If I have been successful in my career its because I have had amazing NCOs that made me successful. If I have failed in my career it is because I failed to cultivate a solid relationship with my NCOs. If NCOs are so pivotal to our success as officers, then we need to take the time to discuss how we can better lead them and more importantly how we can learn from them. For me, I have come to the conclusion that the relationship between officers and NCOs comes down to trust. In an article I wrote for 3×5 Leadership (3x5leadership.wordpress.com), I argue that as Officers, we fail to allow our subordinates (aka NCOs) to lead effectively and that if we want to be successful we must allow them to to do the everyday business of leadership.

(Quick tangent, forum member @jbowen_100 runs the 3×5 leadership blog and his articles are always insightful and he has some greet TTPs for leadership in the Army. Please go check out his site when you get the chance.)

It is with this mindset that I would like to open up the forum up and lets have a candid talk about NCOs. Over the next few weeks and months we will dig deep into the NCO Corps and what is our role as officers towards the Corps. I am going to break the discussion into three different parts. So lets get started with Part 1:

Part 1 – What is the relationship between an Officer and a NCOIC?

No matter what position you are in whether its a PL, Staff, Company Commander, etc.; you will always have a NCO counterpart. What kind of relationship do you have with your NCOIC? Is it a superior-subordinate? Is it peer-to-peer? Does your NCO Mentor you or is that the other way around? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Also, don’t forget to check out the 3x5leaderhsip.wordpress.com website to read the article “Military leadership is really about trust.”