Russia and Ukraine as a scenario no one would have thought of three years ago. He said that uncertainty is why it is important for the U.S. to maintain strong reserve forces.
“I wish I could tell you we’ve got it all figured out. We don’t,” he said. “We never get it right. I tell Congress this is why we need a very capable reserve component as an insurance policy. We never know for sure.”
Talley encouraged senior leaders in the audience to make sure they were keeping the Army Reserve staff aware of the positive things their units are doing. He also praised Army Reserve ambassadors for their role in informing the public of why the Army Reserve is important.
“We have one of the greatest blessings in the world by having the Army Reserve Ambassador program, and it’s underutilized. I’m not saying the Army Reserve ambassadors are underworked,” he said. “We need to do a better job of utilizing and involving our Army Reserve ambassadors.”
Audit readiness, recruiting, retention and communication to the lowest level of Soldiers were among the other topics discussed during the session. Talley said he wanted the leaders who attended to leave the conference with information they can use to improve their commands.
“I hope you found this conference was useful,” he said. “I think the discussions and dialogs that I’ve heard are very beneficial and certainly covered the important issues you need to be focused on and aware of. If there’s anything that’s good that’s going to happen in the Army Reserve, it’s going to happen because of you and the wonderful Soldiers and civilians that you have the privilege of working with and leading every day.”
Talley left the audience with a final thought on leadership: A leader’s greatest responsibility is “growing” other leaders.
“How are you going to grow leaders? That’s the most important thing a leader does. I would argue that if you blew everything else off that you’ve heard at this conference and say ‘I’m going to grow the best leaders I can grow,’ the other stuff will fix itself, because they will jump on it and fix it. They’ll also feel that touch from you, and you will shape their lives forever, and they will stay in our Army forever.”
| Date Taken: | 07.23.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 07.23.2014 13:58 |
| Story ID: | 137009 |
| Location: | ALEXANDRIA, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 226 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Talley emphasizes leader development at U.S. Army Reserve Command Commander’s Conference, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
LEAVE A COMMENT