I am experiencing this as an outsider.  I just received a new LT fresh from ROTC.  As I mentor the LT on being an officer I think the key opportunity is in preparing your attitude.  As a Candidate or Cadet you spent all your time learning and being graded.  That’s not as true for being an officer.  Yes, eyes are on you and yes you are competing to a degree with your peers.  But there are no more assigned grades, you should learn from everything and self-assess.

Case in point, I received a brand new right out of AD.  I recently told the LT I want them to increase focus on maintenance and execute a triage style repair strategy maximizing vehicle availability.  (Fix all the easy stuff first), I was surprised to get an reply essentially apologizing for not performing adequately.  Which was not at all my intent.  As the commander assessing my formation I found an area I needed to increase emphasis (operational readiness of my rolling stock – as a new unit we are getting everyone’s hand me downs and the last 6 vehicles we received have been deadlined.  Several require relatively simple repairs we can make internally some will require FMS shops to fix.)