What do you really think about writing your own NCOERs?

I think having an NCO write their own NCOER is a leadership failure. How are we supposed to trust leaders who can't even keep track of the accomplishments and performance of their direct subordinates?

I’ve had six Platoon Leaders as a Platoon Sergeant and now five different Commanders as a First Sergeant. Honestly, it depends on the situation. At the end of the day, someone must write the evaluation. If we have a rater unwilling/unable to write our report card, we must use it as a teaching mechanism.

The truth is many Officers (and NCOs) are not skilled at writing NCOERs nor are they versed in the SGM/CSM-isms that usually must be adhered to (different topic/gripe for a separate day). As NCOs are responsible for the training of individuals, crews, and small teams, we owe it to our Officer counterparts to mentor and develop them. I wrote NCOERs for myself, provided shells/examples bullets to help guide and shape the conversation, also I have done nothing and had the evaluation written for me. In my experience, those who counseled me regularly were good at writing the evaluation.

I have found it effective to help coach those poor counselors/raters along by sitting down with them and pointing them in the right direction using the following technique: Personally I like to reference previous counseling (unless that leader failed to counsel), and type out my thoughts in a MS Word document – full sentence, paragraphs, two-word thoughts, however. Once I have all my thoughts on paper, I work to quantify each thought. From there I begin to turn my thoughts into bullet format ensuring formatting is correct. Then I will crack open a few previous years’ worth of post-board AARs and ensure I’m keeping pace with ever-changing standards/best practices. Then we copy/paste the bullets onto the form, starting with the strongest bullets first.

I wrote my own NCOERs when I was enlisted. I can rate myself better than anyone else can. Plus I never trusted anyone else with my career. I also think my raters appreciated it because I was a better writer than they were. Maybe I just like to be in control because I never allow those who I rate to write their own. I can rate them better and give them the rating they deserve.