Hello all,

I am about to take command of a service battery and I have been told by my predecessor that the entire organization is officer driven. At least at the battery level they lack senior NCO leadership and all around NCO drive to do anything more than “meet the standard.” The battalions within the brigade are on a deployment rotation. The battery just got back and has been stripped of able bodied (deployable) NCOs, Soldiers, and some of the best equipment. All sent to whichever BN deploys next. I do not know the performance level of the lieutenants (I will focus on them personally), but I am mostly concerned with the NCOs and their development since our success depends on them.

How do I as the commander exercise mission command to the 1SG, LTs, and senior NCOs in an organization stripped of NCO leadership and beat down by excessive non-mission related taskings? I know this is the case all across the Army. It was the same situation when I was an XO. How do you turn around an officer driven organization and instill disciplined initiative in junior leaders and NCOs that I am assuming haven’t been developed? I have what I think is a good course of action but I want to hear the community’s thoughts. Especially from commanders who were in the same situation. What did you do and what worked?

Thank you for any input!