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Building Combat-Ready Teams
To: Platoon- and Company-Level Leaders
From: Experienced Platoon Leaders
The relationship between a platoon leader and platoon sergeant can make or break a unit. As platoon leaders, our relationships with our platoon sergeants can often feel like arranged marriages: We don't get to choose our partner, but we sure do have to make the relationship work, not only for the sake of the "kids" (our Soldiers) but also for "the community" (our company and battalion). Complicating things, the PL-PSG relationship typically involves a relatively inexperienced commissioned officer leading a much more experienced noncommissioned officer.
To gain greater understanding of the platoon leaderplatoon sergeant relationship, more than 200 first lieutenants commissioned in 2009 - all of them current or past platoon leaders - shared their experiences of working with their platoon sergeants in a January 2012 survey in the Platoon Leader Forum. These lieutenants' responses, excerpted here, highlight both the diversity and significance of their PL-PSG relationships.
Assessing the Relationship
Our relationship was awesome. One has to be the enforcer, and that responsibility lies within the role of the NCO. My first PSG was a standards-enforcing machine. That made it much easier for me to perform my duties and all the additional duties that my company gave me. At times, however, my PSG even had to enforce the standards on me. Some officers get really offended when NCOs do that, but just because you're an officer that doesn't place you above the standards. - 1 LT5 EN
Our relationship was horrible. My platoon sergeant was someone who was stuck at E-6. He basically held the position because of a shortage of NCOs in the unit. I learned a lot from the operations sergeants during this time, mainly about how to deal with a delinquent and incompetent PSG. It was a terrible relationship and terrible introduction to the NCO Corps. To this day, I micromanage more than I should, and it is all because of my first PSG, whom everyone said to trust wholeheartedly but was crap and not worth a minute of my time- 1LT5MP
Our relationship was difficult. I had a PSG who had been a PSG for three years, and the two previous platoon leaders were weak leaders. It was...