Reflective Essay: NCO 2020 Strategy, Leadership, and Personal Growth

This reflective essay delves into the NCO 2020 strategy, examining its impact on leadership development and the roles of Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs). The essay draws upon personal experiences, including insights gained from the Basic Leader Course (BLC), to illustrate the importance of effective communication, critical thinking, and the evolving responsibilities of NCOs. The author discusses the strategy's focus on leadership development, stewardship of the profession, and talent management, emphasizing the need for continuous learning and adaptation to meet the challenges of the modern military. The essay references key concepts and sources to support the analysis, highlighting the importance of education, experience, and training in shaping competent and committed NCOs. The paper concludes with the author's reflections on how the BLC has helped in developing leadership skills and effective communication abilities. The essay is a personal reflection on the NCO 2020 strategy and its implications for future leadership roles within the military.

Running Head: REFLECTIVE ESSAY
0
Reflection
Leadership Essay
(Student Details: )
1/29/2020

REFLECTIVE ESSAY
1
Reflective Essay
The essay is based on describing the Non-commissioned Officer (NCO) 2020 strategy
while utilising my personal experiences as well as future leadership expectations. In general,
NCO 2020 strategy typically offers guidance and vision on ways, ends as well as means in
order to develop NCOs for further exercising mission command (Lamarco, 2018). NCO 2020
is using strategies like planning, preparing and thereby executing for meeting the challenges
of this modern century so as to preserve the combat willingness of our force.
Being a part of the Basic Leader Course (BLC), I have realized that leadership
development is a procedure that usually aligns education, experience, and training for further
preparing leaders in the field. I believe that the NCO 2020 strategy has been developed for so
many different reasons as well as the responsibilities and roles for NCO officers. I got
evolved in a well way across the last few decades. My personal observations suggest that
NCO strategies contain the understanding related to duties and responsibilities related to
leadership. Based on my previous experiences, I can now mention that being a military
officer an NCO never earns a commission. I have seen that NCO corps typically contain
every grade of sergeant and corporal in some nations. I would like to mention that leadership
development is essential for the promptness of the army. According to me, NCO must always
understand the surrounding environment while being able to develop solutions, think
critically as well as communicate crucial information for achieving desired outcomes
(Lamarco, 2018).
I have found that the NCO 2020 strategy is helpful to identify 3 lines of effort (LOE)
of leadership development, stewardship of the profession and talent management. Being an
NCO I attempted to reach the desired end state of committed and competent NCOs of
character as a trusted army professional who is able to prosper in chaos. In addition to that,
based on (Gleeson, 2017), I believe that the education system of NCOs needs to be changed
as well as revolutionized for preparing our NCO corps in the best possible way. With the help
of this, these NCOs will be able to face the challenges of their uncertain future. I also
consider that NCO 2020 strategies will be focusing on NCO professional development
system which links experiences, education and training throughout the institutional,
operational and self-development learning fields (Carter, Ulrich, & Goldsmith, 2012).

REFLECTIVE ESSAY
2
Throughout the learning acquired from Basic Leader Course (BLC), I had to learn
many useful lessons that can further help me to become an efficient leader in the future.
Apart from this, I learned how to listen as well as act effectively. Based on (Boud, Keogh, &
Walker, 2013), I learned that effective communication is essentially required in the Army. It
is because without effective communication, one cannot get the required message across;
hence Army missions will most likely fail (Gleeson, 2017).
In whole, the course of BLC made me learn a lot about leadership, communication,
professional development, personal development and many more. Now, I believe that I am
now able to communicate effectively while having better leadership skills as well.

REFLECTIVE ESSAY
3
References
Boud, D., Keogh, R., & Walker, D. (2013). Reflection: Turning experience into learning.
UK: Routledge.
Carter, L., Ulrich, D., & Goldsmith, M. (2012). Best practices in leadership development and
organization change: how the best companies ensure meaningful change and
sustainable leadership . New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Gleeson, B. (2017). The Future Of Leadership And Management In The 21st-Century
Organization. Retrieved from Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brentgleeson/2017/03/27/the-future-of-leadership-and-
management-in-the-21st-century-organization/#11afd1ae218f
Lamarco, N. (2018). The Concept of Empowerment in Leadership. Retrieved from Chron:
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/concept-empowerment-leadership-15371.html