Leaders, First sergeants, Commanders, Anyone in charge. How often do you notice the Privates who are squared away?

There are a few things that happen regularly that make a junior troop stand out. APFT score will tell me if they are serious about maintaining themselves. Weapons qualification will tell me if they are disciplined at mastering their arms. Soldier of the month boards tell me if they can prepare for and think under pressure.
Advancements up to E-4 may be automatic, but nobody in my unit gets rank for free. If they fail to meet a standard or get on my radar for indiscipline and the like, they will wait until I am satisfied that they are ready for another stripe. If I have any doubts, the first place I go is the Team Leaders.

For promotion from E1-E3 area, I will usually sign off to promote barring any super craziness, but will still confer with PSGs/PLs and maybe squad leaderships until I feel I understand what is going on with the Soldier. Typically, if they're squared away I will try hard to find other ways to recognize them as well as the promotion.

I strive to get out of my office and spend at least SOME time talking with the Soldiers so that I can notice people outside of the "promotion window". Just sitting down to listen to the conversations. From there, I can learn a LOT of how drill is going. Hip Pocket training and honest discussion on how the weekend is going gives me a feel for the unit as a whole.

There are some that stand out. One that jumps to mind is a PFC that I "heckle" because he volunteered for multiple details, but received a promotion and two awards over the course of 3 months. On the 4th month, I told him I was "disappointed" that he wasn't standing in front of the formation for the 4th consecutive time.

Obviously, I'm proud of my Soldiers, and try my hardest to be involved on all levels, but ultimately I need to rely on line leaders and others to help bring to light the successes of others.
v/r,
CPT Butler

I will all way check the promotion roster every month.When Soldier is do I would ask there Chain of command do you what your Soldier promotioned.

Promotion and awards have protocols-If a leader is doing his/her job correctly, every member of the unit is being evaluated along those lines, fairly. Taking the next step, which is fostering a sense of value and encouraging junior sailors, soldiers, marines or airmen to give their best, takes a sincere effort to not only get to know your people, but to look for individual ways to motivate them.

The two best NCOs I ever worked with had completely opposite approaches. One, was an old salt who had come up the hard way (and had the red stripes to match). He was like a "dad" to the guys...and met them on an empathetic level. The other, was a very young Chief who had earned rapid promotion by being very damn good at what he did...and he demanded nothing less from his sailors (even his LT). What both shared in common was a genuine concern for the welfare and careers of those they led.

I looked at attitude and body language at their tender age. I wanted them to want to learn, be disciplined, have a winning spirit, and be a team player. But I had great NCOs to mentor them. It was usually at the SPC level where I saw leadership traits burgeon.

My mother was a bit of a hippie who never approved of me joining the Marines. But she did teach me a couple of good things. I used to keep an "atta boy" book. At the end of the week before going home, I wrote three thank you notes and sent them to their spouse or parents. They caught less grief from their peers, and the word still got around the unit.

We instituted a Soldier of the week recognition when I was a First Sergeant and kept it going as a CSM. It did a lot to help the younger Soldiers feel their contributions were valued and being noticed.

I'm my company, the PSGs and 1SG would sit down and go over the rosters name by name... or the PSGs would come with their suggestions already picked (depending on how busy the 1SG was)... they would bring me the suggestions and I would go through name by name... if there was somebody that I thought deserved it that wasn't getting it, they'd have to convince me of why not.

The cream always come to the top. Good leaders notice.

At least I evaluate every soldier with the whole person concept.