for every successful army mission .
There is an army acquisition leader who
helped pave the way leaders in
acquisition who provide soldiers with
the best equipment and support
throughout the full spectrum of
operational domains . Leaders with
tremendous responsibility for key D . O .
D . And army acquisition programs .
Leaders who serve as the primary
interface between the operational
forces , industry and defense agencies .
The Acquisition Leader Assessment
program . A lab is an opportunity for
military officers and civilians to rise
up and answer that call by
demonstrating comprehensive command and
key billet excellence . A lab tests
their mettle through a holistic array
of assessments , mental and physical ,
providing a 360° view of every
candidate beyond evaluation reports
ensuring that acquisition leaders
embody the attributes of world class
leadership . A lab allows the army
to expand its understanding of the
talents and leadership competencies of
those officers and civilians that are
selected for a command or keep billing
position . It really looks at who they
are as a person and how they lead .
They're looking at 360° trying to find
the best officers , best leaders we can
have . Two . Can you leave the
workforce ? The program begins with an
anonymous feedback survey called the A
lot the Army Leader assessment tool .
This offers subordinate peer and self
assessments of a candidate's strengths ,
bringing each participants leadership
talents to light while revealing any
traits that might be counterproductive
to their role as an acquisition leader .
Really the intent is to see how self
aware you are as a leader . The leader
reaction exercise and strategic leader
exercise . Are observed behavior
exercises that provide insights on the
team interaction skills of officer and
civilian candidates . The L . R . E .
Was a team building pretty fun event .
I think it gives the observers an
opportunity to see how flexible you are
as a leader . Especially having a mix
of officers and civilians in the room
and having having all of those diverse
backgrounds . Both the military side
and civilian side was was awesome . You
could lift and shift that exercise to a
workshop or a tough meeting in your PM
shop . So I think it's actually a very
uh fair and decent exercise and they do
a good job facilitating it frankly a
left candidates also take part in a
psychometric assessment which gives
insights into the less visible
qualities of a person including mental
aptitude , emotional intelligence ,
risk orientation and motivation . So
it's gonna definitely exercise some
parts of your mind that you may
typically not use during your day to
day job . It's about your ability to
reason your ability to make quick
decisions and it actually becomes a
little bit fun . The assessment of
written communication skills ensures
that these leaders can concisely and
effectively communicate their intent
orders , guidance and feedback
during a lap candidates will complete
an argumentative essay . The topics are
all based on professional articles .
Any of the scholarly journals
militarily focused so anybody can
practice that on the road . You really
have to pay attention and you have to
be time conscious . I would say brush
up on your grammar because you will be
dusted , restating the point of the
material , uh injecting your own
analysis and providing a coherent
conclusion . I think your fundamental
components that if you don't address
those , you may come up a little short
the army combat fitness test , which is
optional for civilians , screens for
military leaders who are ready for
command and key billets based on the
army's physical fitness standard . I
think a lot of folks expected to be
harder uh than you would expect in any
kind of other environment . I didn't
think that was the case . It's grated
to standard most of the feedback that
I've heard from folks that it was the
best pT test they've taken in their
career . Just ensure that you're
working on your form and and performing
each exercise to standard acquisition
leader candidates also participate in
an in depth interview with an
operational psychologist . Elaborating
on their mental and behavioral fitness
for command and key billet , providing
greater depth of understanding about
each candidate's leadership potential .
They're really just there to help you
and to try to help you see yourself a
little bit . The key is to be as
confident as possible in what you've
done in your abilities and just letting
that flow through you . They're seeing
if you're self aware and if you're self
aware , you can admit your problems but
then you could also say how you're
working to improve those problems
culminates with the army comprehensive
talent interview Acti a structured and
unbiased double blind behavior based
interview focused on determining
candidates readiness for command or key
billet while assessing their verbal
communication skills . It is almost
like a job interview scenario . The
interviewers are behind the curtain ,
you're on the other side answering
answering questions . What are your
strengths ? What are your weaknesses ?
Think of four or five scenarios in your
career and use those as your role .
Adepts of scenarios have them in your
mind when you go into that interview so
that you can take that experience and
use it to give a well developed and
well thought out and comprehensive
answer . Finally officer and civilian
candidates participate in a
developmental out brief offering
reflective insights on there . A lab
performance and opportunities for
growth is introspective . It's like a
mirror . You see where you are and
where you want to be providing the
strengths and weaknesses from all of
those different assessments and giving
something actionable for me to work on
to continue or to develop has been
something that I intend on taking back .
This is an opportunity for you to take
something away from here with you
that's going to make you a better
leader down the road for me , the most
beneficial part of it came about with
the actually the end the wrap up
finding out that some of the things
that I've been aspiring toward were the
way that I was perceived and that I was
tracking as far as improving some other
things that I wanted to work on . What
surprised me more than anything was
that I had a lot of fun as well . It
leads to the opportunity to fulfill a
role that really means a profound
amount to our soldiers on the
battlefield . It always starts at the
top organization leader that is in
position of leadership and how they run
their shop is going to trickle down to
even the lowest level staff . It's
about competing against yourself and
proving that the army was correct when
they invited you to attend . So I would
say engage with folks that have been
through me . Most of my peers were
happy to do that . I would welcome it
for those leaders that are self aware
and want to learn . They will get that
there . They will get objective
feedback from experts from senior army
leaders that will help them become
better leaders discover what it really
takes to lead an acquisition . The
acquisition leader assessment program ,
learn more at a S C dot army dot mil