Posted on Sep 24, 2017
How can I be an effective leader when I only see my soldiers once a month?
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I am an Army National Guardsmen. Being an NCO in the National Guard presents a very unique challenge; I can only control what I see and I only have the chance to develop my soldiers once a month. One thing that I do, is that every week, I check in on them, just to make sure everything is going alright. What else can I do to be the best leader for them?
Leadership Development
Training Soldiers
Posted 7 y ago
Responses: 6
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You are already taking the right steps. Contacting your Soldiers weekly is more then most do (at least in my experience). You have limited time with your Soldiers and need to make the most of it. Make sure that you (with your section/psgt) have a game plan and are ready to hit the ground running right after that first formation. It can start with PT. If your unit tends to do platoon level release PT, make sure that you have previously identified who is going to run the session and follow up during the month to make sure they are knowledgeable and prepared. Again, in concert with your immediate leadership, make sure that you have a set of tasks ready for your team or squad.
What you don't want to do is to loose time with our troops to the computer lab. It's really important to stress that your Soldiers take care of the individual mandatory training at home and not at drill. I always got feedback (complaints) about having to do stuff on my own time. I solved that by reminding them that during the drill weekends they belonged to the commander and had no problem keeping them after release to do the computer based training. After a couple drills of this, they found the time to do their annual SHARP, ASIP, AT-1, TIP and other such classes. It also allowed them to be productive with the section during drills.
AT is a critical time to establish yourself with your team. DO everything possible to make sure that you don't miss that opportunity, especially as a new leader. This includes, if possible, scheduling PME at a different time. (I get that jobs and school can make this difficult and sometimes you have to go with the PME first). As much planning as you might do before a weekend, it is even more critical to know what your place and role will be during AT and to prep ahead of time. If you have a PSG that is worth anything, you will have been involved in some level of pre-planning in the months ahead of time.
Finally, if you have some sort of range qualification exercise (3 or 4 day weekend), this is a great opportunity to train with your troops on AWT and weapon skills. Too many times I have seen these events turn into vacations. Range goes cold at 17:30, troops have eaten and changed into civilian attire by 18:30 and already checked out for the day. There is still some daylight left...just saying
What you don't want to do is to loose time with our troops to the computer lab. It's really important to stress that your Soldiers take care of the individual mandatory training at home and not at drill. I always got feedback (complaints) about having to do stuff on my own time. I solved that by reminding them that during the drill weekends they belonged to the commander and had no problem keeping them after release to do the computer based training. After a couple drills of this, they found the time to do their annual SHARP, ASIP, AT-1, TIP and other such classes. It also allowed them to be productive with the section during drills.
AT is a critical time to establish yourself with your team. DO everything possible to make sure that you don't miss that opportunity, especially as a new leader. This includes, if possible, scheduling PME at a different time. (I get that jobs and school can make this difficult and sometimes you have to go with the PME first). As much planning as you might do before a weekend, it is even more critical to know what your place and role will be during AT and to prep ahead of time. If you have a PSG that is worth anything, you will have been involved in some level of pre-planning in the months ahead of time.
Finally, if you have some sort of range qualification exercise (3 or 4 day weekend), this is a great opportunity to train with your troops on AWT and weapon skills. Too many times I have seen these events turn into vacations. Range goes cold at 17:30, troops have eaten and changed into civilian attire by 18:30 and already checked out for the day. There is still some daylight left...just saying
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It's not how often they see you, but how they see you. Be sure you're always the subject matter expert, you always hold them to the highest standards, and that you're there to back them up with the fury of hell if anybody should fuck with them. That's how leadership works.
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1SG(P) (Join to see)
SGT,
I can understand that there may be a gap because the only time you get to sit with them is during drill, but keep doing what you are doing by checking in on them. I have Soldiers that I have not seen in years, but I am constantly sending them new information as I get it to ensure that they have it. I always check back to see if they actually read it and understood it, if they had any questions, call me, text me or email me so we can discuss it. To this day, I have a SSG that I had a chance to drive 4 hours to place that SSG rank on his chest. I meant so much to me because I had not seen him in years, but I was still developing him even though we were not in the same room. Leadership is all about the big word of CARE, if you show your Soldiers that you care then they will see it. They will follow you no matter the distance in between. There are Senior NCOs that I still reach out to and they continue to develop me. So just keep doing what you doing and share new information as time goes along and they will eventually catch on and understand that, ok SGT Senn expects me to check in weekly, I know he is going to ensure that I understand what I dont understand. You will be fine SGT and I hope that helped.
I can understand that there may be a gap because the only time you get to sit with them is during drill, but keep doing what you are doing by checking in on them. I have Soldiers that I have not seen in years, but I am constantly sending them new information as I get it to ensure that they have it. I always check back to see if they actually read it and understood it, if they had any questions, call me, text me or email me so we can discuss it. To this day, I have a SSG that I had a chance to drive 4 hours to place that SSG rank on his chest. I meant so much to me because I had not seen him in years, but I was still developing him even though we were not in the same room. Leadership is all about the big word of CARE, if you show your Soldiers that you care then they will see it. They will follow you no matter the distance in between. There are Senior NCOs that I still reach out to and they continue to develop me. So just keep doing what you doing and share new information as time goes along and they will eventually catch on and understand that, ok SGT Senn expects me to check in weekly, I know he is going to ensure that I understand what I dont understand. You will be fine SGT and I hope that helped.
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