FORT BENNING, Ga., (March 2 2016) -- Gen. David Perkins, commander of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, spoke to students Feb. 23 at the Maneuver Center of Excellence where he focused on leadership as a profession.
Perkins, speaking as part of the MCoE Combat Leader Speaker Program, began his talk by explaining the importance of contextualizing.
"Leaders contextualize the environment that they operate in because by design they are the ones that are supposed to understand (situations), and provide links for those who maybe don't understand the operating environment as well," he said.
Perkins emphasized that good leaders use that context to know what they are working for - in other words, the mission statement of the organization they belong to.
Perkins outlined the mission statement of TRADOC and explained the importance of having a team that worked together to design the future of the Army by developing adaptive and resilient leaders through rigorous military training and infusing the Army's doctrine and values into each Soldier.
"And that's what we work for," he said.
He then explained that the Army as a whole works to exploit an initiative - whether it's a foreign enemy, domestic issue or even a training mission.
"What we want our Army to be able to do, what the Army is for, is to seize, obtain and exploit the initiative; to always be in a position of relative advantage," Perkins said. "You must always be one step ahead of whatever your challenge or enemy is because you're going into a very fast changing world that is very unpredictable.
Perkins also discussed the importance of broadening assignments to junior leaders.
"A broadening assignment puts you in a position you've never been in before, getting you out of your comfort zone," he said. "It forces you to learn things you didn't know, and expand on the things you do (know)."
He ended his talk by reiterating the importance of mission command.
"Sometimes, we confuse doing a lot with getting a lot done," Perkins said. "Don't confuse the two. We want you to get a lot done, and the way to do that is to know what you are for."
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