The commander makes and communicates decisions to several people, but this manual describes his communication of decisions and intentions to his staff. He also provides his staff leadership, direction, and guidance. The commander may personally communicate his intent or decisions, either verbally or in writing, or he may re- lay information to his staff through orders, commander’s guidance, and other means.
The commander is responsible for all that his staff does or fails to do. He cannot delegate this responsibility. The final decision, as well as the final responsibility, re- mains with the commander. The commander must foster an organizational climate of mutual trust, cooperation, and teamwork.
When the commander assigns a staff member a mission, he also delegates the necessary authority for the staff member to accomplish the mission. Having dele- gated the authority to the staff member, the commander must provide the staff member with the guidance, resources, and support necessary to accomplish the mission.
The commander is responsible for training the staff. He may delegate routine staff training to the chief of staff, but the commander must train the staff to relay in- formation and perform the mission to conform to his leadership style. The staff is an extension of the commander. The staff must know his leadership style and understand his intent to best support him, and subordinate, adjacent, and higher headquarters.
DEPUTY OR ASSISTANT COMMANDER-STAFF RELATIONSHIP
(Corps, Division, Regiment, and Separate Brigades)
The relationship between the deputy or assistant commander and the staff is unique. Staff members do not work for the deputy or the assistant commanders unless the commander directs this relationship. Each commander must describe his deputy or assistant commander’s roles, duties, and relationships with the CofS, the staff, and the commanders of subordinate units. Normally, he assigns specific fields of interest and responsibility to his assistants to decentralize decision making while maintaining overall command.
Because deputy or assistant commanders must be able to assume command at any time, the commander must inform them of his battlefield vision and intent. The CofS must continually provide them with information concerning staff actions.
When they have specific responsibilities Deputy or assistant commanders normally do not have coordinating or special, the headquarters staff assists them as the commander prescribes. Deputy or assistant commanders give orders to the CofS (or the staff) within limits the commander prescribes. They may go to the CofS at any time for staff assistance. If a deputy or assistant commander needs a staff, the commander may detail officers from the headquarters or subordinate units to help him or make a subordinate unit’s headquarters available to him at corps and major support command levels, there is normally only one deputy or assistant commander. At division level, there are normally two assistant commanders—the assistant division commander for maneuver (ADCM) or operations (ADCO), and the assistant division commander for support (ADCS). At regiment, brigade, and battalion levels, the executive officer is normally the commander’s deputy or assistant commander. At this echelon of command, the executive officer also leads the staff. Along with the duties as the second in charge, he has the duties and responsibilities of the chief of staff, discussed next.
CHIEF OF STAFF (EXECUTIVE OFFICER)-STAFF RELATIONSHIP
The CofS (XO) is the commander’s principal assistant for directing, coordinating, supervising, and training the staff, except in areas the commander reserves. The commander normally delegates executive management authority (equivalent to command of the staff) to the CofS. The CofS frees the commander from routine details and passes pertinent data, information, and in- sight from the staff to the commander and from the commander to the staff The value of a close and special relationship between the commander and the CofS cannot be overstated. The CofS must be able to anticipate battlefield events and share with the commander a near-identical battlefield vision of operations, events, and requirements. He must understand the commander’s intent better than, or at least as well as, subordinate commanders. The CofS must understand the commander’s personality, style, and instincts as they affect the commander’s intentions. Staff members must inform the CofS of any recommendations or information they pass directly to the commander or of instructions they receive directly from the commander.
The CofS helps the commander control subordinate units in their preparing for future employment. He monitors their combat readiness status and directs actions that posture subordinate units for use by the commander. Under special conditions or missions, the commander may give the CofS temporary command of a portion of the force (such as in deployments, retrograde operations, and obstacle crossings, or when the commander and deputy or assistant commanders are unable to command). A CofS is located at corps, division, and major support command echelons and other units commanded by a general officer. The XO, performing the duties of the CofS, is located in units not commanded by a general officer (regiment, brigade, and battalion the role as supervisor of the staff. The CofS (XO) is responsible for—
- Integrating and synchronizing the warfighting plans.
- Managing the commander’s critical information requirements (CCIR).
- Establishing, managing, and enforcing the staff planning timeline in accordance with the commander’s guidance.
- Supervising the targeting, deep operations, and other cross-forward line of troops (FLOT) planning cells.
- Integrating deception planning and fratricide countermeasures into the plan.
- Determining liaison requirements, establishing liaison information exchange requirements, and receiving liaison teams.
- Directly supervising the main command post (CP) and headquarters cell, including displacement, protection, security, and communications.
- Monitoring staff’s discipline, morale, and combat and mobilization readiness.
- Organizing, planning, and conducting staff training.
- Supervising all tasks assigned to the staff.
Directing the efforts of coordinating and special staff members.
- Ensuring staff work conforms to the mission and the commander’s guidance and occurs within the time frame provided by the commander.
- Ensuring the staff integrates and coordinates its activities internally, vertically (with higher headquarters and subordinate units), and horizontally (with adjacent units).
- Informing the commander, deputy or assistant commanders, other primary staff members, and the CofS’s of subordinate units about new missions, instructions, and developments.
- Directing and supervising the staff’s planning process. (See Chapter 5 for a complete discussion of the staff-planning process.)
- Ensuring all staff members provide intelligence preparation of the battlefield (IPB) input to the G2.
- Maintaining knowledge of all directives, orders, and instructions the commander issues to the staff, sub- ordinate commanders, and subordinate units, and verifying their execution.
- Ensuring the staff is rendering assistance to subordinate commanders and staffs, as necessary.
- Supervising the integration of risk management across the entire staff for all planning and execution of operations.
- Coordinating staff responsibility for the following special staff officers:
- Headquarters commandant.
- Secretary of the general staff (SGS).
- Liaison officers (LNOs).
