How does your Commander's performance on their PT test influence your opinion of them?

Soldiers look down on any leader who fails to lead from the front, especially at the team, squad, platoon, company and battalion level. Speaking from my almost 30 years as an infantryman I know this to be truthful. Even in the posts on this site, we read about “this or that leader” who does not “go outside the wire” on patrol, but while in the FOB these individuals run around enforcing the “PT belt rule.” The same phenomenon existed in Vietnam and in Korea. Soldiers demand top notch leadership. If a leader demands an average PT or weapons qualification score from their soldiers, you can rest assured that the leader’s PT and weapons qualification will be a point of discussion across the board. The leader must share hardship and pain with their soldiers in every aspect of their missions. Leaders are in charge, officers command, of course are responsible for their unit’s performance; however, being a part of every performance the unit undertakes is crucial to effective leadership. It’s easy to order soldiers into Harm’s Way. It’s tough to lead those soldiers there.

If the commander passes, that's all I care about. I consistently score between 225 and 250 on mine. I'm not a PT stud, never have been, never will be. I find that those who want to fault me for that are the same ones who don't care about my job performance, so I just ignore those idiots. Sure, I could spend three plus hours in the gym every day...but that would take time away from mastering my craft...and THAT is what a Chief Warrant Officer is supposed to be doing.

I’ve never known any of my commanders pt scores.

They just like everyone else should do their dead level best. In the Air Force I didn’t accept half assed. We had a maintenance officer once who was in his mind a big stud athelete. It screwed him completely up when I ran the mile and a half faster than him while riding my two year old daughter on my shoulders.

I continually ran 2 miles under 12 minutes. Combat boots with buttpack. My company commander, Capt. Hawk, always beat me.

I don’t judge a commander by his APFT score. I judge him/her by their ability to lead and plan. I do judge a commander if they can’t pass the APFT and I do expect them to give 100% effort on all of the events on the APFT. That’s leading from the front.

At the JSOC /JCU we had troops from AF,ARMY, NAVY and MARINES. we did semi annual PT tests First Navy then AF the n Army and finally USMC. As the unit Operations Officer I did all four in sucession with the unit members from that service.
On the 4th. test one of my Marines was ragging on me saying he had beaten me on the run. I checked there is an allowance for age. And when we scored on that basis I had gotten a higher point score. The men in my unit definately responded favorably to my being willing and able to take all of the tests and score nearly max scores on each.
So yes I do believe troops look up to leaders who can do everything they expect from their subordinates.

240 to 250 is within reason for a commander or any other leader for that matter but not steller. It gave Soldiers an opportunity to beat me and prevented me from having a heart attack on the track. Whatever goal Soldiers are to achieve though, a commander damn well better achieve as well.

Never cared one bit, above platoon leaders. I just wanted them to make good decisions. Never once did the thought cross my mind that the athletic or marksmanship prowess of anyone wearing more than one shiny bar would save or damn me or my guys.

No it never mattered all that much to me if my Commander was a PT Stud. I knew and understood they had many others pulling on them for their time. As long as they passed the test or met the Company standard. I also would not allow my Soldiers to make an issue of it if the Commander was not a PT Stud. Now I made it my mission to ensure that I always bested the Commander in. All things physical. That was at sometimes difficult but as the 1SG I had a more direct influence on the troops when it came to do as I say because I can do it too. If the Commander was a good Leader than how well they did on the PT test made no difference.