Suggested books for Company Level Leaders

[Cavguy]

All,

I am taking up one of the facilitator slots over at Company Command for their professional reading program. The program helps Platoon Leaders and Company Commanders develop professional reading programs. It even pays for the books they select to use! The point is to help improve some or all of the following items - leadership performance, teamwork, task management, morale, general military knowledge, history, leadership tips, and tricks, and OIF/OEF understanding.

To that end, I'd like to poll the council for the following:

1) The best military leadership/management/teambuilding book you know of (ex Lead On!, Small Unit Leadership: A Commonsense Approach, Taking the Guidon, Three Meter Zone)

2) The best civilian leadership/management/teambuilding book you would recommend. (ex. Good to Great, Made to Stick, Winning)

3) The best single book on Iraq you would recommend for company level leaders.

4) The best single book on Afghanistan you would recommend for company level leaders.

5) Any other book that doesn't fit in the categories above that should be a "must read"

Please also include the "why".

Again, this is a high payoff list for Company Commanders and their Platoon Leaders, Platoon Sergeants, and Squad Leaders.. Clausewitz is probably not going to make the cut. Think direct, practical, and good for group discussion. Looking forward to the input!

[slapout9]

On Systems Thinking... I would recomend Meaning The Secret To Being Alive by Cliff Havener. One of the easiest and most informative books on Systems Thinking I ever read. You can download the first 3 chapters for free at the site below.


http://www.forseekers.com/book.htm

[Shek]

Neil,

This doesn't answer the mail directly, but it's a list I came up with for the cadets I taught as an intro into professional reading.

http://www.amazon.com/Sheks-Professi...R2GBQLF54YTD9L

Best,
Shek

[patmc]

Sir, as a long time user of Platoonleader.com and Companycommand.com (7+ years, I think), the sites are great resources and thank you for compiling this info. I received a copy of Learning to Eat Soup With a Knife from the sites while deployed to OIF IV. Here are my humble recommendations. None are overly scholarly, and are entertaining and interesting reads.

1) The best military leadership/management/teambuilding book you know of:
Not your usual leadership guide book, but my Battery Commander made all his LTs read Ambrose's Pegasus Bridge about the airborne/glider assault into D-Day. The book showed the value of training and rehearsals. It also showed what was expected of us as PLs in combat.

2) The best civilian leadership/management/teambuilding book you would recommend:
Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. Great primer into working and living with others, and how to build relationships. His other books on speaking and management are good too.

3) The best single book on Iraq you would recommend for company level leaders:
Ricks' The Gamble. or Bellavia's House to House. Ricks is a higher level overview of where the Iraq war was in 2006 and the shift it took in 2007-2008 leading us to where we are today. Veterans and scholars can debate his details and evidence, but as a convoy security PL in 2006, most things I saw were not going well. Bellavia's is just an emotional and powerful depiction of the battle of Fallujah by an Army Infantry Squad Leader. SSG Bellavia writes clearly, but doesn't hold back, just as you would expect. Good depiction of how bad it can get.

4) The best single book on Afghanistan you would recommend for company level leaders:
Have not been to A-stan, but Kaplan's Soldiers of God is a great overview of the mujahideen during the Soviet War and the sacrifices they were willing to make. Very readable, and great stories.

5) Any other book that doesn't fit in the categories above that should be a "must read":
West's The Village. This book is COIN/FID/SFA/whatever you want to call it. Great description of what really living with and for the people means, and the risks/gains involved.

[Entropy]

For Afghanistan, there is this list, which I am (slowly) working on finishing.

[Red Rat]

General: It does not quite fit into any of your categories, but 'The Manoeuvre Warfare Handbook' by William S Lind. I issued this to all my platoon leaders and platoon sergeants. I found it an invaluable plain english guide to the (conceptual) how I expected missions to be accomplished.

Arabs: Again, not quite in your categories, but 'Arabs' by Mark Allen is a short, concise and very perceptive look at Arabs; their history and culture. To my mind the best value book on the market for trying to understand arabs.

Iraq: Although not up to date (it does not cover the surge) 'Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency in Iraq' by Ahmed Hashim I found the best for painting the Iraq picture, in particular the concept of the 'complex insurgency'.

Afghanistan: 'The Afghanistan Wars' by William Maley is a good general Afghanistan book. The second edition was due out July this year and should accordingly be up to date.

Military Leadership and Team-building: 'Defeat into Victory' by Field Marshal Slim. Although this deals with his command of 14th Army and the Burma Campaign 1942-45 and you may think it is pitched too high I would make three points:

• It is very very readable; Field Marshal Slim was a published popular author in the 1920s and 30s
• It deals with leadership under stress; the retreat from Burma in 1942; soldiers will generally follow a winner - much harder in adversity...
• It deals with the fundamentals of training. Field Marshal Slim re-built a shattered 14th Army to fight and beat the Japanese in the jungle, he then transformed it again mid-campaign to ensure that it could fight combined arms manoeuvre when they broke out of the jungle and onto the Burmese plains.

At the least it is worth cherry picking some chapters from the book, there are some real gems.

RR

[jcustis]

Under the "must read" category I enjoyed Leadership And Training For The Fight by MSG (ret) Paul Howe so much that when I gave it away to a scout section leader I enjoyed working with, I picked up another copy. Although Howe writes from a heavier-hitting perspective as a former Delta member who went on to teach gunfighting and SWAT tactics, he writes on a lot of things relative to team-building, combatives, and raw leadership the likes of which don't have to do with parade field maneuvers.

For both Afghanistan and Iraq, I think The Defense of Jisr al-Doreaa: With E. D. Swinton's "The Defence of Duffer's Drift" bears relevance for a primer in basic tactics and focusing on the people, when dealing with insurgent foes. It is an easy read, and a good companion to the Duffer's Drift

[Schmedlap]

In the Iraq section of the "doesn't fit" category: The Arab Mind, by Raphael Patai.

I understand that there are criticisms of the book. I would quote Wilf's tagline:

"Pedants will be able to cite exceptions, and thus undermine useful (insightful) theory. Their depredations must be firmly resisted by one simple test: does the theory generally aid understanding of useful military problems? If so, then exceptions are permissible."
J.P. Storr “Human Aspects of Command”

The LTs will quickly learn what applies and what does not after a few days in country. I found it helpful.

[William F. Owen]

Clausewitz is probably not going to make the cut. Think direct, practical, and good for group discussion. Looking forward to the input!

Nor should he. CvC is a reading list in and of himself and his work.
I think reading lists are great, but I would just add a word of caution, about them as a device.

a.) The fewer books the better, and they don't have to be books - any written source, including manuals - which folks usually don't read.

b.) Books have to pass a pretty big "so what test," of imparting relevant, and practical, within a useable context. - reading lists often just list books, and don't say "read this because..."

c.) Reading should only be one part of it. Discussing it is critical.

Just my opinion and I hope it helps.

[jcustis]

b.) Books have to pass a pretty big "so what test," of imparting relevant, and practical, within a useable context. - reading lists often just list books, and don't say "read this because..."

Hence the vetting we should be doing for Niel.