Describe the best and worst leader you ever knew? What made them good/bad?

That's the best part of being able to recognize the difference of good and bad leadership. They can both be inspirational in their own ways. Good Topic!!!

Best Leaders: There are many. 1SG Charles Vaughn, CDR Dan Gage, COL Reynold Hoover, to name a few.

Worst Leaders: Thankfully, there are only a few, but I wont name or describe them. A couple were so bad that I honestly have a hard time getting rid of the baggage they created. Maybe I should consider therapy. :D

Best: I have had many great leaders, both enlisted and officer. One that sticks out the most is the commander that I worked for in a BCT Battalion. He had a great balance of formal/informal, he inspired you to achieve your best and was in the thick of it with you.

Worst: A former 1SG I had years ago. Dad told me you can learn as much from a poor leader as you can from a great. And this was true. I have a mental list going of "things not to do". The leading contributor is my former 1SG.

Good: My first operational squadron commander as a copilot. He was personable yet you knew he was in charge. He did not have to be a (fill in the blank) to project his authority. he seemed to have a genuine sense of concern for everyone in the squadron. He was mission oriented but without being alienating about it.

Bad: There are few runner ups but the one that gets the gold was one of my last leaders as an active duty guy. He was more interested in looking like the leader than being one. He always let you he was in charge of the squadron. He did the DO's job. He was very demeaning to everyone who did not do things exactly his way. He overlooked a lousy NCO because he was afraid that he would get an MEO complaint, that's as far as I will go with that. He had no issue taking it out on the rest of us. He had the junior officers and enlisted go on spirit missions that eventually started getting out of control. We ended up in a turf war that started to go beyond simple ha ha fun. When my troops started to decide that it was getting ridiculous, he actually had the nerve to chew out the squadron for not having any unit pride. This was when they decided stop doing graffiti on the base with our mascot. The irony was that graffiti of the base was considered a punishable offense during the in brief yet this was what we were supposed to do. The guy was a real chump and I will be glad never to run into him ever.

My answer: Have had the good fortune to work with some inspirational leaders of every rank.... and their cartoon counterparts. THE GOOD: My Senior Drill Sergeant in Basic Combat training ranks highest among the best NCOs I ever knew (SFC Robinson). He led by "Be, Know, Show, Do--Trust, Inspire!" He had a kick to pat ratio that focused on the positive. He WANTED you to succeed. He led you to success, and you followed not because he was the Senior Drill, but because he knew his stuff. We were lucky to have him as our Platoon Sgt as well as Senior Drill. I was lucky to be chosen as Platoon Guide, and learned simply by standing in his shadow. He'd show you how to do it right, not just tell you, then have you show him. Then you would show others. Sounds simple? Try it on EVERYTHING you do. Patiently, constantly, consistently. Never saw him lose his cool. Similarly his kick-to-pat ratio was outstanding. And, he knew the art of public praise and private counseling (a very rare trait these days). Similarly, I'd single out LTG Chelberg and GEN Galvin at SHAPE/NATO--they never forgot where they came from and were sensitive to their impact on others. As one of the first men at the Women's Army HQ (yep, no kidding)--some of the finest leaders I ever met were women, in fact, nearly all of the senior women were CONFIDENT and COMPETENT and CARING. MG Mary Clarke among others stands out. They cared about you just as much as they cared about the mission. They cared about tradition, and history; and treating people fairly. THE MIDDLE : Worked for one fellow who was an absolute genius. Trouble is almost no one survived his personal "academy". Those of us who chose to learn from him survived. The others bit the dust. I learned a great many skills from him, including what hot and what's NOT. Nearly killed me and many others. What doesn't kill you truly makes you stronger... THE UGLY: Every now and then you encounter an Equal Opportunity jerk. A person so in love with his/her own opinions that there is no hope for reality. The world is chock-full of them. You did your duty and not much more in a sea of people seething with contempt, from the senior officers on down. Poison personified. The point here is that the Good, the Bad, the Ugly all help to shape you in the years ahead. Because of them we are successful--if we learn the right lessons. #1 = no commission, no leadership position is not a license to exercise your personality quirks. #2 = nothing is forever.

Best- LTC James Critz. My Battalion commander at 7/6 Inf. This was a man in command of 700+ soldiers, and I'm pretty sure he knew and cared about every one of them. You always knew he was in command, but you were never scared to have him show up unannounced, because he inspired you to care too. He would show up at any given time during field training, pull the NCO or a soldier aside and ask questions, offer advice, but NEVER undermine his NCOs.

Worst- My Platoon Sergeant at 7/6 Inf. (I'll reserve his name) I went head to head with him many times, and probably came close to losing a stripe over it once or twice, but in the end, I never compromised my integrity, and he ended up being relieved as a PSG and sent to S-2. My 2LT Platoon Leader went off on me a couple of times over taking on the PSG, but later thanked me (privately) for doing so, even admitting that he had allowed the wrong guy to influence and mentor him (this was after spending some time with a GOOD PSG).

Best- LT. Roberta Neighbors. Firm but fair with a big heart and always encouraged everyone "to be more than a collar device." Always pushing people to give back and constantly mentoring people. Even her discipline was positive in nature.

Worst- won't say his name because he's on here lol. But my HM2 from 3rd LSB in Okinawa. Very cocky and often wrong and would throw his subordinates under the bus any and every chance he got. He lacked integrity big time lol. However, I will say that he did improve his attitude after his "meeting" with the 1st Sgt. from Charlie Company.

Best: My previous boss when I worked at FORSCOM. He was fantastic to work for, because he made sure you were taken care of if you deserved it, but he wouldn't hesitate to be honest when someone was worthless. He wasn't brutal about it, unless you really ticked him off. In the three years I worked for him, he yelled at me all of once. I deserved it. :-) He delegated what he needed my team or I to do and then he let me handle it from there. When any of us in the office traveled with him, he was always quick to introduce us to people he knew. He never treated me any different than he did AC officers, and in fact he went to bat for me on more than one occasion to secure a top block for me. I never asked for it, and in fact, I told him I was perfectly fine with a COM. But he would always take care of those who took care of him. And as an added benefit, he had a great sense of humor. It was an honor and a pleasure to work for him.

Worst: Well, I will tell you why, but not when I served under this person. The individual I'm thinking of is somewhat of a micro-manager. I just don't think he understands how a chain of command works or how to delegate. Instead of telling me what he needed my team to do, he always told me who on my team needed to do it. Drove me crazy!!! He often would go directly to my team and task them without going through me or at least keeping me in the loop. Also drove me crazy! He often would tell two or three people in the office to do the same thing, so we had more than one person wasting time do a project someone else was doing. He is a meeting freak and we had a staff meeting nearly every day. OK, I hate meetings, so that's just me whining. He makes it a habit of dumping everything on the people who work hard and lets the lazy ones float, instead of holding them accountable. He would cow-tow to the senior leaders and kiss butt at every opportunity, but would throw us under a bus or step on our toes. OK, I think I've said more than enough on this. You get the picture.

A Bn Cdr that gave me an illegal order (I was the second Co Cdr to disobey) the same illegal order.

Best: CW3 Tania Nicole Dunbar (1974-2015); it's hard to put in words who she represents and what I saw in her. I don't use this word lightly, but she was a pioneer. She risked her life in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. She helped support various military lgbt organizations and co-founded one. She left us roughly two weeks before the DoD announced its study of transgender Americans, three weeks before I graduated from ALC. She gave me hope when there really wasn't a valid spit of evidence to be hopeful. She hated crying Soldiers, especially females. Though she rests in Arlington, I picked up her habits and focus on Soldier care. To be there for others when there wasn't for me, regardless of background or what they do on their free time; care for every Soldier. I miss her to death and try to do my very best in what accomplished both in and out of uniform.

Worst: They still serve so I won't say names or ranks. Bullying of junior soldiers in a training unit, to help push as many soldiers out under DADT (this was 2009). Rewarded Soldiers to photograph and plant evidence on other Soldiers so as to help kick out more junior personnel. Conducted various room inspections to find out who're Pagan, Jewish or Muslim, so as to create a Sunday cleaning roster while the Christian Soldiers were at church. Various physical training style punishments instead of retraining (this was before anti-hazing policy and the death of PV2 Daniel Chen). There is more, but the focus was that I was trained not to trust in senior leaders. The memories are still there but we're getting better as a force.