Leaders, what techniques did you utilize in order to develop your young service members into the leaders of tomorrow?

2018-02-26T02:05:09-05:00

All leaders have their own style that dictates how they approach developing young men and women into the kinds of leaders that we wish to have in our ranks. As for me, I liked to utilize counselings for both good and bad behavior, allow my E4s the opportunity to "counsel" me (this gave them to practice and also allowed me to gauge what my soldiers needed from me), and gave Soldiers the chance to lead the lower ranking soldier when situations would allow it.

Response by SSG Jose M. Hernandezsanchez made Feb 26 at 2018 5:44 AM

2018-02-26T05:44:31-05:00

SGT Gunderson,
I did pretty much something similar as you described. Some Soldiers need more direction than others, it depends what you see on them. One of the things I always preached was not to ask your subordinates to perform tasks you have not done yourself. Coming from a tactical unit myself, I had to perform some steps within the readiness of the team and unit. Once they become SPC/E-4 and seen they could handle certain tasks, I let them take the lead of the rest of the squad while I observed. As you already mentioned, this was a situation where let me know a Soldier is ready or has been ready for the next step. Some didn't like the idea of me putting them "on the spot", but how can you develop leadership? And some also think you are throwing them to the "wolves", but sometimes you have to.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 26 at 2018 6:07 AM

2018-02-26T06:07:38-05:00

Praise in public, punish in private. Whether you are a squad leader or a platoon leader, set the standard high and, if needed, give your soldiers a boost on bended knee to reach it. Train all soldiers to act in the absence of leadership by giving them an opportunity to make a decision, but be ready to redirect them when the decision they made could have been better.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 26 at 2018 7:58 AM

2018-02-26T07:58:59-05:00

Empower your subornidate leaders to make decisions that affect the organization, because it gets them invested in the team as well. Set high standards, and execute to those standards. Praise work done beyond the standard, aid those who are not meeitng at least the standard, and tactfully take those who are rebellious and deal with them in private. Treat them like human beings, and how you yourself would want to be treated. Its a professional relationship, so leave all personal feelings at the door.

I think you are spot on about counselings. A lot of soldiers look at it as a bad thing, but they can actually be a really, really good thing! I've done both. One was about a PT failure, which wasn't fun because we had to flag said soldier, but another soldier got credit on the extended scale for the APFT, which was awesome to see. An E4, I put him in charge of the PT program, and he ran with it. Now he's an E-5, Air Assault qualified, and a stellar NCO. Empower those who are good, to better the organization.

Response by CW3 Jeff Held made Feb 26 at 2018 7:13 PM

2018-02-26T19:13:15-05:00

I coached, mentored, and trained relentlessly and gave them as many opportunities to lead as was possible. Mistakes were always viewed as lessons learned. I trusted them and they knew it - their confidence was onvious.