Will simply 'Taking Care of Soldiers' really take care of your career?

SGM Matthew Quick — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 11:25:31 -0500

You may have heard that, "If you take care of Soldiers, your career will take care of itself."<br><br>Personally, I've never bought into this (or may have misinterpreted its meaning)...there has to be a balanced, because NOBODY should care more about your career than you.<br><br>In an effort to share personal experiences with future leaders, how have you successfully balanced taking care of Soldiers and progressing through your career?

Response by LTC Jason Strickland made Dec 29 at 2013 11:27 AM

LTC Jason Strickland — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 11:27:45 -0500

I believe great leaders recognize the efforts of their team members and they will reward them appropriately.  <div>I believe the misinterpretation of this mantra is that leaders overlook character traits and behaviors.  If you really take care of soldiers, you balance forgiveness/mercy with discipline and tough love.</div>

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 29 at 2013 1:00 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 13:00:03 -0500

I believe as Leaders in today's Army it is detrimental to our careers that we learn to be multifunctional. Today's Soldiers are coming into the Army with Bachelors degrees and lots of knowledge and are also getting promoted a lot faster.

Taking care of Soldiers is just not enough to make it anymore. I have always heard this while coming up in the Army "what are you doing to separate your selves from your peers" just taking care of Soldiers is not going to separate us, as NCO's we all do that already. Taking care of Soldiers is leading by example and what I mean by that is if we take care of ourselves then we can take better care of the Soldiers.

The Creed of the Non Commissioned Officer states our two responsibilities; accomplishing the mission and the welfare of our Soldiers it didn't say how to accomplish the mission it just states to accomplish it. So many times my battle buddies and I find ourselves talking about how we always need to be boots on ground with the Soldiers we need to be there with them and never leave them unattended all the while we are saying we don't have time to go to school or update records or ERB's for boards or go to Battle Staff, SHARP, EO etc we just don't have time for that, it has always been mission first. Well after experiencing being passed up for promotions a numerous amount of times my peers and I often talk about what we are doing wrong, I know I'm always in the fight doing what I'm supposed to we say to ourselves, pushing troops, accomplishing the mission. Where did we go wrong???

Because of the way the Army is changing accomplishing the mission just isn't going to cut it for us anymore. The Board Members sitting on those SFC boards know we can do our job they know we can push troops but what else can we do? How do we manage our time? What tools are we seeking for betterment of ourselves? Look at all the tools the Army has provided for us to receive knowledge. Our we taking advantage of it. For the majority of the population, not at all, absolutely not. Unless we are told to take those online course we would not do it.

Bottom line give your Soldiers the responsibilities they need to succeed and take care of them but most importantly take care of yourself first. It's not being selfish it's being effective. How can we push them to continue for promotion and not do what we need to for ourselves.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 29 at 2013 3:10 PM

MSG Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 15:10:35 -0500

Time management. Knowing your Soldier is not a
hard job, complicated, of course. As leaders and individuals, we must take care of ourselves before toeing the line on Monday morning. To lead, you must understand human nature. To train, you must educate oneself. You take care of Soldier's because it is your duty and responsibility.

I believe that the ball will bounce in your court as your superiors will see this in your leadership attributes. Balance is the key to success, it depends how you handle the many plates on the table.

Response by SSG Waldo Yamada made Dec 29 at 2013 7:15 PM

SSG Waldo Yamada — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 19:15:49 -0500

As a buck sergeant, Leading soldiers was being physically fit, having military bearing, and knowing my respected field. I lost control of it during my last tour in Iraq because of depression. It wasn't the operation, nor my soldiers being the cause of it. It was myself. I was the deciding factor of getting out of the Army mentally. As for a career, I do see a balance of taking care of your soldiers and taking care of your career.

Response by SFC William Swartz Jr made Dec 30 at 2013 9:22 AM

SFC William Swartz Jr — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 09:22:08 -0500

Good question asked..personal observation having recently retired after 26 as a SFC...to me the answer is no, taking care of Soldiers doesn't take care of your career. When I was promoted to SFC in 2002, I immediately took over a Tank PLT and deployed 2 months later to be part of the initial invasion of Iraq. My PLT participated in 5 major combat operations and over 100 dismounted patrols after the end of major combat in Baghdad; brought all 16 of us home safe and sound, ensured that all Soldiers were sent to the schools they needed, promotion boards etc,. Somewhere along the way, as I completed my PSG time in the garrison environment, successfully, and moved to a staff position, the "rules" of the game seemed to get changed. I quickly realized that even thought I was still a Soldier, noone was "taking care of me" other than me. I performed my job successfully in both a garrison environment and then again when we deployed to Iraq for OIF-III, but the particular BN CSM had a view on things that didn't bode well for Sr NCOs "out of position"; ie me being a SFC not in a PSG slot. His words and I quote "SFC should be a PSG from the time they pin SFC on until they make MSG." meant that I wasn't going to be placed in either of the 2 open Tank Co 1SG positions, when I was the ranking SFC and ranking 19K in the BN; he went outside the unit and brought in 2-11 series MSGs to fill the slots. As I left the BN and moved to TRADOC to perform duties first as a Sr Instructor/Writer in the Armor School and then as Training COmmittee NCOIC (MSG position) I started to witness the promotions beginning to shift to much younger and less experienced individuals who had never had to perform in a leadership position in a garrison environment, and honestly had no clue as to how to handle things in the rear. Even had peers say we had to mentor a 1SG upon my second stint in TRADOC in 2011, I informed my peers ever so elequently that this was complete bullshit, the 1SG was supposed to be mentoring us!! Sorry that I went on a rant, it just seems to me that after a certain point, sometimes senior leaders forget that their Sr NCOs are still Soldiers and NEED to be taken care of as well as the junior Soldiers, less handholding, but still need the mentoring and guidance.

Treat 'Em Rough!!

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 30 at 2013 6:54 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 18:54:01 -0500

While taking care of soldiers is key, taking care of ones own career is first and foremost. Yes they say always plcae the mission and soldiers first but then that shortchanges you. While we as NCOs are hardwired to be in the trenches taking care of soldiers and gettiing the mission done we look and see all of our peers flying by us on the promotion express and we have the 'what-am-I-not-doing' look on our faces. We have to exercise common sense and find an equal balance between taking care of our soldiers as well as ourselves. Just taking care of soldiers isnt going to fly very well at DA level boards. We have to keep our ERB's up to date, constantly check our OMPF's to make sure its up to date, keep a DA photo on file that matches your ERB. Its OUR career and its OUR responsibility to ensure that we are set up to be successful. (Side note for my E-5 battle buddies: upon promotion to SSG you must have a DA photo within 60-90 from pin-on)

Response by SFC(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 10 at 2014 1:42 AM

SFC(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 01:42:33 -0500

Taking care of Soldiers is the purpose for our existence as NCO's. Yes we are backbone of the Army and we make stuff happen daily. The question shouldn't be if you take care of soldiers will your career take care of itself. It should be is taking care of soldiers enough to continually get you promoted? And the answer is no, our job as NCOs at every level is to take care of Soldiers. The reason you don't get excellence on your NCOERs for taking care of Soldiers is because that's what we are suppose to do first and foremost every day we come to work. So how does that seperate you from your peers? Again it doesn't to continually move up in rank you must take on the additional duties no one wants and excel at them, you must run major training events, think outside of the box and be creative when you train your troops. Step up and go above and beyond what is expected of you. Don't ask what do I need to do to get promoted to the next level do the job for the next level at your current level. Work above your pay grade and take on the hard jobs over the easy ones.

But back to the original question will it take care of your career? That's all on what you consider to be a successful career. If knowing you took care of your Soldiers everyday you wore the stripes of an NCO means you had a successful career (as it damn well should) then yes you had a successful career because you made a difference to each of them daily.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 24 at 2014 11:26 PM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 23:26:54 -0400

I have heard care about your career because nobody else will. Well I care about my Soldiers and make sure I prod and poke them to get rolling, but I have over 150 Soldiers and it is hard to motivate and get them all going and check their records, etc. I found out that nobody really looks too much into other people's records to help them prepare for boards. I try to get my stuff permed as fast as I receive the documents and apply for ASIs to be awarded once I graduate the school, etc. It is not ROTC where we only had a few people going to school and the lady was helpful and did it for us. There are helpful people out to help and assist you, but you have to go and find them and ask for the assistance. But in the end you cannot really blame anyone but yourself if you do not ensure that you go to schools you need, update your files, have a current photo, and to be honest many people will have to write their own awards and/or evaluations depending on their chain of command. Do what you need to do to ensure that your career moves forward. Instill this into your Soldiers as well because even if you are a great leader you will not be there for them their whole career so they must be prepared to help themselves in the future.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made May 1 at 2014 3:29 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 01 May 2014 15:29:15 -0400

Feed a baby bird worms forever and the bird will get lazy and fat and eventually fall out of the nest. Show the baby bird how to fly, and everybody wins. The best way to take care of your Soldiers AND yourself is to lead from the front by SHOWING them what right looks like and not just DOING everything for them. If we coddle or micromanage them, we eventually set them up for failure once our backs are turned. So if we do all the right things for OUR careers by making it one of our goals to achieve what we want our SOLDIERS to achieve, the Soldiers with potential will LEARN what right looks like and their careers will flourish as well.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made May 1 at 2014 5:29 PM

MAJ Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 01 May 2014 17:29:39 -0400

When I think of "taking care of your soldiers", one of the first things that comes to mind is helping them take care of their careers and supporting them when they have opportunities to progress. My current rater is one of the best soldiers I've ever worked with. Even though I'm not in a deployment-driven AOC, and even though my deploying was going to have serious impact on millions of dollars in research projects, his response was, "you have to take the opportunity for your career". He didn't have to let me go and I wouldn't have argued if he turned down my request to deploy. But he's a true version of commanding officers who look out for their people and support them in their careers.
I've tried to carry this lesson as well, and always be available to help others. That for me is what leading from the front means. It might not mean running into fire, but simply helping other soldiers along as best you can.

Response by SFC Gary Fox made May 2 at 2014 2:00 PM

SFC Gary Fox — Fri, 02 May 2014 14:00:34 -0400

Taking care of your Soldiers is ensuring they have what is needed to succeed in the mission, to see they are properly trained, to see they are properly equipped, and to mentor them to the next level of responsibility.

I've seen plenty of NCOs do that and not advance in their own career because they did not take care of their own.

Response by CPT Chris Newport made Jun 28 at 2016 6:36 PM

CPT Chris Newport — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 18:36:36 -0400

Not necessarily, it may ruin it. Being a Leader transcends careers and usually gets you killed in the end.. Remember the survival rate before being killed or seriously wounded is lower for Junior Officers than the Soldiers they lead. it was 90 days when I carried a bar.

Response by Capt Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 28 at 2016 7:00 PM

Capt Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 19:00:25 -0400

I think it reads better if it would say "If you take care of your Soldiers, they will take care of you."