Are Junior Enlisted Soldiers receiving the mentorship necessary to replace us?

SFC Randy Purham — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 20:47:20 -0400

Over the last few years I have heard many NCOs/Officers discuss little to no faith in the capabilities of Junior Enlisted Soldiers ability to step up to the plate or even fulfill leadership roles in the absence of the primary. What are we doing to provide them the mentorship, training, and skill set(s) to step up when necessary? How do you further their ability to lead with faith and confidence?

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 7 at 2016 9:06 PM

SSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 21:06:48 -0400

If an NCO/Officer has no faith in their subordinates then they have failed as a leader. We are charged to lead, develop, and mentor those beneath us. We need to let junior enlisted soldiers take charge of tasks, jobs, etc. Inevitably they may fail and the message needs to be that it's ok. Our culture has surpressed innovation by making failure unacceptable. They will either learn from their failures (or success) and leaders around them can use these experiences as teaching points or mentoring lessons.

Response by MAJ Rene De La Rosa made Apr 7 at 2016 9:37 PM

MAJ Rene De La Rosa — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 21:37:57 -0400

This is the proverbial chicken and the egg question. If a mentor is seeking a leadership role, s/he has to be willing to take criticism from the ranks. Those that one will lead will criticize, and like the crabs in a pail, drag said person down. But how does one get leadership without being the leader? Observation of good and bad leaders, and learning what to do and what not to do. If one studies, and then gets the opportunity, they have to be prepared to take the reins right then and there.

Response by CPL(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 7 at 2016 9:43 PM

CPL(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 21:43:47 -0400

As a junior enlisted, about to take the step into an NCO spot. I believe my leader has done a great job. While at first I didn't believe in myself to take charge of the generator section as an NCO. My Sgt sat down with me and went over everything I know. He always has stepped back and let the Junior Enlisted take charge once the task was set. The past couple months at drill, my squad was tasked with servicing and fixing any faults in our gensets and another companies. While no one was tasked to lead the servicing. I stepped up and took charge when I saw another Spc having issues during the service. So while yes, I do hear it all the time that the military is doomed because no one wants to step up, it's not all true because a lot of Junior Enlisted want to step up, but get shot down one way or another. Just depends on leadership and how they deal with tasks and how they lead.

Response by TSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 7 at 2016 10:18 PM

TSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 22:18:31 -0400

Training and Exercises are what will set up future leaders. If you fail to train, you train to fail. Now is the time that our military must capture. We have so much knowledge to be passed. If your unit is ideal and not willing to conduct unit wide exercises then make your own! What we fail to do now as leaders will effect our military for years to come! If you do not let them take charge in such training then how will they be confident to lead without you? How will they lead from their own mistakes? How will their form their own style of leadership and master it to become a mentor?

Response by CPT Joseph K Murdock made Apr 7 at 2016 10:24 PM

CPT Joseph K Murdock — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 22:24:39 -0400

I am putting most of the onus on the soldiers. The future leaders have it, look for it, act for it, plan for it, and understand it. All the others are reactive.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 7 at 2016 10:27 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 22:27:28 -0400

Yes and no. There are and will always be leaders who care and leaders who don't. It's just up to us leaders to find out which category we choose to fall in.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 7 at 2016 10:31 PM

SSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 22:31:53 -0400

As has been pointed out, only if we're providing it. There's times to gripe, and I've done my share for sure. When you're training the same soldier on the same task, and know that he's going to brain dump the info the moment you walk away, it's frustrating. However, there are those who are drinking it up. And they're the future leaders.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 7 at 2016 10:43 PM

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 22:43:49 -0400

SSG I'm saying this with all the respect for you, your rank, and our army. Not at these comments directed at you.

But the "replace us" in your question isn't what I hope they replace. Your NCO "backbone" is broken SSG. A day when I encounter an actual real example of what an NCO should be is a rarity.

Promotions are broken. 5 in 3 isn't a sign of an outstanding and worthy e4 but now an expectation. Soldiers are in a mindset passed down from higher that it's a right to go to a p board at 3 in secondary zones not an earned privilege. Leaders aren't helping by sending soldiers to the board who have no buisness there as they've barely learned to care for themselves or handle themselves professionally let alone be expected to lead soldiers. Same thing is true for 5 to 6 promotions.

This is a fault purely of the longevity of our wars. Yet at least in the peaks of our conflicts people were getting five fast but earned it under the unforgiving sun.

Promotions are broken as is the vetting process for promotion. I don't care how many leadership schools the army wants to come out with they're just trying to duct tape a concrete crack.

Response by CH (CPT) Heather Davis made Apr 8 at 2016 12:40 AM

CH (CPT) Heather Davis — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 00:40:59 -0400

On my watch, I take the responsibility to pour into the next generation. I have served over 32 years and I will share with you I came up on big shoulders. I believe in this next generation and I ensure that they understand the UCMJ and the military rules and regulations that govern them.

Response by SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth made Apr 8 at 2016 6:40 AM

SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 06:40:30 -0400

Hopefully the one that are being mentored, use what they were taught wisely and for the good of theirs troops.

Response by Cpl Michael Crowley made Apr 8 at 2016 9:56 AM

Cpl Michael Crowley — Fri, 08 Apr 2016 09:56:39 -0400

I'm currently working on a new training SOP that permeates Michigan and hopefully the U.S. military. We have civilians out distancing military expertise due to our outdated training programs. My hope is to utilize civilian certification training schools such as New Horizons Computer Learning Center to get my team validated and more confident that they can successfully complete the task assigned to them. Some responsibility needs to reside with the individual to better themselves and my plan is to take away some of the excuses as to why they fail. Plus, with validating paperwork, individuals moving from unit to unit no longer need to fear starting over. Leaders will be able to look at an accredited training record and have faith that at least the knowledge is there as long as the civilian certs are current. Confidence begets confidence and the cycle starts with the self confidence that an individual can perform at least to minimum expectations.

Response by SSG Mathew Ada made Apr 10 at 2016 3:13 PM

SSG Mathew Ada — Sun, 10 Apr 2016 15:13:28 -0400

In my opinion, not really. After a decade in service, the primary issue I saw is because the Junior Leadership is non existant. You have people in leadership roles who are not knowledgable in their field, unwilling to improve, unmotivated for petty things, have no intentions of mentoring or teaching subordinates and take their positions as a place of authority and not responsibility. I cannot speak for other branches but this is what I witnessed with the Army. This makes for a toxic environment in which soldiers will reflect their leaders and be if anything, sub-par in their chosen field. If anything, leaders when selected must be viewed with scrutiny, as there are many out there that are failures at their chosen profession and position. A leader must lead, not hide behind his position or rank that should belong to a more effective person.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 10 at 2016 3:30 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 10 Apr 2016 15:30:24 -0400

We as leaders look at training Soldiers as how to do their job. It's time to start to teach them to be an adult and seek a higher education. Getting Soldiers to be more responsible and separating the ones that want to from the ones that don't care you will start to see a difference. We need to do this at our level and education younger peers.

Response by CH (CPT) Heather Davis made Apr 10 at 2016 8:16 PM

CH (CPT) Heather Davis — Sun, 10 Apr 2016 20:16:23 -0400

SSG Purham it is apparent their is a class of generational factors. The clash of entitlement and the clash of principles.

Response by SPC John Lebiecki made Jul 26 at 2016 6:11 PM

SPC John Lebiecki — Tue, 26 Jul 2016 18:11:15 -0400

Those are the folks who got promoted way too fast because the Army needed them. Good NCOs are with their guys, making sure they're trained to the best of their ability, and are communicating with their teams on a constant basis.

If they have no faith in the capabilities of junior soldiers, then maybe they should be more engaged in changing that.

Response by SMSgt Bob Wilson made Oct 26 at 2020 1:19 AM

SMSgt Bob Wilson — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 01:19:54 -0400

After reading the comments on this site, I your say the present leadership [sic!] does not know what mentoring is. We have a bunch of babies in the military or poor leaders who only lookout for themselves. I'm not sure which.
NOTE: I did say "military" because I believe we have issues in all branches.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 5 at 2021 8:31 PM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 20:31:38 -0500

SFC Purham, the reason those Seniors do not have faith in the Junior Enlisted is because they don'attest themselves and they haven't done their job. That just sound like a nonsense comment I hear a lot, and is the way some older people criticize the new generations. By the way, they haven't heard how dumb they sound. Guess what? This is the generation you created, what they deliver is the misery they got from you. Same thing about the military, I have had "leaders/supervisors/senior NCO's" that are completely lost in the sauce, they can't run their sections because they don't know the job. But instead of rewarding their subordinates who are the ones who make them look good, they take the credit and give the Junior Enlisted/NCO a COA or nothing (they are too lazy to write an award for their soldiers, most of them don't even know how to) and a copy and paste type of NCOER that do not represent the effort and standard of the soldier, after the soldier created a Support Form that supposed to be the guidance for that NCOER. It's time for those ate up 'Senior Leaders' to go, and let the new generations do what they couldn't do. They call us a weak Army, but who was the soft one??? They try to make us feel inferior, because they know we have more knowledge than them. They pull their rank on us, well that's the only thing they have. They're just jealous because they know we will do a better job, with or without their input, guidance and support we will figure it out. Actually, we have been figuring it out, and we definitely won't miss them when they're gone.

Response by SGM Omer Dalton made Mar 4 at 2021 5:36 PM

SGM Omer Dalton — Thu, 04 Mar 2021 17:36:37 -0500

Part of an NCO’s job is teach and pass on skills. It is all about readiness. I did just that during my time.

Response by PO3 Pamala McBrayer made Sep 17 at 2022 1:22 AM

PO3 Pamala McBrayer — Sat, 17 Sep 2022 01:22:35 -0400

I doubt it.