Random leadership lesson that came to mind…

It was my second day as a platoon leader and I was attending my first briefing with the commander. My platoon sergeant said that he would brief the information to the commander and that I would brief future weeks. That way I would have a better understanding of the information. I said that this sounded good. After my platoon sergeant finished, the commander looked over to me and said that he expected his platoon leaders to brief him, even if I was new.

That quickly taught me a valuable lesson. Even though I was new, I was still in charge and expected to know what was going on. My commander obviously did not expect me to know everything, but he expected me to give it my best effort and to be a leader at all times.

Lesson learned: No matter how new you are, you are still a leader. Don’t use being new as a crutch or an excuse.