Posted on Sep 3, 2020
Company commanders (past and present) : what do you look for in your relationship with your first Sergeant?
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I have been offered a job as a First Sergeant of a chemical company. Looking for some thoughts to help flatten the learning curve
1SG
54A: Chemical Operations Officer
Company Commander
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 13
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Be honest. Remember it is a give and take relationship but at the end of the day the CO is the boss and his decisions, even if they're the wrong ones, go. Don't take it personally if he/she chooses to go in a different direction than what you'd prefer. Offer advice freely and don't be afraid to offer constructive criticism equally as freely. In all honesty, by the time an officer reaches the point where they are offered a command most of them are squared away so you shouldn't have too many "head up the ass" moments like you would if you were a PSG dealing with a 2LT PL. Another big one is take charge and take care of NCO business. As a CO, I don't have time to deal with every petty issue that comes along. If I don't NEED to know about it and it's something you can resolve at your level, I don't need to know about it until after the fact. Earn the trust of your soldiers so they are comfortable coming to you with their issues. I had 3 company commands. Two of my 1SGs were outstanding and we had great relationships and I still have contact with them 15 years later. I consider them like brothers. The other one was a dirtbag and I never had any kind of relationship with him because I had to fire him the first week I took command and start an investigation into his stealing company equipment and selling it at the local pawnshop and screwing the junior enlisted. Whatever you do...don't be that guy. LOL
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Congratulations -- Can't speak for expectations from the "O" side of the equation, but be professional and be honest. In my case, I was probably brutally honest and I do acknowledge lack of empaythy as a weakness. You've worked a whole career to get to this point, do great things with this opportunity and take care of your Soldiers.
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My commander appreciates what I took off his plate when I took responsibility. The way I operate is myself and the XO run the company based off the commanders intent and decisions.
Never bring a problem to the commander without solutions and be able to talk about pros and cons of each solution. My commander is kind of high stress so I do what I can to counter that and help him level out before he makes decisions.
Never bring a problem to the commander without solutions and be able to talk about pros and cons of each solution. My commander is kind of high stress so I do what I can to counter that and help him level out before he makes decisions.
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LTC (Join to see)
AGREE 100%. I always operated under the philosophy: If the Commander doesn't NEED to know about a problem, then he doesn't need to know about the problem. Fix it at the lowest level and then tell him about it later.
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CPT Lawrence Cable
I agree with most of that, but there is still First Sgt stuff and Company Commander stuff where it isn't your job to have a solution. I was lucky during my command time to have had a good 1st Sgt., but there were things in my job that I didn't expect him to be involved. Take a dirt bag LT, as an example. I would not expect Top to do more than make sure that I was aware of the problem. How I dealt with either bringing the young man to Jesus or getting rid of him was my decision.
I would certainly have solicited his advice on any actions with the enlisted.
I would certainly have solicited his advice on any actions with the enlisted.
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SGM Steve Wettstein
CPT Lawrence Cable - Agree Sir. There is always NCO business and Officer business. That is unless you have a micromanaging CO and they want to know about everything.
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CPT Lawrence Cable
SGM Steve Wettstein - I hate the micromanagers! My worst CO was a chronic micromanager, on top of which he had the people skills of a snake. I think that he had most of the officers pissed off almost immediately and all the NCO's over squad leader after the first FTX, and several at Squad level. Absolutely flamed me in OER. Lucky for me that my senior rater was the Battalion XO, who was one of the first at Battalion to realize that they had a problem child. He give me a glowing rating with those vailed terms like "outstanding performance under extremely trying condition". I think that translated into "didn't kill his commanding officer and kept the senior NCO's from killing him too". He was gone right after that, I assume largely from the intervention of the SGM on behalf of the Senior NCO's, who all had come to me individually to tell me that they were going to see him. I guess the figured that since I was a prior enlisted grunt, I wouldn't go straight to the CO. NCO's have the right to talk to the SGM, that's not officer business :^).
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