Army expands its reviews of sergeants major in an effort to reduce toxic leadership...

quote:

---

“We want to move into the 21st century with really good talent management and assess and ensure that we have the absolute best leaders for our soldiers. Our soldiers deserve the best we can give them.”

---

quote:

---

About 65 of the Army’s operational psychologists are on site to conduct the interviews, which are meant to be an extra layer to determine whether someone has the potential for toxic or counterproductive behavior. The Army has primarily used these types of interviews in the past when selecting candidates for special-mission units, Grinston said.

The new program matches one launched in January 2020 for lieutenant colonels looking to take battalion command. Known as the Command Assessment Program, it expanded to include colonels taking brigade commands about a year ago.

Data from those officer assessments show the process produced, on average, commanders who were “more physically fit, more cognitively capable, better written communicators, better verbal communicators, more self-aware, and less likely to display counterproductive leader behaviors,” said Maj. Joseph Payton, spokesman for the Army Talent Management Task Force.

---

quote:

---

Who is determining who is fit and unfit?

---

quote:

---

The Sergeant Major Assessment Program evaluates some of the Army’s most senior NCOs using cognitive and noncognitive evaluations, tests on written and verbal communication, peer and subordinate feedback and a physical fitness test, according to the Army Talent Management Task Force. Candidates also interview with a psychologist and participate in an in-person panel review in which reviewers cannot physically see the candidate.

---