I had a young troop who was being less than stellar. His NCOs tried to handle it but he was unreceptive. So they brought it to me.

I took a different approach. Rather than the usual, fire and brimstone approach which had failed, I looked at the young man and told him this. You have all the power right now. I am not going to go out of my way to punish you. I’m not going to waste time yelling at you or threatening you with what I will do if you don’t shape up. What do you want? Why are you here in the Army? I then listened. When he was done I told him that his future was in his hands, we were just going to react to him. If he squared himself away then we would move on. If he continued to be a problem, we would begin separation proceedings. But it would be because of what HE did. He was responsive and changed.

Why did this work?

1) NCOs were empowered. They were the first line of leadership and as much as we tell ourselves we are the “face” of our platoon its really our squad leaders/section sergeants. As a young private I cared much more about making SGT Tanner happy than my LT. SGT Tanner was a great NCO and example for a young private.

2) Young PFC was expecting to come into the office and get yelled at. He was ready to be treated like a child. When I flipped the script it bypassed all those shields. He wasn’t ready for it. Certainly not ready for me to tell him he had all the power in the relationship.

3) I listened. We can’t create a mass volume of army experience overnight. We can show real interest in our soldiers. Someone listened, even though I couldn’t solve all his problems. I listened and I cared. From there I was able to get him some help and point to the right people who could.