George,

I think an important piece to this is peer feedback.  Despite your best efforts you may not always get good feedback from your troops.  Or as I’ve frequently seen, troops with just one or two assignments may not know anything different than their current assignment or the dreaded in my last unit….

A trusted peer can be a great mirror.  As a leader I have had candid discussions with my peers as to how I and my team were performing.  It can be a very eye opening experience.  As a MEDPL and now as a ASMC commander I am in a support role, which is how I like it.  My job is to support units and their soldiers.  This peer relationship can work wonders with this type of role.  It can also be effective with combat arms units as well.