As a fairly new NCO, am I supposed to give my soldiers initial and monthly counsellings (PSG is asking for monthly)?

You need to make counseling your people a priority, something that you schedule and so regularly, or you will inevitably get sucked into "management by crisis", where you only meet with your people when you want something. Remember, when completing evaluations, it's easy to remember what someone did that pissed you off: it's just as easy to overlook the guys that do their jobs well and never need your direction. Unfortunately, that results in your people feeling like the only time you notice them being when they screw up. You need to give positive feedback as well as negative if you want them to learn what you want and succeed in their jobs.

I'm telling you these things from personal experience supervising (in a non-military setting). When you're constantly up to your ass in alligators, it's easy to put off that part of your job. Only later do you realize that your team thinks you don't give a crap about them.

Here are my two cents worth. As a senior NCO, I did keep a book with all my soldier's information which I only shared with each of them. I did counselled my junior NCOs in a monthly basis letting them know their strong points as well as their weak ones (as I saw them). Of course, those counselling sessions were done one on one, between the NCO and myself. On their strong points, I would not only give them a "pat in the back" but, I would give them a letter of appreciation or asked the CO to give them one; on their weak points I would point them to the NCOs and told them how to get them fixed, so they would be successful. I required them to do the very same thing with their soldiers; that means, telling their soldiers were they were weak at and the ways to improve and then give them the time and resources to do it under their supervision. I had a great platoon and am happy to say that the rate of success was very high among my soldiers. Believe it or not, the same applies in civilian life; I have worked at the Department of the Interior, the Department of Workforce Development, State of Wisconsin, Veterans Affairs and a few others and, was lucky to have excellent managers who cared about their employees and conducted the monthly counselling, hence our workforce was successful. Counselling does work, but it must be consistent and supervised!

As a "fairly new NCO," get in the manuals and regulations and learn. Teach, coach, mentor. Grab the .pdf of FM 6-22, Ctrl+F, and search for counsel. See just how many times the word counsel comes up.
It's in there!

Yes, despite there being only 21 or less duty days to counsel one about, and 21 days not being enough time to make many improvements to PT or civilian education. Sure you can knock out a ton of correspondence courses, but not much to counsel about.
However, I did it because that was the standard. I made it measurable by giving an initial and let the Soldier set goals for PT, military education, civilian educations, training events, any deficiencies, etc. for the quarter. I then used the monthly to track progress towards the quarterly goal.
I also listed and addressed anything outstanding regarding LDRDHP, and promotion.
I also ensured I counseled Soldiers no less than 6 months before they were eligible for promotion regarding what I would recommend; what was needed to be recommended for promotion; how to be competitive for a waiver; etc.

I would echo the entire sentaments of SGM Vidakovich. In addition, the USAF had a much greater ratio of officers to enlisted ranks than do the other services, so in many instances, I also functioned where a senior NCO might have. Questions, advice and counselling generally revolved around code of conduct, financial matters, drinking, continuing education and mission & unit security. When we are talking about young kids that have just left high school and this may be their first "job", many are clueless about how to budget and how to act when wearing a uniform. Keep in mind that when these "kids" are on their own casual time, they may gravitate towards a bar, and any discussions that they have about where they are from, why they are here and what they do, can be information for a potential enemy. This is particularly important when "In country" or at a FOB. You point out that there may have been a "Bill of Rights" for them as a civilian, but in the interest of National Security, some of these rights are suspended so that the rest of the country may enjoy them. This is your JOB as a defender and warfighter! If they start to lose sight of the big picture, reinforce how their job fits into National Defense and the mission could fail without their being able to do their job.
Your job, as an NCO, is to "Hurd Cats" and make sure that your team is in warfighting condition. Even if their job is data entry or recruiting, they have the ability to fire an M-16 or MP-4 and this may be their warfighting skill. President Teddy Roosevelt said, "Walk softly and carry a big stick". This goes for NCOs as well.

I was an instructor at a NCO Academy PLDC and BNCOC, you can tell that I’m old school for the school names have changed. You must Council each NCO (plus Corporals) so they know what you expect of them. With NCO’s and Corporals you need to fill out the counseling form all others need to be counseled on what you expect. As a new NCO you need to carry with you, at all times a notebook with all their schools, APFT, names of wife and children, address and phone number. Weapon number and remember the golden rule ‘admonish in private and praise in public. If an assignment wasn’t done correctly ask yourself the following questions:
1. Were my instructions understood
2, did I motivate the men enough by explaining why the task needed to be done.
3. Did I supervise the detail and helped out with the detail.
BTW, the notebook I’m referring to is available at Clothing Sales. You need to show the men you are in charge of, that you care about them and will mentor them toward success and promotion.

Requirements are initial counseling within 30 days. Then quarterly for written counselings. If you are active duty you will have more time with your troops and something relevant to be able to do a written counseling monthly. If Reserve or NG you will be making shit up to put on a monthly counseling. Nothing worse than having 2 days with your troops and spending it counseling them individually while the rest are sitting around waiting on you. You should verbally counsel your troops monthly or even daily. Keep a book and write down notes from the verbal counselings and add them to the monthly counselings. Question, is your PSG doing a monthly counseling on you?

OMG!!! Seriously you posted this. This is integral part of developing soldiers as well as being a leader. The blind leading the blind?? If you don’t then it will fall back on you when one or more of them screw up. Oh wait!! Millennials at work(young) troops- maybe you can just text it to them? LOL,

If you don't know the answer to that and are trying to outsmart your PSG by asking a group forum, you shouldn't be an NCO...

If you do not constantly counsel your Soldiers then you are doing two things wrong.

1. You are failing as a leader! Your job is to
Teach, Coach and Mentor those Soldiers and build them into Leaders! Your job is to train them at ever level to become better than you and be able to take your place!

2. You are failing your Soldier. How can you improve their performance and make your unit better if they are not provided with guidance and feed back? Counseling needs to be formal and informal. You don’t have to wait until your monthly time to counsel the Soldier it can be done any time! But you should actually physical and in writing counse them on a monthly basis at all levels!

We as leaders do a bad job at counseling overall and it is you as a young leader who can fix this and make the Army a better place!

1SG (Ret) K