Very direct question for soldiers and leaders. What's morale looking like in your ranks? How can you personally improve it?

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 02:15:05 -0400

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 7 at 2016 2:45 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 02:45:02 -0400

In the beginning was the plan.
And then came the assumptions.
And the assumptions were without form.
And the plan was without substance.
And darkness was upon the face of the Enlisted Soldiers.

And they spoke among themselves saying,
"It is a crock of $#!T and it stinketh."
And the Enlisted Soldiers went unto their NCOs and said,
"It is a pale of dung and none may abide the odor thereof."

And the NCOs went unto their Sr. NCOs and said,
"It is a container of excrement and it is very strong, such that none may abide by it."

And the Sr. NCOs went unto their Company Grade Officers, saying,
"It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength."

And the Company Grade Officers spoke among themselves, saying to one another,
"It contains that which aids plant growth and it is very strong."

And the Company Grade Officers went unto their Field Grade Officers, saying unto them,
"It promotes growth and is very powerful."

And the Field Grade Officers went unto the Colonel, saying unto him,
"The new plan will promote the growth and vigor of the unit, with powerful effects."
And the Colonel looked upon the plan and saw that it was good.
And the plan became policy.

This is how $#!T happens.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 7 at 2016 8:31 AM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 08:31:23 -0400

Morale is moderate. I'm going to improve it by ensuring they know they have a reliable leader they can count on by always placing there needs above my own.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 7 at 2016 8:39 AM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 08:39:45 -0400

In my battery the moral is high, partly because we treat one another like family. Leaders and Senior NCOs insure clicks are broken up and spread out to unify the battery. Each member of my unit is an essential part of day to day missions and leaders express that to every soldier, letting them know that in some way they are essential to the mission. While all that is going on the unit is also unified and has a high moral in order to win best firing battery within out battalion.
How can I personally improve it? Well I try by being a positive leader to lower enlisted soldiers within each my section. I boost their moral by training them in a positive environment, and making sure they have every tool they need in order to succeed. On occasions my section leader and I take the joes out in order to bind the section cohesion as well as rewarding them for a hard working day. Moral is boosted many different ways for many different people and if a leader can see that and adhere to the fact that every one is different then and a different method is needed for different personalities then that leader can boost anyone's moral, he or she just needs to figure out the soldier's trigger.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 7 at 2016 9:33 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 09:33:54 -0400

In my current unit the morale is low due to ZERO funding of attending NCOES. Careers of a lot of very good NCO's is at a halt. It has caused an exodus to begin. Good NCO's/drill sergeants are heading back to line units with only 1 year under the hat. It's a shame.

Response by SGT Dave Tracy made Jul 7 at 2016 10:09 AM

SGT Dave Tracy — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 10:09:09 -0400

It waxes and wanes at my unit.

We smashed our mission over our 3 week Army Reserve Annual Training, which is great, and made us look like rock stars; as a unit, our PT scores are getting better; we're soon to retire our tired, old M16s in favor of brand new M4s (we recently traded in old SAWs and 240Bs, which is sweet), and by-and-large soldiers give high marks to our company's command team-Higher, eh...no so much, but they generally leave us alone. But while we take pride in our accomplishments, and all that is going right, I think we are in a period of transition and I sense a more gradual, if slight, decrease in morale.

We will be on the receiving end of 25 brand new soldiers in the next couple months; and I do mean BRAND NEW, not experienced soldiers transitioning from AD, Guard or another Reserve unit, and obviously no NCOs, which we are in need of. And with regard to needed NCOs, many of our lower enlisted are not ready, not able or simply do not want to become NCOs. We have had several long-term soldiers, including AGRs, leave for newer pastures, and many SMs are within a year of getting out--myself included--and several others who aren't soon to leave, wish they were.

Perhaps it's the nature of the part time Army. So many demands on the time and temperament of the drilling soldier, that others--particularly those on Active Duty--may not understand. I didn't until I left Active for the Reserves.

So how does one improve that? I don't know. I'm all ears though.

My motivation may lag on the Friday night before drill, but overall I am still glad to be a part of this special existence. I don't (generally) treat my job as a chore; I do my own PT; and while no one will EVER mistake me for Mr.-Audie-Murphy-All-Army-Knowledge-Knower-Super-Hooah-Sergeant-Soldier, I enjoy what I am and what I can give when it is time to Be Know & Do.

The point is, when you are a civilian 94% of the month, and are not among your fellow soldiers all the time, motivation is harder to impart to others two days a month. Especially under those conditions, maintaining morale is personal I think. I can work on my motivation, but outside of supporting those under me and around me, I don't know what can realistically be done to improve overall motivation.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 7 at 2016 9:18 PM

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 21:18:07 -0400

Morale is driven by a massively complex series of interweaving factors, and no single person or plan can truly influence it. Morale is not something that can be directly improved or decreased, but rather it is a "temperature check" for how operations at a unit are running. If morale is low, it's typically because soldiers feel like their unit doesn't care for them, or treats them as expendable. This applies not just to junior enlisted, but to NCO's and even officers. If a company commander feels like his soldiers are just a bunch of turds who don't care about how much time they take away from his family, his morale (and decision-making) suffers for it. Likewise, if an NCO feels like his PL treats him like dirt, he's not going to operate at peak efficiency.

Treat morale as a barometer for the overall success of an organization. If it's high, you're headed in the right direction--continue mission; if it's low, it's time to consider pumping the brakes or even throwing the convoy into reverse for a bit.

This coming from 25th ID, which as far as I can tell, has one of the worst morale problems in the Army. I've been here for two years, after spending four at Fort Drum (where I put in longer, colder, and much harder hours of work). I can say that consistently, although it had its ups and downs at Drum, morale was overall pretty high. We felt cared for, despite the high OPTEMPO and grueling missions, deployments, and the snow--oh dear God, the snow. Here at 25th ID, I don't get that same feeling, and from what I can tell, it's pretty pervasive. There's this ubiquitous sense of people just going through the motions here, and nobody can particularly figure out why. Morale here is abominably low all the time, with some small upticks here and there.

It kinda breaks my heart, actually, because it's such a beautiful place; it's just the entire organization seems to be tripping over its own feet in a futile attempt to replicate what other high-mobility divisions have been doing for years.

Response by CPT Scott Brown made Jul 9 at 2016 11:03 AM

CPT Scott Brown — Sat, 09 Jul 2016 11:03:52 -0400

So, I am in the corporate world now and I lead a large team with direct and indirect reports. When I came here two years ago, the morale was in the toilet. We worked to replace all the supervisors and change the culture. It has so much to do with how people are treated. For instance, when I was the XO of a company, our commander was about worthless and the 1Sgt wasn't any better. They would call early formations, pull people off passes, hold people past the final formation and they did it all the time. You can imagine, these people just wanted some down time and they couldn't get it. There were some good NCO's that tried to help by extending lunch breaks but the damage was done. We aren't always at war. We need to treat these soldiers like people. Even when they make a small mistake, sometimes a second chance and some compassion shows the whole team that everyone is human.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 12 at 2016 10:30 AM

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 10:30:56 -0400

Our unit and leadership doesn't really understand the struggles we are facing (we are about an hour away from HQ), so while things are slowly improving, we have such a high turnover rate with our civilians, that we are always at square one.
We need better communication, and some consideration....
I try to get involved, and am ADSO, EM, Hazmat NCO, Audiology NCO, and I try to network on those rare occasions I am at the unit..... but mainly, I am honest with our OIC when he manages to sneak away from HQ for a visit.
He has helped grease a few wheels recently (fixing the A/C in our building, and ordering dehumidifiers)

Response by SSG Derek Varchulik made Jul 12 at 2016 12:05 PM

SSG Derek Varchulik — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 12:05:02 -0400

To improve morale sometimes you have to connect with your troops on a more personal level rather than military (if isolated incidents of low morale is among just a few troops) I find this method works by showing them that their leadership cares about their well being & the external factors that may be causing issues in their personal life thus influencing morale at work.
This can be done by keeping it simply talking to them and asking them how are things going in their life and then brainstorm with them to alleviate issue and then give them a nice lil pep talk about advancing in the military or life by taking college classes or more military schools,,,, Troops see this and they will be happy to line up in formation knowing they will be taking care of not just another number going through the system... And this is like on the spot counseling,,,, dont wait for end of month counseling..

Response by CAPT Don Bosch, EdD made Jul 12 at 2016 12:12 PM

CAPT Don Bosch, EdD — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 12:12:22 -0400

That was two questions.

Response by SGT Keaven Brown made Jul 12 at 2016 3:47 PM

SGT Keaven Brown — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 15:47:47 -0400

Beer Bamberger's hot dogs more beer

Response by CPO Greg Frazho made Jul 12 at 2016 3:53 PM

CPO Greg Frazho — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 15:53:57 -0400

Morale in my last unit was pretty good, albeit an atypical unit that was somewhat different from Big Navy. It ebbed and flowed depending on what was going on operationally. When I first got there, it was like the revolving door: we had requests for forces coming out of our ears. That gradually slowed until, when I left, there wasn't much in the way of RFFs any more.

Some guys were like, "Chief, send me out again!! I wanna go!", which is a good problem for a senior NCO to have. But that was usually the single guys. The married guys weren't as eager to be deployed as their counterparts were, but even still, OPTEMPO wasn't, in my opinion, too high or anything like unbearable. When they really started tracked ITEMPO, sea-shore flow, and especially dwell ratios, things changed.

What I did to improve it, or at least to maintain it, was simply dialogue. Talk to people, vice at them. Believe it or not, that's a motivator, because it shows that you give more than a shit. That's what professional development boards are for, evaluation debriefings, awards quarters (if applicable) and simple shoot-the-breeze, unscheduled chats in the passageway. Units that don't communicate are dead in the water, as the sergeant's poem below graphically illustrates.