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.

You aren’t their friends anymore! But you also have to be fair and treat everyone equally. The hardest part is enforcing the UCMJ when the offender is someone you hung with. Always be honest and always have high integrity

"His men under his supervision"
Respect comes with it too. You'll be a good sergeant SPC Paredes, you have already started, by asking and wanting to be a good sergeant.

By the way, I was with the 2nd 508th Inf A-Co in 1972 at Bragg.

SPC Paredes,
One thing that always stuck in my mind is not to ask your men to do something you haven't done yourself. They will respect you for that. I had a Soldier on my very last deployment after coming back from a mission..."damn SSG Hernandez, you did more in one single night than what SSG Nelson did in six months". The moral to the story is that Soldiers are always looking at you. Ensure you truly understand the 2nd paragraph of the NCO Creed which in my mind is the meat and potatoes of the whole Creed itself. Good luck!

Know your men. Never ask your men to do something you yourself are not willing to do yourself. Be approachable to your men. Share all of your knowledge and anything you learn, pass it on. Listen to your men, it's a team effort despite your position or rank you do not have all the answers. When you don't know answer seek it out when you're able and then seek your men out and tell them what you learned. You will learn from your men just as much as they will learn from you. Never be afraid to ask questions. During a board I had to encrypt a radio and had forgotten from not using that radio for a period of time, I asked the CSM to show me because I had forgotten. He promoted me because I had stopped and asked in order to succeed where the previous 4 had fumbled through it and failed. When it comes to work, you work to. Work through the details, fill the sand bags, police call etc. You'll gain the respect and loyalty of your men and they would do damn near anything for you. You know what right and wrong is, you know what a bad NCO looks like, build off those in order to be better. You'll do fine.

learn from your mentor as much as you can figure out what type of NCO you want to be and do the research on how to become that leader. I recommend the book "The Servant" for learning ways to be a good leader.

Got to find that answer yourself there bud

A good leader. If you have to ask then I would suggest you read all your leadership manual's and find the best NCO you know and ask him how he does it. Of course you must use the style of leadership that best fits you. Practice be know and do. Be the best you can be.