SNCO/Officer interaction

I personally had a SGM that I used as one of my mentors. I enjoyed having an enlisted perspective and it helped me see things that my Soldiers may be thinking/seeing. I have never been enlisted so I can only imagine what they may think/see/want/need. I used his perspective to help me see this. We had mutual respect for each other and kept it professional and we did not try to use position or rank over each other. It was great to have an honest exchange. We still keep in touch and talk to each other. I recommend it highly.

Any CO or XO that doesn't work closely with his SgtMaj is making his job twice as hard and is probably missing some important needs of his unit. My Sergeants Major always had the inside word on anything my people needed and had generally seen everything at least once. If they hadn't seen it, we could always come up with a plan that made the most of my Marines and their specific capabilities. We both recognized my decisions impacted all my people and they shared their wisdom with me without hesitation. At the same time, they realized I always had their six and would take total responsibility for any of our failures. Fortunately, in eight years we didn't have any, and their contribution was duly noted where it did them the most good.

I’ll tell you, one of my biggest frustrations was that some SNCO don’t take the time to understand the officers role or they undervalue it. They make assumptions and lecture junior officers on how “things should be” but do so without all the data or they fail to take the time to teach that junior officer the “Why” behind their advice. I’m fortunate that I was a SNCO (SFC) and that I have the perspective from both sides now. But I have to remind myself that I have an obligation to help teach those SNCOs the value Officers bring to an organization as well as teach them the value of taking time to coach and build relationships with junior officers because it makes the military stronger if our officers are coached early in their careers by good SNCOs. It’s in every NCOs best interest to teach young officers the value of the NCO Corps and how critical they are to mission success.