Posted on Jul 14, 2016
Leaders, when was the last time you gave your soldier a positive counseling (or as a subordinate, when was the last time you received one)?
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I'd like to hear RP's thoughts. Coming up, I would sometimes receive impact-oriented counselings for superior performance on certain tasks. I carried this with me and continue to do the same for my soldiers. Do you as leaders feel that positive counseling is necessary? And if so, how often do you find yourself doing it?
Professional Development
Counseling
NCOs
NCOPD
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 12
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I gave my last positive Counseling was Back in 1990 to All 34 of them I Rec'd one my in 1990 as well.
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I find it more productive to roll counselings up into one session. Let them know what they are doing well and what they need to improve on. A positive counseling doesn't really accomplish anything, it doesn't give them anything to put in their record and doesn't aid them in performing in the future. If you feel they went above and beyond, write them up for an LOA/CertComm etc. Verbal "good jobs" are always welcome but a positive counseling to me seems either to much effort or to little on the supervisor's part.
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SPC (Join to see)
Thank you for your input, sir. If you'll allow me to play Devil's advocate for a bit here, what would happen if a subordinate did something extraordinarily bad? Outside of monthly performance counselings, I often see leaders negatively counsel subordinates for subpar performance or unacceptable behavior--which is perfectly acceptable, I am by no means saying we shouldn't negatively counsel soldiers. However, frequently when soldiers go above and beyond or accomplish something meaningful, it goes unrecognized or unsubstantiated (especially on paper).
Many times, I've attempted to write a 638 for a subordinate's outstanding actions, only to be told it wasn't substantial enough to merit a CoA, or even a simple personal recognition from a senior leader. If I were to take a soldier to the board with their counseling folder, the board members are not going to review the monthly counselings to see the bullets I wrote about superior performance--their eyes are going to be drawn to the 2-3 impact-oriented negative counselings. I find that having several individual positive counselings in there can demonstrate to any casual observer that a soldier is capable of outstanding performance.
Many times, I've attempted to write a 638 for a subordinate's outstanding actions, only to be told it wasn't substantial enough to merit a CoA, or even a simple personal recognition from a senior leader. If I were to take a soldier to the board with their counseling folder, the board members are not going to review the monthly counselings to see the bullets I wrote about superior performance--their eyes are going to be drawn to the 2-3 impact-oriented negative counselings. I find that having several individual positive counselings in there can demonstrate to any casual observer that a soldier is capable of outstanding performance.
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Capt Chris McVeigh
Again, that goes back to what I was saying with to little action on the supervisor's part. An LOA can come from any officer outranking the recipient and can literally take 10 minutes of work to write.
Negative counselings that actually get entered into an individuals record go into it for a reason. They violated an order/regulation, got NJPed, something along those lines. For the more frequent, non-permanent negative counselings those serve the productive purpose of correcting the individuals action early on and ensure a correction of action allowing them to avoid a formally documented counseling.
As Maj Ballinger said below, performing frequent counselings at all already puts you ahead of the game. I can't count on one hand the number of times I have received a counseling that didn't come at the end of an observed reporting period.
(terminology/exact rules may differ between the services)
Negative counselings that actually get entered into an individuals record go into it for a reason. They violated an order/regulation, got NJPed, something along those lines. For the more frequent, non-permanent negative counselings those serve the productive purpose of correcting the individuals action early on and ensure a correction of action allowing them to avoid a formally documented counseling.
As Maj Ballinger said below, performing frequent counselings at all already puts you ahead of the game. I can't count on one hand the number of times I have received a counseling that didn't come at the end of an observed reporting period.
(terminology/exact rules may differ between the services)
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