Target Audience: Nominative Command Sergeants Major (CSM) and Sergeants Major (SGM) in their first assignment as senior enlisted leaders and advisors in Army commands, organizations, and directorates at the Brigadier and Major General (BG/MG) and Senior Executive Service (SES) 1 and 2 level.
Location: USAWC, Carlisle Barracks, PA
Duration: 2 weeks
Offered: Three times per year
Prerequisites: Attendees must be graduates of the Sergeants Major Course (SMC) and may also have a requirement to complete Distributed Leader Course (DLC) VI prior to attending NLC.
Overview: NLC is the Sergeant Major of the Army's (SMA's) course to educate and develop appointed nominative CSM and SGMs in their first assignment at the executive level. The course serves as the final professional military education opportunity under the Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development System (NCOPDS). NLC is a required two week strategic leader development course for all active duty nominative CSM / SGMs; Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve nominative sergeants major attend NLC on a space available basis.
NLC provides a broad learning experience focused on thinking, leading, advising, and communicating at the strategic level. Students participate in numerous curriculum activities across four learning bins—Understanding the Army’s Operating Environment; Understanding Critical Army Issues; Understanding and Applying Senior Leadership; and Understanding and Addressing Army Functional Issues—to expand their appreciation of the opportunities and challenges inherent in Army strategic leadership positions. Students are exposed to senior military and civilian officials and recognized thought-leaders in industry and world-renowned executive education programs throughout the course. The course consists of a mix of large and small group discussions, practical exercises, and projects as well as individual writing and speaking requirements. NLC's first week largely centers on gaining a conceptual understanding of how strategic leadership differs from direct and organizational leadership that students have experienced thus far in their Army careers. The course’s second week focuses that broad understanding to examining strategic leadership in Army organizations at the enterprise level across the Total Force.
Individual student requirements include: maintaining compliance with Army physical fitness and body composition standards; completing a selected book reading and writing requirement; drafting an Army enterprise policy or program proposal and presenting it to the class; completing several video recordings on select topics; and contributing to a group presentation in response to a strategic question posed by the SMA.
Funding for this course comes through Military Training Specific Allotment (MSTA) funds through the student's unit of assignment.
Students are selected to attend NLC by their component's nominative sergeant major proponent manager.
In accordance with HQDA Message "Updated Information on Structured Self-Development (SSD) Levels One Through Five Conversion to Distributed Leader Course (DLC) Levels One Through Six," dated 04 June 2020, Sergeants Major Course graduates assigned to a position associated with a 7 C/S Professional Development Proficiency Code (PDPC) after 29 Feb 2020 must complete DLC VI prior to attending NLC.
Course Details available at: https://apps.armywarcollege.edu/asep/nlc/login.aspx