Posted on Oct 27, 2013
What is the best advice you can give a Jr Officer?
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Mentorship
Officers
Junior Officers
Professional Development
Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 95
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I would say the best thing for a brand new LT is to not take criticism personally. You got to have thick skin to learn from your mistakes and allow the NCOs to teach you. At the same time though reserving yourself to make decisions. Be a student of your craft and leadership and keep developing yourself mentally. The fundamental art of learning to adapt to overcome an obstacle and keep charging forward is one that will make you an outstanding Officer. Always take care of your Soldiers, they are your lifeblood. Know their limitations, but continue to push them to achieve their full potential. Your success as a leader is developing your Soldiers to become their best.
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CPT (Join to see)
Great advice, Sir. A leader can only be as successful if he's leading his Soldiers towards success.
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LTC (Join to see)
Lessons I learned as an Officer:
1. Being unfairly 'relieved- for- cause' as a 1LT is not the end of the world especially if you give a fair and written rebuttal to your situation. I was relieved as S1 for not making the daily battle update briefs. I had no S1 PAC nco (he was on the main post and no cell phone coms either) and nobody was with me (not even the S4) at the CTCP at Yakima training range in 2002. The Bn XO said not to worry and he would inform the battalion commander and yet I had nobody there to give me a ride nor go in my place and the battalion commander fired me anyways. I had gotten screwed said my fomer company commander (at the time an Xo for an MP BN). My documentation did not prevent me from being approved for CPT by the Army Promotion board in 2003. I took my promotion delay letter for 3 years delay on taking my 0-3.
2. If you are in the ARNG: if you make 0-3 on the promotion board and you can't get promoted in your unit due to politics or no slots and you want your rank now instead of later, don't take the promotion delay letter from HRC but leave the unit and go into the IRR get your 0-3/CPT and go back in the ARNG or go in the USAR and find a slot.
3. Acting battalion Commander/Major can't be your Senior rater on an OER.This happened to me. The Brigade G3 made him rewrite it as the rater and write it more fairly than it was originally and the G3 became the Senior Rater.
4. Get your rater and senior rater's support form and try to see where you need to be with schools or experience to work on his job experience and qualifications and get promoted.
5. Be physically fit and maintain a 290+ or 300 on your apft. I was not the best officer in the past but my APFT score overcame alot of discrimination. When a 40 something officer could run under 14 minutes and go over the max on pushups and situps,it made the commanders think differently of me. Just my wisdom as an older soldier.
I look forward to reading your comments so I can continue to grow as well.
1. Being unfairly 'relieved- for- cause' as a 1LT is not the end of the world especially if you give a fair and written rebuttal to your situation. I was relieved as S1 for not making the daily battle update briefs. I had no S1 PAC nco (he was on the main post and no cell phone coms either) and nobody was with me (not even the S4) at the CTCP at Yakima training range in 2002. The Bn XO said not to worry and he would inform the battalion commander and yet I had nobody there to give me a ride nor go in my place and the battalion commander fired me anyways. I had gotten screwed said my fomer company commander (at the time an Xo for an MP BN). My documentation did not prevent me from being approved for CPT by the Army Promotion board in 2003. I took my promotion delay letter for 3 years delay on taking my 0-3.
2. If you are in the ARNG: if you make 0-3 on the promotion board and you can't get promoted in your unit due to politics or no slots and you want your rank now instead of later, don't take the promotion delay letter from HRC but leave the unit and go into the IRR get your 0-3/CPT and go back in the ARNG or go in the USAR and find a slot.
3. Acting battalion Commander/Major can't be your Senior rater on an OER.This happened to me. The Brigade G3 made him rewrite it as the rater and write it more fairly than it was originally and the G3 became the Senior Rater.
4. Get your rater and senior rater's support form and try to see where you need to be with schools or experience to work on his job experience and qualifications and get promoted.
5. Be physically fit and maintain a 290+ or 300 on your apft. I was not the best officer in the past but my APFT score overcame alot of discrimination. When a 40 something officer could run under 14 minutes and go over the max on pushups and situps,it made the commanders think differently of me. Just my wisdom as an older soldier.
I look forward to reading your comments so I can continue to grow as well.
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1. Trust, but verify.<br>2. Sometimes, you learn a lot more from poor examples than good ones.<br>3. Know what's in the book before you decide to throw it out.<br>4. If you really want to know who runs things, find out who pays the bill.<br>5. Inter-service rivalry is fine, expected, and neccessary; holding other branches or other services in contempt is not.<br>6. Your SGM / SEL does NOT know everything. (sorry guys)<br>7. Neither does your Colonel.<br>8. And neither do you.<br>9. Leadership is a muscle, you must exercise it.<br>10. Leadership and command overlap, but they are not the same thing.<br>
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MAJ (Join to see)
I think you have an outline for a book that is about to appear on the CoS Required Reading List.
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LTC (Join to see)
Lessons I learned as an Officer:
1. Being unfairly 'relieved- for- cause' as a 1LT is not the end of the world especially if you give a fair and written rebuttal to your situation. I was relieved as S1 for not making the daily battle update briefs. I had no S1 PAC nco (he was on the main post and no cell phone coms either) and nobody was with me (not even the S4) at the CTCP at Yakima training range in 2002. The Bn XO said not to worry and he would inform the battalion commander and yet I had nobody there to give me a ride nor go in my place and the battalion commander fired me anyways. I had gotten screwed said my fomer company commander (at the time an Xo for an MP BN). My documentation did not prevent me from being approved for CPT by the Army Promotion board in 2003. I took my promotion delay letter for 3 years delay on taking my 0-3.
2. If you are in the ARNG: if you make 0-3 on the promotion board and you can't get promoted in your unit due to politics or no slots and you want your rank now instead of later, don't take the promotion delay letter from HRC but leave the unit and go into the IRR get your 0-3/CPT and go back in the ARNG or go in the USAR and find a slot.
3. Acting battalion Commander/Major can't be your Senior rater on an OER.This happened to me. The Brigade G3 made him rewrite it as the rater and write it more fairly than it was originally and the G3 became the Senior Rater.
4. Get your rater and senior rater's support form and try to see where you need to be with schools or experience to work on his job experience and qualifications and get promoted.
5. Be physically fit and maintain a 290+ or 300 on your apft. I was not the best officer in the past but my APFT score overcame alot of discrimination. When a 40 something officer could run under 14 minutes and go over the max on pushups and situps,it made the commanders think differently of me. Just my wisdom as an older soldier.
I look forward to reading your comments so I can continue to grow as well.
1. Being unfairly 'relieved- for- cause' as a 1LT is not the end of the world especially if you give a fair and written rebuttal to your situation. I was relieved as S1 for not making the daily battle update briefs. I had no S1 PAC nco (he was on the main post and no cell phone coms either) and nobody was with me (not even the S4) at the CTCP at Yakima training range in 2002. The Bn XO said not to worry and he would inform the battalion commander and yet I had nobody there to give me a ride nor go in my place and the battalion commander fired me anyways. I had gotten screwed said my fomer company commander (at the time an Xo for an MP BN). My documentation did not prevent me from being approved for CPT by the Army Promotion board in 2003. I took my promotion delay letter for 3 years delay on taking my 0-3.
2. If you are in the ARNG: if you make 0-3 on the promotion board and you can't get promoted in your unit due to politics or no slots and you want your rank now instead of later, don't take the promotion delay letter from HRC but leave the unit and go into the IRR get your 0-3/CPT and go back in the ARNG or go in the USAR and find a slot.
3. Acting battalion Commander/Major can't be your Senior rater on an OER.This happened to me. The Brigade G3 made him rewrite it as the rater and write it more fairly than it was originally and the G3 became the Senior Rater.
4. Get your rater and senior rater's support form and try to see where you need to be with schools or experience to work on his job experience and qualifications and get promoted.
5. Be physically fit and maintain a 290+ or 300 on your apft. I was not the best officer in the past but my APFT score overcame alot of discrimination. When a 40 something officer could run under 14 minutes and go over the max on pushups and situps,it made the commanders think differently of me. Just my wisdom as an older soldier.
I look forward to reading your comments so I can continue to grow as well.
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Take the time to learn from your senior NCOs before you get to a rank where everyone else expects you to really know what you're doing.<br>
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