In a growing Army, with greater workforce demands, the role and responsibility of junior leaders in their professional development is an important pillar of unlocking the potential of our people. I recently surpassed 100 days as a lieutenant (LT) in the Australian Army Reserves, having completed Training Block Five (TB5) of the Part Time Officer Commissioning Course (OCC) at the Royal Military College in November 2022. I penned this article to share my early experience with future junior leaders of the Army Reserve.

After talking with former colleagues who are still going through the OCC, I realised there would be value in covering four concepts that have defined my early experience as an LT:

1. Fighting for information will empower junior leaders to set themselves up for success in appreciating their working environment.
2. Respecting the value and capability of sergeants and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) will support the design and execution of plans in a new workplace.
3. Being proactive to learn the systems will ease the weight of expectations.
4. Appreciating the informal lessons will inform a critical reflection on leadership.

I hope this will assist future first year junior officers to better appreciate the challenges and opportunities that are likely to face them in their first 100 days.

The OCC is a long and daunting process which can take up to three years (if not longer), and is interspersed with competing professional, educational, and family pressures. Once you are through the hard reset of Kapooka (TB1) it can be difficult to maintain perspective on the real challenge following graduation. Beyond the hard field, Infantry Minor Tactics (IMTs), and lessons on the Military Appreciation Process (MAP) throughout the next four training blocks, you will wake up one Tuesday morning with the weight of soldiers’ expectations – with whom you will be on deck for parade that evening and into the future – to manage their career, training, and development.

1. Fight for information.

Military work is a constant cycle of fighting for information and often feeling like you are out of the loop. As soon as you get to the point of feeling comfortable, you will be told to take the next uncomfortable step into the unknown. For a junior officer, it is a core requirement that you are proactively seeking to understand the situation and tasking by your unit and sub-unit commanders so you can empower your soldiers with clear direction and guidance.

This can take the form of making your own time to read relevant official publications, staying up to date with global and national political, military, and technological developments, and understanding the history and future direction of your corps and unit.

As an educational and training experience, the OCC can often feel frustratingly disconnected and sparse compared to university, TAFE, or professional qualifications. It is a reality of the limited resources and time within which the Army must prepare the next cohort of leaders. You can cheat yourself from a productive training journey expecting that you will have all the answers on day 1 of being a LT. The most important aspect of the OCC model is building resilience and familiarity with uncertainty, and rather than teaching you the answer, it will give you the skills to find the answer.

2. Sergeants and NCOs are essential.

Throughout your time as an Officer Cadet, there is a reason everyone – NCOs and officers alike – tell you repeatedly that your sergeant (SGT) is essential. A SGT will be your most important contact and colleague as a junior officer. In the first 100 days, and likely for the rest of your career, you will be asked to complete tasks and follow procedures which you have never experienced before.

Your SGT is the person with that experience, who is responsible for guiding the design and execution of your plans. NCOs are similarly, as a collective, a font of knowledge and experience. Through the chain of command in which you will have an important leadership role, be open to integrating their expertise in your planning from the start.

During the OCC your only colleagues will be other officer cadets. It is likely their motivations for joining and surviving the training will be similar or at least overlapping with yours. You will only meet SGTs and NCOs as instructors, assessors, and supervisors. In these relationships, hopefully you will have begun to witness their depth of expertise and passion for supporting effective and capable junior leaders. Keep it front of mind in your early career that a productive, symbiotic relationship with your SGT will unlock your potential as a leader and deliver greater capability for your troop or platoon.

3. Learn the systems.

The first few days and weeks of being a LT are overwhelming. This period can best be described as feeling like you are expected to know 1000 new processes all at once. You will need to navigate ‘TASMIS’ and ‘NTIs’ and depot WHS and course nominations – but comprehension will come in time.

Of course, the NCOs and senior officers around you will not expect you to know it all immediately. However, if you want to take the job seriously, be prepared to devote time to educating yourself.

The Army Reserve is increasingly faced with competing demands while limited resources constrain its ability to deliver capability. As such, the opportunity for your unit to conduct additional, bespoke training for you will be limited. For most tasks, you will be learning on the job with the support of your troop, platoon, and sub-unit staff when you need it. Be proactive in asking questions (bad news does not get better with age) and broaden your willingness to utilise your recently established network of fellow junior officers, who are all likely experiencing the same challenges.

The OCC has often been torn between providing solid leadership foundations in the tactical environment and the demands of barracks administration prior to commissioning. As a trainee I firmly sat in support of the latter; however, I have come around to the former. I believe the training would be improved with an increased focus on professional writing (minutes, administrative instructions, etc) and a broad overview of the critical systems at a basic level. However, the tactical experience is critical to build resilience and character, giving you the confidence to face greater challenges, no matter how frustrating or complex.

4. Appreciate the formal and informal lessons.

Don't engage superficially with the training and lessons. Army is an environment of constant education. While ‘drinking from a firehose’ and ‘death by PowerPoint’ are terms you will hear repeatedly as an officer cadet, it takes the first 100 days of wearing the rank to appreciate that it is the lessons in between the lines that matter the most – and there's no better way to absorb them than under the immense pressure of tab data slides.

Whether it is your own leadership style, interpersonal skills, or becoming comfortable with the language and etiquette of the military workplace, the OCC builds character and professional skills beyond the formal curriculum that will serve you well in your future career.

Most importantly, use the OCC as a starting point from which you continue to think critically and constructively about your approach to leadership. Not only is it fundamental to your role as an Army officer, but it is also an iterative process that demands genuine attention, nurturing, and self-reflection.

Conclusion

The Army Reserve is characteristically disparate. My journey, as a General Service Officer in the Royal Australian Artillery, posted to a battery in Canberra, will not completely mirror that of my RAAMC colleagues in Sydney, nor my RAAC colleagues in Adelaide. However, if there’s one lesson to take from the OCC and the role of the reserve force, it is that the demands of leadership, especially at the junior level, cannot be shouldered alone. We will be a stronger and more capable force having learnt from our own and others’ experiences.

There are many other lessons that I am continuously absorbing and leveraging in adapting my approach to the job. However, in this article I have consciously excluded discussing the numerous challenges associated with maintaining work-life balance, as this would justify a whole article in its own right, particularly as the demands on the Army Reserve only increase in an environment of sustained workforce challenges. For the lessons worthy of sharing, they are typically oriented to my personal and subjective experience, so I am happy to talk directly with anyone who wants to reach out.

Hopefully, this article will assist officer cadets about to graduate and staring down the barrel of their first parade night with their new units. Do the hard work to set yourself up for success as a junior leader in our Army. This will not only help reduce the stress but also demonstrate to your subordinates and superiors alike that you are committed to doing what it takes to learn the skills needed to be an adaptable and effective leader in the Australian Army Reserve. The role of a reservist Army officer is a professional commitment worthy of respect and a pursuit of excellence.

Thank you to my colleagues for their feedback and suggestions in the drafting of this article.