Who else made points and is a new NCO?? What do you plan on doing differently as a Leader? Has your views on your past leadership changed?

Soft serve leadership is for the week of heart. As with any muscle, it must be strengthened. Otherwise it gets lost.

I've been an NCO for a few years now, and have experienced things both as a team leader and as the NCOIC of my section (I'm intel) and my views on past leadership have definitely changed. Oftentimes there are a lot of things happening behind the scenes that you just don't see as a junior enlisted, or even as a junior NCO. To put it another way there are a lot of moving parts. Is there unavoidable BS? Of course, and I try to negate it a little by being transparent with my soldiers, to keep them informed of not only what is happening but why. One of my biggest gripes as a private was long hours, but the NCO, at least a good one, is the first to show up and the last to leave. I didn't realize that my leadership was often working several hours longer than me so that I didn't have to and to keep everything running. To sum up what you should do to be a good leader: do be transparent, do be there when your soldiers are, do keep them occupied (I always have some hip pocket training prepared for when things slow to a crawl), don't have them do something you wouldn't be willing to do yourself, do listen to them, and do be an expert in whatever your field is, be a source of knowledge for them.

I would say for the new NCO's take good things that you're good leaders have done and remember what your bad leaders have done. Build your own leadership style but see what works for some people and see if you can apply it. It has worked for me this far. And congrats to all the new NCO's. Welcome to the Corps and the best job in the world.