What is the one piece of advice you give junior enlisted/officers who want to make the military a career?

To the junior enlisted, be a sponge: you have two ears and one mouth, listen twice as much as you talk. Put your damn cell phone away at work. Think about what you are doing before you do it. If you have a question, ASK IT. 

<p>1) Don't be afraid to make decisions. AS A LEADER YOU ARE PAID TO MAKE DECISIONS&nbsp;based off the information you have at the time you can affect something, not based off the information&nbsp;you wish you had. You will never have perfect information, and if somehow you do; the time will have long past for that decision to affect anything.&nbsp;If you are too scared to make decisions for fear of being wrong or getting yelled at then you are nothing more than a figure head.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>2)&nbsp;Master the art of your tasking/orders technique. Know when to explain the "why" behind something, and when to basically say shut up and execute. There is a time and a place for both, and the most effective leaders know when that time and place is.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>3) Pick your battles. Know which battles are worth digging in your heels and fighting. If you fight every battle that you slightly disagree with you will become tired, bitter, frustrated, and everyone will tune you out.<font color="#000000" size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>4) Manage the talent of others. The best leaders may not be the smartest, the fastest, the strongest, or the most technologically savy; but they excel at surrounding themselves with people who are experts in their field and tapping into their talents to make the organization successful. No leader is successful alone.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>5) Know when/how to delegate. Anyone can stay at work till 1900 every night if they want to appear hard working. The more tasks you take on, the less you will be&nbsp;able to focus on each one;&nbsp;everything can not be a priority. HAVE YOUR PRIORITIES AND&nbsp;STICK TO THEM, delegate the rest to your very capable subordinates and&nbsp;supervise, and you'll often be shocked at the&nbsp;results.&nbsp;It is very easy to work hard, but it is very hard to work smart.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>6) Supervision is NOT micromanagement!&nbsp;Leaders do not simply give guidance and not supervise or require reports. Leaders at all levels are still responsible for </p><p>supervision, backbriefs, visiting training, going on missions with subordinates, etc. Planning is&nbsp;collaboration with subordinates, peers, and superiors that results in sufficient detail to support subordinate decision making without providing so much that it&nbsp;directly prescribes&nbsp;how subordinates must execute the mission.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>7)&nbsp;Balance; have it in everything you do. This is a long one, but it is probably the one I'm most passionate about. Lots of people cringe when they find out their boss is a single guy or a geobachelor, because very often these people lack balance in their lives, and&nbsp;whether they may mean it to or not, their personal&nbsp;"super gung-ho work, work, work" attitude inevitably trickles down and affects culture of the organization&nbsp; If you are not married or have a family, remember that a siginificant portion of your organization does, and they have doctors appointments, soccer games, proms, plays, talent shows that they want to be at. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>If you are married/have a family, remember that your time in the army will be fleeting but from this point out your family will be there and your children’s childhoods will also&nbsp;be fleeting. Just being there will do more for family than any other activity. This means to always take advantage of those times when you can sit down at the family table for dinner, and to help with homework, baths, and bedtime stories. Those are critical times in raising a family. Kids have a simple but vital need: to be with their mothers and fathers. No special activities or accessories are required; just being and talking with your kids and your spouse. There will be plenty of deployments or </p><p>training missions that prevent you from doing these simple but valuable things.&nbsp;Being a soldier is a profession, being a father or mother, husband or wife, is life and you better be damn good at both. We have to invest in career and family simultaneously, as neither will wait for the other to be completed.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font>&nbsp;</p><p><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font>&nbsp;</p><p><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font>&nbsp;</p><p><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font>&nbsp;</p><p><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font>&nbsp;</p><div style="mso-element: frame; mso-element-frame-width: 540.3pt; mso-element-frame-height: 132.3pt; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-wrap: auto; mso-element-anchor-vertical: page; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: page; mso-element-left: 36.2pt; mso-element-top: 559.35pt; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Times New Roman">

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