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37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"The three meter zone" is the zone of the first-line NCO., July 28, 1999
By A Customer
"The three meter zone" is the zone of the first-line noncommissioned leader. It is the zone of the day-after-day, in-the-face, hands-on leadership. It is the most critical leadership zone; if what is done within the zone is done with common sense and high standards, the product will be an outstanding soldier. If what is done within the zone is done poorly and to low standards, the product will be an elimination action or, even worse, an unmotivated, untrained, unfit soldier who is merely marking time until ETS. As our Army is suffering from dramatically high attrition rates among first term soldiers, CSM Pendry's short book is both timely and useful. He clearly explains how first line leaders can develop themselves and their leadership style, and how they can lead their soldiers to success. I recommend this book be read by sergeants and by company-grade officers. I encourage all battalion and brigade commanders to add it to their unit's professional reading list.CSM Pendry focuses first on the leader, and explains how he developed his own leadership style. He shows how he changed many of his opinions over the years, and how he critically examined his values to develop a solid foundation for his leadership style. He includes an interesting discussion on the need for counseling of the battalion CSM by the battalion commander, which can be read with profit by every NCO who intends to become a "command team" member. He relates that it was crucial to his own development to simply sit down and write out what the Army values mean to him (he includes, but goes beyond LDRSHIP). It was not easy for him to do, but when finished, he had his position, he knew where he was going, and he knew how he planned to get there. Another concept he found useful was the "personal battle focus," his own mission essential tasks, means of assessing where he was, and a plan to get where he wanted to be. CSM Pendry emphasizes the critical importance of being the example of what we want our soldiers to be - never easy, but absolutely essential to success within the three-meter zone. In the second half of his book, CSM Pendry focuses on standards and discipline for soldiers - knowing them, respecting and rewarding them, motivating them, training them, and physically training them. The longest and most important of these sections covers "knowing them." Here, CSM Pendry emphasizes that different styles must be used for different people, with the goal of moving the soldier out of the three-meter zone of constant supervision and detailed instructions, into the "fifty" or "one-hundred meter" zones of increased responsibility and autonomy. Readers will find his comments on the need to know and be partners with civilian employees, on the need to welcome newly promoted NCOs into the corps, and on the need to communicate with and participate in low-profile events with soldiers to be very thought provoking. Finally, every leader should read his comments concerning how too many NCOs and company grade officers have "willed" the Single Soldier Initiatives for Quality of Life to fail; he correctly indicts many leaders for willfully failing to support the program and our own soldiers as the best of them try to improve their style of life. CSM Pendry has no magical formulas for leaders. He has thought critically about how he leads; he has improved as a leader by applying his insights. Read this book, take up his challenge to critically examine ourselves and our styles. We can become masters of the "three-meter zone" as well. The entire Army will benefit.
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by Dandridge M. Malone
by Robert S. Rush
by Brett A. Stoneberger
by Frances Hesselbein
by Leadership The Center For Army
