How would you determine a 'quality' service member?
Example:
- High PFT score or subordinate's average PFT score
- Complete XX college credit hours or having subordinates complete XX college
- Volunteerism
- Competing in or having subordinates compete in/win competitive boards
- Awards
I'll admit, when discussing largely intangible personality traits, there is a large amount of room for subjectivity. My personal guidelines (for myself) are as follows, in the order previously presented;
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1) College degree? Speaking ability? Articulate? Good demonstrated problem solving? Little supervision/input/oversight required?
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2) Do their actions/words indicate that others/their Soldiers are their first priority? Is it usually about them? Do they do a lot of community work? Do they help out on their own time, whether work or personal? Are they involved in their Soldiers/peers lives? How do they contribute positively to the world around them?
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3) How well do they know their craft, both MOS and fieldcraft? Are they a fount of good information, or a blackhole where information goes in but never leaves? Do they know the regs, or guess/make stuff up? Are they seeking NCOES or any other military education at all? Do they avoid it? Do they frequently get called on inaccurate guidance? How well do they know all their basic Soldier tasks/Uniforms/awards/ programs, etc...
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4)Ties into 1 and 3, mostly displaying a love of learning for it's own sake, on a myriad of topics.
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5) Pretty self explanatory.
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Hope this helps. Oh, and if you're wondering about the period breaks in between, it's the one way I've found to keep RP from mashing my paragraphs together, sorry if it's odd...
1. Possesses military bearing and appearance.
2. Demonstrates appropriate expertise in assigned tasks.
3. Maintains appropriate level of physical fitness.
4. Motivates, challenges and develops subordinates and/or peers.
5. Clear and concise in communication.
6. Displays sound judgment.
7. Adaptable to changing situations.
8. Performs under stress.
9. Possesses capacity to acquire knowledge.
10. Seeks self-improvement.
I agree with most of the comments here. I would rather see someone who is knowledgable all around in general Army knowledge rather than someone who can score a 300 on their PT test.
You would think the Army could understand this and stop promoting those "Greatness" PT studs, and look at overall value, you'd have more quality NCOs. Don't take this the wrong way, there are NCOs out there that do a great job, but from the multitude of those, it seems that if you look good on paper, you can go far. If you're "average" on paper, meaning you don't shoot expert, and have a 235-250 PT score, you're looked upon as "sub-par". I just find this appauling.
To answer MSG's question, my big things for quality members.
1) Willingness to learn and accept and correct mistakes
2) Furthering thier education
3) Common sense
If you don't have these traits you're stubborn, lazy, and generally out of touch with the "norm" which means the Army, isn't going to be right for you in general. That is the quality of soldier we DO NOT want.