OCS Update

I attended my final Phase 0 drill for OCS this weekend. I passed my record APFT, so I’m good to go. I just have to survive Phase I now!

I did get fairly perturbed at one point during the drill, however. We were broken into teams of six to navigate the Leadership Development Course at Ft Leonard Wood. This is a sort of team-building obstacle course, and each of us was required to lead our six man team during the negotiation of one obstacle.

After the obstacle in which I was in charge–the first one we successfully navigated–one of the TACS approached our team and asked “Who provided most of the leadership during this obstacle?” I immediately responded, “I did, Sir.” The TAC then asked the rest of my team, and ONLY ONE PERSON raised his hand. After a few seconds, three more hands went up–but that was still only four of five.
I wasn’t given a chance to address this with my teammates, unfortunately. I would have liked to have asked them NOT to raise their hands. I provided the initial plan that got us successfully over the obstacle. I listened to other people’s ideas, and decided which ones to implement. I prevented people from working on their own without communicating with the team. I supervised, or assigned supervision, at each step. I utilized people according to abilities, and provided feedback and recognition where appropriate. If I didn’t provide most of the leadership, fine–but who did, and what did they do that I didn’t?

I did eventually ask the one guy who didn’t raise his hand at all. His answer was that he felt that when someone had a good idea, I should just let them run with it. I usually did approve good ideas, but just letting people work on their own isn’t leadership–so his real objection was that I was providing leadership, he just didn’t like my decisions.
Of course, reviews like that can still prevent me from getting commissioned.