How do you address any challenges with getting young soldiers involved and having pride in your unit?

Sir, I am assuming that you are a company commander. The first thing I can suggest is to get your 1st SGT involved to assist you in this. Secondly, closely observe your platoon leaders. Insure that they are A. Learning from their platoon sergeants & squad leaders and are not putting unrealistic expectations on their troops in order to look good and adding undue stress to their lives. B. 1st SGT's need to do the same thing with their NCO's. Good leaders earn respect from their subordinates. NCO's in particular have to monitor and mentor their subordinates to be the best they can be. Lead by example! Be technically and tactically proficient. Always be as fair as possible and as harsh when needed. C. Have a sense of humor (without degrading your position). I have had company commanders (and senior NCO's) that I am not sure if I would piss on them if they were on fire. And a few that I would literally walk into hell with. Motivating the un-motivated is a tricky thing. I would not have taken the time to post this Sir if I did not think you were a good officer. I feel certain you will come up with a good plan to address your concerns!

Best of luck,

Airborne All The Way!

A lot of cohesion came from forced cohabitation on post. A lot came from boozing together as a unit. When was your last dining IN? Complete with drunken jousting with pool noodles in office chairs? Now that pretty much everyone lives off post or in a neighborhood on post that isn’t segregated by unit and rank, and booze is the devil...no wonder everyone becomes a civilian at 1700.

9-5 duty day????!! They have that now? It’s an army I don’t recognize.

I treat my soldiers the way that I wished I was treated before I was a NCO. I inform them of the full picture and tell them omhownthier small piece make it all work. I dont work them if I have no work for them, (crazy thought but if I only need 5 guys I split the time it will take into groups of 5. I have earned their respect rather than just demanding it and constantly show them by action I will do the worst jobs right beside my E5s and lower. when I need them to work they all bust their asses. As far as after hours functions I have been lucky this far that a majority of my guys will do something as simple as a game or two of spades or go fishing. It starts with how you treat them but spending time to get to know them as people will go a long way. I could never imagine deploying with Soldiers I dont know enough about to understand what makes them tick. Let a lone no have establishing a strong level of comraderie

We did a lot together as a unit. Sports, BBQs or sitting in the pub talking and watching games. It was almost a guarantee that on Friday afternoon someone would come by and say going to the pub - you coming?

I spent a little under 11 years in (94-05) and the ONLY time I was in a unit with any esprit de corps was during my year in Korea. It’s difficult to have unit functions or group activities when everyone is on a different schedule. My last assignment, I couldn’t even identify half the people in my Company.

Pride needs to be guided in the right direction. For example, my department isn’t going to stand proudly and cheer when the leadership’s idea of showing what we’re made of is staying late on a Friday to clean another department’s part of the ship for them because they’re too busy to clean it themselves.

I hear that basic isn't what it was back in the sixties...goofed up, ya got your ass kicked (the first time by the D.I., second time he punished everybody for your screw-up.....BINGO...blanket party. Basic was always to break ya down, to give ya pride in yourself...once ya got that..the rest will follow...

This is an issue that many of us face. A mentor of mine suggested that I listen to this Podcast episode. Let me know if it helps. PM me if you want to continue the dialogue https://coachingforleaders.com/podcast/158/

When I was a 1SG at JBLM we had a pretty low turn out at our FRG so for the next one I told everyone if they come to the FRG meeting they could skip PT the next day. We had about 10 or 15 people not come so PT that next day was a 7 mile run through the woods off trail with a couple of stream crossings at the end of the run we were all dirty tired and cut up but from then on we had 100% attendance at the FRG meetings