Can a 1SG set a standard for all counselings to follow? verbatim? just curious, unless a memo or something is posted or put out?

2014-03-16T03:07:53-04:00

counseling's.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 16 at 2014 3:16 AM

2014-03-16T03:16:51-04:00

They absolutely can if there are certain events in which the Commander or 1SG wishes a Soldier to be counseled a certain way (initial integration counselings, ABCP, failed APFT, recommendation for NJP, etc). Of course this doesn't make much sense for isolated event such as those for specific bad behavior, and they should not take the place of monthly developmental counselings, which should be tailored to the individual Soldier.

Response by SSG Jason Deters made Mar 16 at 2014 3:20 AM

2014-03-16T03:20:20-04:00

Absolutely! Provided that the standard does not contradict published regulations. An example of this is the NCOER - back in 2002, I had a 1SG who set a standard he called "No Blank Checks" meaning that every box on the rating portion of an NCOER would have bullet comments supporting the rating regardless of what that rating is. This standard was adopted by the BDE CSM and continues to this day. At that time, the regulation only required supporting bullet comments for a "needs improvement" or "excellence" - success ratings were not required until the 1SG made it so.

Response by SFC Gary Fox made Mar 16 at 2014 1:39 PM

2014-03-16T13:39:34-04:00

I have seen NCOs who advanced in rank because previous raters were too lazy to write counseling statements for poor performance. This resulted in them getting successes on the NCOER because there wasn't any documentation to back up needing improvement.

While deployed to Iraq, I had a SFC who was incompetent as heck. He never completed a task by the suspense date. His rater, was a Captain and Senior Rater the Task Force Commander. I was serving as the Task Force Sergeant Major and personally wrote several counseling statements on this guy. His rater did as well. When it came time to do his NCOER, I told the his rater came and sought my advice. He and the Commander agreed to let me write it. This NCO was so incompetent, when we were extended to stay in Iraq another 90 days, we told Brigade we did not want his orders extended. He was receiving a Change of Rater NCOER.

I completed using the NCOER while referring to the stack of counseling statements. Once completed, I went over it with his rater and senior rater. He received "Needs Improvement" in each category. We sent him home and the first thing he did was take his NCOER to the Brigade CSM, who then shot me an email asking me to send him all the documentation to support this NCOER. I anticipated that and had them already scanned to pdf. I sent it off to the CSM, who then sent me an email congratulating me on all the counseling and having all the documentation. Because the SFC's SR rater was the Brigade commander, the NCOER was not yet complete. In his email, the CSM suggested some harsher bullets.

in this position and while serving as a 1SG, I made it mandatory that all quarterly counseling documentation was to be included with an NCOER. I regularly went around and asked to see quarterly counseling statements to ensure the were being completed. The last thing I wanted to see was to see a poor NCO get a successful NCOER when s/she was incompetent and be eligible for promotion. The counseling is part of the checks and balances to ensure we have strong and competent leaders in the NCO Corps. It's the strong and competent leaders in the NCO Corps who make it strong.

If you are an NCO who is not conducting quarterly counseling on those you rate and not documenting corrective counseling, then you are shirking your responsibilities. You should also be documenting counseling on those who exceed standards. All this helps you develop good soldiers and help weed out the bad ones.

Any 1SG who is setting standards for counseling is doing their job.