LTG Ricky Lynch’s presentation to the CGSC 12-01 class covered the predictable subjects of his career, leadership philosophy and unsolicited advice from a senior officer on the cusp of retirement. His disarming demeanor and references to his faith gave the impression of a kindly father-figure whose career success resulted from his endearing concern for the Soldiers in his command. Currently preparing to retire from the Army as the Commander of Installation Management Command (IMCOM), he devoted a considerable amount of his time to focusing on family.
The most important thing, he intoned, is not the career, the Army, or the unit. In fact, it is the family. LTG Lynch expounded on the importance of making time for families and ensuring that Soldiers are released on time when the schedule allows for family time. He related how commanders need to lead by example and leave work instead of lingering after hours. The practice of working late has the unintended consequence of making subordinates feel obligated to work late as well, even when there is no legitimate work to be done.
LTG Lynch is a big advocate of managing by walking around. Engaged leadership, he says, involves getting to know Soldiers on a personal level. He acknowledged that this is more difficult as promotions and assignments add levels of responsibility. Still, he made a point of making unannounced visits to barracks and company areas to make spot checks on different issues. In the course of talking about the importance of counseling subordinates, he spoke of being a brigade commander and making a surprise stop at a battalion headquarters to inspect the lieutenant counseling records. His points were that he takes counseling seriously, and that he expected his battalions to cooperate with each other and keep each other from being blind-sided. In the case of his inspecting counseling records, he expected the first battalion he visited to call the others to warn them about what they should expect when the brigade commander stopped by next.
Among the most useful take-aways from his two-hour presentation were his six tips for effective leadership and contributions to the Army once leaving ILE:
1. Have a stated objective to support your commander; support your commander even if you don’t believe in him.
2. Be inquisitive.
3. Listen closely to what your boss wants you to do, write it down and then do it to the best of your ability.
4. Have a mentor. Lt. Gen. Lynch actually offered his email to the audience and offered to be anyone’s mentor if they need one.
5. Be a mentor to younger officers and be accessible.
6. Demonstrate a passion to focus on your family; family should be a Soldier’s top priority.
MAJ John C. Ling, CGSC Student
7 Comments on "LTG Rick Lynch speaks on the importance of making time for families"
While I agree whole-heartedly with LTG Lynch’s six tips to become an Iron Major. I am sure these points stood out clearly as day, as he looks in the rear view mirror of a very successful military career. What is contentious is whether these six points are realistic and doable. One point in particular stands out in my mind as most dubious – going home at a reasonable time to utilize family time.
We know it is important; we know we need it. LTG Lynch stated his command time of honoring the Thursday family time as an example of how the leadership should provide opportunities for their Soldiers to spend their precious garrison time with family. While I am positive many Soldiers benefited from that policy, I know that many leaders simply locked their office doors after releasing their Soldiers and continued working to ensure the work left behind by releasing their Soldiers early got done. LTG Lynch had to come to work at 5 AM to get his work done and go home at a reasonable time. Other officers who are not able to start their day before dawn simply go home at the beginning of the “family time” and answer emails and work at home. The work does not go away because the new policy to honor Thursday family time is enforced. People are not able to discover more efficient ways to work or their bosses able to push the suspense to the right just because the family time is going on. With added complexity of being home (SIRs, family issues, USRs, Red Cycle Tasking etc), the load does not get lighter because you are back in garrison. Forcing Soldiers to go home to spend time with family only to require meetings and briefings on Friday morning is hypocritical. What really needs to happen is for senior commanders to take some of the requirements off the table. But then again, what commander is willing to do that?
LTG Lynch provided us with a list of tips for field grade officers in future assignments. I believe that list (captured by MAJ Ling above) is applicable regardless of the type of assignment we may face whether it is a generating force or operating force tour. However, the ‘have a mentor’ item is easier said than done. Both parties need to be willing to engage in a mentor/mentored relationship. I can’t force a COL or GO to enter into a mentor/mentored developmental relationship. For those officers out there that do the hard work and don’t seek recognition or attribution (contrary to LTG Lynch’s guidance to “be visible and widely known”) the offers of mentorship don’t just happen. It’s easy for the leaders to offer their services as mentors to their top 10%. Leaders are comfortable mentoring people they perceive as high performers. But what’s the impetus to senior leaders to mentor those below that 10%?
Tying to the family time theme mentioned above, there is also a concern, to put it mildly, that senior leaders will say every possible synonym of “do more with less” without actually saying the words and expect the ‘more’ from formations without regard to everything our Soldiers are in addition to being Soldiers (i.e.: parents, volunteers, etc.). I think this should be dissected into two areas; the Army in total and the individual. It may be reasonable for our elected officials to acknowledge the logic behind decreasing resources and decreasing capabilities. If the elected officials intentionally decide to resource the Army to lesser degrees than those currently, they should understand the Army may perform, in total, fewer things simultaneously. But this is a far cry from how much work Soldiers as individuals will be expected to perform. Even if the Army end strength is cut, and acquisition programs are curtailed, those Soldiers that are still in the Army will be required to work just as hard as they do now in order to accomplish the missions the reduced Army will be expected to perform. I fail to see how the new mantra of not asking the Army to do more with less equates to less work on the individual.
MAJ Carr, I think if the command were to be serious about enforcing family time (or at minimum, time not at work), the command would need to inspect. I’d be curious to learn if those officers selected to be BN CDRs, BDE CDRs, and GOs earned that distinction by leaving work at reasonable hours or by working late.
MAJ John W. Brengle, CGSC Student
Does mandatory family time really equate to family time? Similar to Pay Day Activities it most likely amounts to overworked staff officers continuing their work with minimal interruption from meetings and other battle rhythm distraction. It’s a concept that looks good on paper, but I’m positive based on my experiences that there will always be one or two officers that choose to ignore the directive not for personal reasons, but for workload management purposes. Any further thoughts?
I agree with you, MAJ Ling. LTG Lynch’s six points provided some excellent, concise guidance for soon-to-be Iron Majors. I, on the other hand, believe that any apparent contradiction between his anecdotes and his overall message were more a function of attempting to distill the pivotal moments in a thirty-year career into a 90-minute briefing. I felt that he was illustrating the events which had led him to his current understanding of what right looks like, rather than providing a Cliff’s Notes version of leadership. That said, I don’t necessarily agree with everything presented—but that’s the beauty of the American Army. How I do it, is not how you do it, is not how the guy down the hall does it…but it still gets done—better than any other country on the planet. I appreciate anyone who takes the time to travel to Leavenworth and present their thoughts in an effort to assist in my development as a leader.
Josh makes a valid point and energy conservation is certainly important. Working with the US Army Corps of Engineers for the last few years, I had the opportunity to manage a few construction projects for IMCOM where requirements included significant energy conservation measures in the HVAC, lighting, building envelope sealing, material thermal efficiency, reduced water runoff, and a myriad of other requirements. The bottom line is that all future construction for the Army requires significant energy saving measures and it’s been like this for several years. We, the users, really have little to do with what energy we consume because virtually all systems are controlled from DOIM and DPW remotely. This includes lights, thermostats, and even computers.
Moving on, I found it interesting what LTC Lynch said about family time and leaving work at reasonable times each day. To be honest, I think the idea briefs well, but isn’t the reality we will experience in our follow assignments and somewhat a stretch from what I experienced in 3ID. Similarly, the “do less with less” comments we’ve heard from several of our recent guest speakers is likely more lip service than the reality of the Army. From my perspective, the culture of our Army simply doesn’t support either of these ideas as I’ve yet to serve in unit that would allow less than stellar training or readiness stats. If we want to give our soldiers family time and reduce our tempo to something manageable for our evolving force structure, something has to give and it can’t just be lip service.
Josh, I agree with you. There is definitely a rub with DOIM on the computers. In fact I’ve even seen directives from DOIM to ensure that you leave your computers on. I understand that energy consumption is a huge cost factor, but I’m positive that just automation items left on aren’t the big contributor.
LTG Lynch discussed his views on the importance of family, however, I was surprised that he didn’t discuss more on how IMCOM is committed and supporting our families. Regardless of the post you are assigned to there appears to be complicated medical care procedures, limited MWR opportunities, extremely limited child care, and limited opportunities for child / youth activities. Additionally, getting DPW to provide needed work is a constant struggle. With budget cuts on the horizon it can be expected that IMCOM will have to reduce family services which goes against LTG Lynch’s focus on taking care of families.
MAJ Carr, ILE Class 12-01, SG 22A
I found it interesting that LTC Lynch felt the need to impress upon us to “turn off our computers each night because it’s “policy” While this sounds great in theory I have issue with this for several reasons. One, as most of us know, the DOIM owns the [computer] network. They have the ability to shut the computers down remotely if they so desire. I do not feel it is our place to challenge their authority. I’ve worked closely with those in the DOIM shops and that would be the perfect way to get thrown out of the DOIM (and likely asked not to return). Second, in the old days it used to be that the motherboard potentially would crack from expansion/contraction of time reducing the over-all life of a computer. I’m not sure if this is the case these days or not. Thirdly, energy star compliant technology should reduce the energy consumption of our electronics to a minimum when they aren’t in use. Let’s let the DOIMs of the world have they’re networks and focus our energy saving efforts where we’re in control such as our personal offices and homes.
MAJ Van Tassel, ILE 12-01 SG: 22A