What is the best lesson an NCO/Officer has ever taught you?

My first deployment as a division officer, I had a Senior Chief "take my under his wing" when my Chief was sent home following a medical emergency. He was the first SNCO to teach me that while it was good that I respected and learned from the Chiefs...I needed to learn to still "wear" the rank on my collar. He taught me to remember that every officer the Sailors see...from the CO to the CNO started out as a "butter bar", and the men expect to see the "seeds" of that leadership even from a JO. It is a lesson that I hope I gave evidence of learning...not only in my active service, but leadership in the private sector and at home.

I was taught never to judge any book by its cover alone; be the one to seek the truth, know the subject inside and out, do what is right for the masses and not just the few (Be, Know & Do).

I learned this on my own in the Army; so I am not sure if this is what you are looking for, SSG (Join to see), but I learned that one can learn from the Private on up- and from the General on down. I mean, with this statement, absolutely NO disrespect to Privates. You Privates are professionals just like the Generals are.
-Margaret C. Higgins U.S. Army Retired

How not to treat people. Many times throughout my career I experienced both Officers and NCO's who really treated their subordinates both military and Civilian with allot of disrespect. And towards the end of my career, I had an NCOIC who saw me as a threat to his authority because I had been at the base and in the unit for a really long time and people in the unit had learned that they could trust and rely on me. Needless to say, I was very poorly treated and performance reports did not reflect truthfully on my performance.
These experiences taught me how not to treat people who I worked with and has been a great benefit throughout my life.

Never utter the words “this f’ing sucks sir” to a LTG when asked how things are going. One ☝️ f my Sgts during Desert Storm did this during our deployment and was paid in ass chewings from the LTC to the Plt Sgt. we all had quite a laugh about it later though.

"Sir, think of life like a pie. Think even of the Army as a pie. You usually don't eat the whole thing all in one sitting, so attack the pie in slices. That is the key to life, the Army, and leadership. To be a good leader, start out with pieces. Be an expert at the fundamentals, then take another piece of the pie. Doctrine. Then another. Enlisted functions. Then another. Personnel actions. And the list goes on. Take things in slices, and you will be successful in all you do."

SSG Michael Lang, a 35M, Human Intelligence Collection NCO. I was a brand new, newly minted 2LT fresh from college. He wasn't my platoon sergeant at the time, but since I took charge of the platoon within the company that did not have a platoon sergeant, he took me under his wing as well in addition to the other 2LT in his platoon. We were out on a field exercise when he told me this, and I'll remember it forever. An amazing human being.

A previous supervisor of mine quoted Eleanor Roosevelt once with Never take a "No" from someone who can't say "YES"

NCOs and SNCOs in my line of work are well worth the advice for knowing how to do the job better. Officers help me to understand a bigger picture, and in many cases the "why" behind certain parts of the job. I've gotten solid advice from both.

This is my own advice. "Work hard and be nice to people, unless they give you a reason not to be nice."

One of the PSGs I hated the most gave me the best advice. If you don’t like where you are at, rank up.