P-385-63 US Army Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Guide Download
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14 DA PAM 600–25 • 11 December 2018 (2) Broadening education opportunities. Examples of broadening through education are fellowships with degree com- pletion, attending other DOD leadership academies, professional reading, and completing college courses leading to a degree. Education beyond the required professional military education for promotion increases the potential for leaders to serve in diverse assignments while enhancing growth in both leadership attributes and competencies. (3) Broadening training opportunities. Examples of broadening through training opportunities are TWI, credentialed functional training within and outside the CMF, strategic broadening seminars, and training in Joint and multinational environments. Continuous pursuit of training enhances lifelong learning and increases broader development of the key leader competencies leads, develops, and achieves. (4) Other broadening opportunities (experiences). Examples of other broadening experiences are working in JIIM en- vironments, congressional fellowship, working as a defense attaché, the White House Transportation Agency, selection— or working with—Special Operations forces, and future opportunities requiring a broader understanding not currently defined. Other opportunities and experiences enables the NCO cohort to remain adaptive and flexible in recognizing broad- ening opportunities that develop leadership competencies. 2–15. Self-development a. NCOs follow self-development, which is a planned, progressive, and sequential program. This program is comprised of individual study, education, research, and a professional reading list. Self-development also includes practice, self- assessment, and ideally, is synchronized with institutional training and operational assignments. Self-development pro- grams should complement and expand on advancements and accomplishments gained during institutional training and operational assignments, and they require a lifelong commitment to learning. Self-development is a personal responsibility and focuses on maximizing leader strengths, minimizing weaknesses, and achieving individual leader development goals. Self-development requires a joint effort between the individual Soldier and his or her leadership to be effective. The use of the individual development plan (IDP) helps to facilitate this process and provides leaders and Soldiers a means to document, track, and monitor self-development. b. Initially, self-development is narrow in focus, but broadens as NCOs become more familiar with their own strengths and weaknesses, determine their specific needs, and become more independent. An NCO’s knowledge and perspective increases with maturity, experience, institutional training, and operational assignments. Unit leadership is responsible for building a functional self-development program tailored to NCO and unit needs. c. Self-development focuses on maximizing strengths, improving weaknesses, and achieving individual development goals. All Soldiers must accept their personal responsibility to develop, grow, and commit to professional excellence. The Soldier must commit to a lifetime of professional and personal growth focused on staying at the cutting edge of their profession. d. The success of self-development is tied to regular self-assessment and performance feedback. Individuals must reg- ularly conduct honest assessments of their strengths and weaknesses. First-line leaders must regularly provide feedback on performance and help individuals develop and refine a developmental action plan to guide performance improvement. A second critical component of success is ensuring uniform access to current learning materials and programs, regardless of assignment or Army component. The self-development domain must be a robust component of the professional devel- opment model (PDM), providing every Soldier a clear understanding of career enhancing recommendations throughout their career. e. The NCO uses self-development to complement and enhance the knowledge and experience gained through institu- tional training and education and operational assignments. The NCO self-development program is comprised of a guided, structured component. (1) Structured self-development/distributed leader course. SSD/DLC is required learning that continues throughout a career and that is closely linked to, and synchronized with, classroom and on-the-job learning. SSD/DLC is a prerequisite for corresponding levels of NCOPDS (below) which sets the conditions for continuous growth both as a warrior and a warrior leader. Each level of SSD/DLC is a centrally managed set of specified content that must be completed within 3 years at specified career points as a prerequisite for continued advancement. SSD/DLC builds knowledge and skills through a defined sequence of learning approaches to strengthen formal education and experiential learning. SSD/DLC focuses on a set of common cognitive skills that prepare and enhance the individual’s ability to lead Soldiers and competence as a warrior. (a) SSD/DLC 1 prepares Soldiers for the BLC. Soldiers are automatically enrolled upon completing BCT and one station unit training (OSUT). SSD/DLC 1 tasks are focused primarily at the team and squad levels. SSD/DLC focuses on the common leader and tactical skill sets. Completion of SSD/DLC 1 is an eligibility requirement for board recommenda- tion to SGT and a prerequisite for attendance to the Basic Leaders Course. (b) SSD/DLC 2 (formerly the Advanced Leader Course Common Core (ALC–CC)) is designed to asynchronously educate all SGT, SGT(P), and SSG in leadership attributes, competencies, NCO duties, responsibilities, and authorities