I designed a coin w/ my 1SG and Soldiers really wanted to earn one. I also gave very short briefs on Friday – 1 min. Safety Brief, touching on the top 3 safety concerns, the top 3 mitigations, and 1-2 last minute updates from S-2. I did this by practicing succinctness before hand – worked out great. I spent another 1 min. talking about the Troop in general and pointing out the good things individuals did. All people want is recognition and sometimes, genuine appreciation goes a long way. Plus continuous positive encouragement/reinforcement and praising those who went the extra distance. That way in 2 minutes, you kept their attention span, and they left for the weekend feeling good. Then the BN formation happened and CSM followed the SCO and the safety brief was 45 min. long no escaping that.

Justice and fairness is what Soldiers want. As I chaptered nearly 20% of my formation and all the negative “bottom-up toxicity” as my 1SG used to call it, I rewarded, promoted all those who wanted to be good Soldiers, highlighted good behaviors. Once justice was in place, and things made sense, normality if you will, the rest took a life of its own, Soldiers ran with the Troop and won every single thing there was to win (boards, intramural tournaments, competitions) , they became obsessed with winning and being the best.