Oh man, where to start with this, Chad. That was a packed 2 years between deploying straight away, then every single element changing command (including the BN), then field preparation for JRTC, then after JRTC were a handful of missions that required extra focus from me as the S1, not to mention all these family challenges that I had going on (which, don’t we all, right?).  That’s to say that picking out a pattern or a singularity is very difficult for me, at least right now.

To your questions, I think I would do the same thing again, especially for the first few months. That was a rocky time, to say the least. My Soldiers hadn’t seen an NCOIC for more than a few months at a time the rotations happened so fast. The office itself was a literal pigsty when I got there, just desks, cords, and stacks of papers like you wouldn’t believe. The Soldiers were doing there best to keep everything afloat. I had a week RIP with my predecessor because they were having surgery, then basically fell off the map after my first day. There was a lot of information that got lost in that transition, too, so (as you said in a previous post), I just got punched in the face for about the first month of my job and then we were so close to deployment that there were other problems at hand and those Garrison problems got passed on to Rear Detachment. This was nothing to speak of some pretty significant personality issues in the unit as well.  I agree with you that it is more empowering to come in and engage the team to solve problems together, but I really felt that they just needed a singular guiding voice that was going to be predictable and consistent for them, as well as shielding them from direct fires. So as far as coming in as I did for the first 90 days, yeah, I would do that same method again.  That being said, after about 12-14 months in that unit, after many significant changes, reflecting on it, I think that was an appropriate environment to be able to slowdown reactions to (most) problems and work them together. I guess what I’m saying is that I think you have to have a functioning team to tackle it in the way you describe. (That being said, there’s probably a counterargument to mine that it’s a great way to activate the team through this very exercise.)