If you’re riding with Command Sgt. Maj. Rory L. Malloy, you better make certain you’ve paid your dues. Otherwise, you will be walking.
“I got to where I am in 26 years by creating relationships, building teams and ensuring I and members of my team were sitting in the right seats on the bus. If a leader identifies someone who isn’t on the right bus and not in the right seat, then, as a leader, you have the responsibility to remove them.”
The mindset of the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy’s 21st commandant may sound tough, but as an infantryman and command sergeant major of 12 years, Malloy knows what it takes to be a good leader.
“The first 16 years of my Army career brought me to this level, and in the last 10 years, I’ve been exposed to leadership at all different levels. I truly have an appreciation for what it takes to advance the mission and build a team.”
Malloy’s expertise in leadership has been honed in such a way that the Army’s top leaders took notice of him. Meanwhile, he just went about business as usual.
“I was the command sergeant major of the 1st Cavalry Division and was readying myself to deploy with my Soldiers a second time to Afghanistan,” he said. “But, I remember someone asking me if there was one job in the Army I’d want, what would it be? I said, ‘the Sergeants Major Academy. ‘But, I never thought I’d be given that opportunity. Then I got the call.”
That call was from the commander of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. When it came, Malloy says his own commanding general saw the writing on the wall.
“My CG goes, ‘I knew the day the TRADOC commander rang that I had lost my command sergeant major,’” Malloy said. “But, me? I didn’t get too excited about it initially.”
Malloy said though he was honored to be considered for the position, he also remained humble.
“I point blank told my boss I really thought they were going to just say the division was deploying and I was going with them. I knew I’d give the commandancy 100 percent if they did choose me, but if they decided to give the job to someone else, that was okay, too. I would have deployed with my Soldiers,” said Malloy.
He admitted his questions ran the gamut before everything came to fruition.
“When I’m asked to do another job, I think, ‘Do you really think you’re qualified? Do you really think you can perform at the level of personal expectation you have?’ And, coming into this job, I was like, ‘Absolutely, without a doubt.’"
When the official word came down, Malloy said he started hearing from people he hadn’t spoken to in years. But, he says what truly humbled him was when he got a call from the 19th commandant of the academy " the current sergeant major of the Army, Raymond F. Chandler III.
“Ray Chandler is a busy guy, and he’s drinking from a way bigger fire hose than me. But, he actually took the time between moving his family and getting all his stuff settled to book an office call with me. I actually went to his office in the Pentagon and got to sit down and talk to him.”
Malloy says he was pretty floored that the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer in the Army gave him the time he did.
“A guy would be lucky to get about 30 minutes with the sergeant major of the Army. But me? I got three hours with him, and I’m telling you, it was one of the most beneficial conversations I’ve ever had.”
Malloy said he got some pretty down-to-earth advice.
“One piece I got from Chandler was to never underestimate the demands that are going to be placed on me. He said where I once was able to turn to someone across the hall and ask for advice, now I was the guy people would be turning to; I was the one in the hot seat and could expect to feel a lot of pressure. But, the fact I was joining a great team was hugely in my favor.”
Malloy said despite his excitement about leading the academy, saying goodbye to Soldiers and his boss in the 1st Cav was “tough; very, very tough.” He said he had lots of conversations with Maj. Gen. Dan Allen, the division’s commander, who was more than just his leader.
“There was such a bond after a year of working together. We had a professional friendship, and it was as if he was a brother. He is one of the finest officers I know.”
When it came time to depart the 1st Cav, Malloy said he ended up responding in a way he said he never would.
“Yeah, I got choked up when I left; more than once. It was very tough. I used to make fun of guys like that and, suddenly, I am that guy. It was, without a doubt, the most difficult PCS move I’ve ever made; absolutely, the most difficult.”
Despite leaving behind a group of proven professionals, Malloy says he already knew before walking through the doors of the academy that he was coming into an organization that was well ensconced in professionalism and is mission-focused.
“I don’t think this academy would have survived 39 years now if it hadn’t been doing things right. It has changed a lot since its inception, and there’ll be more change. The team here is amazing,” Malloy said. “But, the team is much more than what’s at this academy. It goes way beyond these walls.”
Just before coming to the academy, Malloy was asked about the Sergeants Major Course and what sort of message, if any, he had for enrolled Soldiers and future sergeants majors. Malloy says his answer was a direct result of his own experiences.
“Be a sergeant major. You can no longer look around and look for someone else to do it. You are the person that’s going to do it. You’re the one that has to have a seat the table and you need to take a seat.”
The new commandant also says students need to keep an open mind and take in everything.
“Every day is a learning experience. You may not get earth-shattering information every day, but you have to learn something every day,” said Malloy.
To keep yourself open to new information, he advises taking a moment each day to ask yourself, “What can I learn today?” It’s that philosophy that he says got him through the course. But, he admitted when he initially walked through the academy doors as a student, he knew course curriculum wasn’t going to teach him everything he needed to know. He said students need to be aware of that.
“This place didn’t teach me how to be a post, division or even a brigade sergeant major. So students are going to have to go and engage themselves, learn it and figure it out. Those are the Soldiers who will be successful. The day you stop learning is the day you need to just go away.”
Malloy is quick to point out that the NCOES is there for a reason, and those who haven’t attended the necessary schools have probably missed out due to bad leadership.
“We have a lot of organizations out there with a lot of backlog. But, it really just comes down to leadership and telling someone ‘Hey! You’re obligated and you’re committed to going through these different gates,’” he said. “Yes, there is a rapid turnaround with deployments right now, and I know it’s tough to do. But, for those who decide they want to make a little more of an additional sacrifice and go after their educational goals, they’ll be benefitting themselves and the Army as a whole.”
Attending Army schools isn’t the only thing Malloy recommends to Soldiers, though. He says senior leaders must recognize that their Soldiers need to take time to personally better themselves.
“When I was coming up through the ranks, I actually had a first sergeant who prohibited leadership from taking any type of college. I saw him years after he retired, and he couldn’t find a job.”
Malloy said that years later, another first sergeant sat him down and spelled it out to him loud and clear.
“’Hey! You need to take some college classes, buddy. What are you waiting for?’ I remember telling him I was pretty busy. But, that excuse didn’t fly. And, here I am now with an MBA in human resources. A guy even asked me one day, ‘How the heck did you find time to get a masters degree?’ Well, the time was never there. But, you make the time.”
According to Malloy, every Soldier is capable of pursing a college degree, and when he put together his team at 1st Cav, he made certain that anyone who wanted to be on his team was taking college courses. It was a prerequisite.
“I told my Soldiers, ‘you want to work for me, you have to go to school and you can’t do it during the day. So, figure it out.’”
Malloy smiled proudly when he spoke of two particular Soldiers from his previous assignment with the 1st Cav.
“When we sat there in Baghdad, and I worked on awards and things in the late evening, my Soldiers were taking two classes at a time,” he said. “Two of them are graduating this year with bachelor’s degrees.”
Malloy is quick to point out that, while it’s all well and good to do whatever the Army asks of you, at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself, “What have I done for me?” That’s why taking civilian college courses is so important, he said.
“When you walk away from this experience, from a deployment, maybe even from the Army, you have to be able to say, ‘I did this for me.’ I know everyone wants a college degree, so let’s do it,” he said.
USASMA’s new commandant said it’s all about setting the example. If you pursue civilian education, the Army as a whole reaps the benefits.
“We have to invest in the Army and the NCO Corps. If you get a guy that’s educated, it only makes us stronger. It can never make us weaker.”
Strength is one arena where Malloy chooses to remain humble. While he admits to being passionate about what he does, he’s quick to dispel any notion that he’s superior.
“I don’t ever believe I’m at the top of the flagpole, and I’ll never put myself on a pedestal. I get it. I’m the commandant,” he said. “Every morning I wake up, the alarm clock annoys me, and it hurts to do physical training because I’m getting old. But, the bottom line is that, just like everyone else in this academy, I was hired for a purpose.”
Malloy said he plans to lead the USASMA family by example, and stressed the importance of prioritizing.
“Those of us here at the academy have been given the opportunity to have quality time with our families. So, if you don’t take advantage of that and figure out how to manage your life, then you stand the possibility of throwing it all away. This job isn’t worth losing your support system.”
The 21st commandant of the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy understands what it takes to be a successful leader and plans to lead as a servant leader.
“I want to be approachable, compassionate, fair, forgiving and a loving leader,” Malloy said. “You can’t have two separate entities as in, this is the staff and this is the team, and we never come together. We are one.”
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