I am going to the board, for Sergeant (E-5), soon. I am wondering what makes a great NCO?

A great NCO listens to his people that he leads , also you make sure that any information that needs to be passed to is done, be truthful in your answers to the board, good luck brother.

One thing I has always done is never ask my troops to do something I am not willing to do myself. When stuff needs to be accomplished I am right in their with them. Anyone can be a boss, but it takes real skills to be a leader. Always lead from the front, I strive to do my best at everything. It's not just one thing that makes a leader great, it is a whole conglomeration of skills, tricks and personality and knowledge.

A great NCO gets a great deal of his/her motivation by coming up through the ranks and seeing what truly toxic and destructive leadership looks like up close and personal. They then look around at the Good/Great NCO's dealing with this 24 X 7 while taking care of their troops accomplishing the mission and shielding their troops from the majority of the shit show going on above. A great NCO lives their Stripes, a weak one wears their stripes like a costume and an toxic one used their stripes to abuse their troops. In the end all you can do is look around for great NCO's and take what works for them and make it yours with your special twist. You also look at the weak and toxic ones as examples of what not to do and know that anything they do is not the correct methodology and has very little to do with talking care of your troops, accomplishing the mission and mentoring the next batch of NCO's. The NCO Corp is like anything else it has both bad and good and we all try to limit the damage that the bad ones do and create better ones to replace us.