Another way to go about this is to explain a couple of ways that you are going to the organization and then ask for specific feedback on those COAs.

This is not to say that you are presupposing that you will ‘fix’ anything in the organization, but that you have certain talent sets and you are aware of your future organization’s mission and…[Read more]

A lot of great techniques/ideas on counseling. I am late to the conversation, but I do want to add one technique that was valuable for me as a commander. As Gary points out in the above post, providing questions in advance is important for an effective counseling session. Taking the advice of a mentor, the last question I always asked on the…[Read more]

THANK YOU! These are incredible and I greatly appreciate the attachments.

Hey Gary!!!

Yep, I already have an RFI with him, haha. I became perplexed when I was writing up my lit review and citing a publication from 2015 that refers to the ATLDP….which looks awesome but I think was only a panel from 2002…I can’t find anything else on it. And it’s on the army mentoring page….so many things floating on the inter webs…[Read more]

I’ve received one Sr. Rater counseling, 9 years in, as an OC/T and it was valuable because it covered some do/don’ts and techniques as well as career goals.

I’ve sat down with another Sr. Rater as a troop commander and he also listened attentively and provided some solutions to my answers to his questions which centered around what I thought my…[Read more]

 I LOVE this discussion. I always like to bring in business type articles on discussions like this. In my career field, we’ve learned to treat the military much more like a business. The business world consistently incorporates best practices in leadership into their leadership models but the military seems to lag a bit (and of course we have…[Read more]

 I LOVE this discussion. I always like to bring in business type articles on discussions like this. In my career field, we’ve learned to treat the military much more like a business. The business world consistently incorporates best practices in leadership into their leadership models but the military seems to lag a bit (and of course we have…[Read more]

 I LOVE this discussion. I always like to bring in business type articles on discussions like this. In my career field, we’ve learned to treat the military much more like a business. The business world consistently incorporates best practices in leadership into their leadership models but the military seems to lag a bit (and of course we have…[Read more]

So, I was going to say exactly what Brock did. How can we improve counseling our Soldiers? DO IT!!

If your leaders do not know where you stand with them, they don’t know where to move.

I have found that leaders tend to make the same excuses as to why they don’t dedicate more time to counseling. Leaders will often shrug off important dates to do…[Read more]

On a separate point, I’ve been told my counseling style is pretty good. So this weekend I’m conducting an LPD class on “how to counsel.” The class will be composed of all of the NCOs and officers of my unit in a room, staring at 2 chairs and a table. At that table will be me and my NCOIC, and the class will consist of the class watching me…[Read more]