Leadership Dilemmas: If you were me, what would you have done? (PART 1)

Sounds like it is your senior NCO's that failed. Not you. First thing is get this situation with the NCO's under control. Of course, you may need your Company Commander to do this. Second thing is you have to realize that every man can not be saved. But, most can be.

Lead your NCO's and challenge them to lead the problem child. You must do the "saving and fixing" through your NCO's. Lay the game plan down and ensure they adhere to your orders. This may take standing on their necks. Be prepared to do that. If they refuse to bend to your will. Then fire one of them up. Show them that you mean business. The others will fall in line.

You alluded to he has had problems before. You sound like you believe he is salvageable. Ensure your plan includes getting him to the experts that can actually do the fixing. Obviously what you are seeing are the manifestations of the problem(s). If the experts can't fix him. Then he should be discharged for the good of the service.

Transferring a problem-child to another command is a shameful failure in leadership throughout your command.

Good luck.

The "NCO" does not belong in our force. We have Master Sergeants being QSP for basically being in an over strength MOS. We must keep quality! I understand this SM may have problems however, we can see that he gets help on his way out of the Army. We can all use our skill sets as leaders and attempt to rehab this Soldier. This type of leadership and attention will be time consuming. So why spend 90% of your time with less than 10% of your Soldiers.

I think this is your chance to see what type of leadership style you have. Sit down with him and see what's going on in his life. You might just find the problem. That way you can start counseling him, make sure you document everything and go from there. All in all you do service to him and yourself in becoming a leader because nobody likes being given a s@!tbag soldier.

I would have pulled SErgeant Jones in my office to find out what was going on. It is imperative as leaders to know the issues that our members are facing, unfortunately Sergeant Jones had already had multiple infractions and it seemed that the process may have came too late. FACT FIND it's an important part of leading. This would have also gave you the ammunition needed to make your decision and gave the Commander the warm and fuzzy that you as the leader had a good handle on things.

First I will address what should be done as a new leader. Find out why SGT Jones is in the predicament that he is. It was not a mistake in my opinion deferring to the SNCO's to gather information and/or formulate a plan of action. As a young LT, you would look to those more experienced SNCO's in your unit to provide guidance and trusted them knowing that they should have provided the best guidance possible, to make an informed decision in developing courses of action. The lack of trust, seems apparent, whether with these SNCOs or within the unit as a whole.

There should have been counselings and not just counselings piled one on top of the other to make a case in order to get rid of someone. There should have been a plan of action, follow-thru and follow-up for SGT Jones. What are the identifiers? Post deployment issues? Financial? marital?

Whisking SGT Jones to another unit is not a solution it only complicates the issue. Now you've made it someone else's problem, how is this fair to his new unit, more so how is then even fair to SGT Jones. The issue hasn't been addressed why SGT Jones's behavior has affected his work performance and at home.

As a leader, this LT took the low road, the easy way out. As leaders, we have to make decisions and if we can't make decisions, we shouldn't be leaders. We are all going to make good and bad decisions, and we need to learn from all decisions we make .

This is troublesome for me as it leads me to believe the type of leader this LT is or may become. It speaks volumes about the leadership in this unit. Is this a one time mistake in this LT's leadership process? Even more troubling the leadership actions or lack of from these SNCOs.

Everyone is accountable as well as responsible. If your Soldiers don’t believe in you, you’ll have a tough road ahead. As leaders were supposed to:

Provide direction, Provide purpose, Provide motivation

A leader provides direction by:

Knowing and maintaining standards, Setting goals, Planning, Making decisions and solving problems, Supervising and evaluating

Am I to just naive and old-school to believe in this still? Is this still taught or instilled in our Soldiers? Or is it just words written in some manual that we just use when it's convenient?

Let's take SGT Jones's issue to the extreme? What if this young NCO decides to leave a suicide note or uses today's social media and email and blast's out his intentions and follows through? What then? Do we lay blame on the Soldier for his/her actions because of the issues they faced, paint them as weak and problematic? Who in leadership is accountable then? Who will have the intestinal fortitude to step up and take the high road and say "I take responsibility" or does it just get buried and forgotten?

Perhaps maybe I am too naive to think, even in retirement, that every Soldier is deserving of outstanding leadership, mentorship and training. All I know is leadership failed this young NCO. No, I don't excuse the NCO either for lack of ability to seek help. But in some cases, some Soldiers don't seek help because perceptions & attitudes are still prevalent in some form of stigma.

We had a troop that got sent to us and shortly after found out they rushed him out so they did not have to deal with his continued misconduct. We tried to correct him at our level and at the upper level. but it seems by the time we got him he was to far gone. He ended getting discharged due to the pattern of misconduct. It stinks because had his initial unit probably taken the time to guide him it might of turned out differently.

I would have tried to get to the root cause of SGT Jones's issues, determine for myself if there was some underlying problem that required behavioral treatment or if SGT Jones was merely a bag of crap that had been allowed to skate by. I would also have discussed the issues with the PSG and SL for SGT Jones and find out what, if anything had been done by them to "fix" the issues, and why there was not documentation for any of the problems exhibited prior to my arrival. I would then have determined the best CoA based on all the discussions, present them to the PSG, 1SG and CO in an effort to do what is right not only for the unit but for SGT Jones as well. Far too often it is easier to just "cut bait" and begin the paperwork to dismiss SGT Jones from the Army than it is to actually dig into the issues and figure out exactly wtf is going on. I know from experience as a SR NCO that this is the case, between accomplishing our daily missions, "baby sitting" problem Soldiers and balancing all this with ensuring that one doesn't neglect our family and/or personal issues, it is a tough decision at times. At the end of the day, or at the end of it all, we have to ask ourselves, "Did I/we, do what was best all the way around? For the Soldier as well as the Army, were my actions the best that they could have been for all involved?"

Personally Sir, I wouldn't have let you and I would have convinced my Commander also. The 1SG should have had a foot on this from the beginning. He is responsible for mentoring, leading and training NCO's in his unit. You come in the door and you see the problem it is your job to get with the PSG and fix this NCO the best you can. Counseling is the first step and by what you say it was never done. Makes me want to put back on the beret and start leading from the front and taking care of my NCOs and Soldiers. You go sir. You have the right mind set. Work with that NCO until you see no other possible courses. That's what leaders do.

UPDATE -- Hi everyone, in case you missed it, the PART 2 follow up to this thread can be found here: https://www.rallypoint.com/answers/leadership-dilemmas-if-you-were-me-what-would-you-have-done-part-2

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this fantastic discussion!

Sir, I am not going to put up with conduct like this from any Soldier especially an Noncommissioned Officer and certainly not an Officer. One the trends that unit like to do is to take a problem Soldier is to not rehabilitate him or her and send them off to another unit. This shows a lack a leadership and care for that Soldier and it sets a lousy standard. It is also laziness to refuse to help this Soldier and not another unit must deal with that Soldier.

First, suspend his security clearance if he has one.

Second, can we hold one to any weapons he has at his residence because after all this involves domestic violence even though the information provide just says domestic and not domestic violence. I would call JAG about the weapons part. If its legal, proceed and if not, make an MMR stating there was an attempt to hold on his weapson in the arms room due to the nature of the incident. Remember, we livce in a world of CYA so cover your bases.

Third, So this is the second time? And he was just shuffled off to another unit without any rehabilitation? As leaders we might be held liable if this Soldier was to do something really stupid like killing his spouse. An Army investigation might reveal his needs were ignored and if given attention instead of being sent to another unit certain incidents may have been prevented.

Fourth, we have two choices, process him under UCMJ and chapter him from the military or we can try to rehabilitate him but we need to hold him to it and UCMJ with suspension pay and rank might wake him up.