U.S. Army photo by Elizabeth Fraser

“Counseling is the most important tool that leaders have at their disposal. Clearly communicating expectations and standards provides a baseline for measuring performance and ensures that both the rater and rated officer understand expectations. This is especially important when managing your rater profile and justifying the contents of evaluation reports for both officers and NCOs.”

This is the sixth in an 8-part series that expands on Major Nathan Player’s “Eight Essential Characteristics of Officership.” The series is geared towards newly commissioned officers and is a resource for developmental counseling and mentorship of new lieutenants regardless of branch.

There are two versions of the same conversation that often occur between young officers and the enlisted advisor when NCOER time rolls around:

1. “This NCOER is communicating substandard performance (that I disagree with). Is there written counseling to support this write up?”
2. “This NCOER is communicating superior performance (that I disagree with). Is there written counseling to support this write up?”  

More often than not, the young officer’s answer to either of the above questions is no, and results in the officer being unable to defend the rating they feel their subordinate has earned. The result is poor performers not being held accountable and superior performers not being properly recognized. As tragic as both outcomes are for the rated NCO and the Army, they are the result of an underlying problem – a lack of counseling. 

The above scenario is the culmination of a failure to communicate initial expectations and a lack of periodic evaluation of subordinates. Formal written counseling is one of the most valuable and yet underutilized tools available to Army leaders. To assist in establishing a viable counseling program, the following areas of emphasis will be discussed: 1) Start with you, 2) Make counseling a priority, 3) clearly communicate expectations and standards, and 4) utilize event oriented counseling

Start with you

If it has not already happened, ask to be formally counseled by both your rater and senior rater. Gaining a clear understanding of your organization’s priorities and your role in it will give you the information you need to properly lead your team. During the counseling, be sure to ask clarifying questions and to provide your leadership with a description of what you see as your duties and responsibilities. They will either approve what you’re doing or give you some course-correcting guidance. Rater counseling should be in writing whenever possible. If your rater does not have time to capture the session in writing, ask their permission to do so. Take notes during the session. Capture the discussion and use it to build your subordinates’ counseling and as a reference throughout the rating period. 

Make counseling a priority 

You may not have time for everything, but you can make time for anything. Time is a finite resource, so leaders must make deliberate decisions about how they spend theirs. If you need motivation to make counseling one of the “anythings” programmed into your schedule, consider the following: if your team understands your intent and their left and right limits, you will have more time to focus on moving the mission forward- not less. 

Clearly communicating expectations and standards

The purpose of counseling is to communicate your vision and how your subordinates fit into it. An initial counseling session should be in writing and include both what you expect from your team and the standards that you are holding them to. This can be accomplished with a DA Form 4856, a memorandum for record, or a combination of the two. If you prefer a more informal approach, complete the written portion after the counseling ends. Be sure to follow up and include any expectations or requirements you discussed in the finalized written product. It is also imperative that you formalize the counseling with signatures.  

Follow-up counseling should be done in writing and conducted at a minimum quarterly. Use those sessions to inform your subordinates of what they are doing well and in what ways they need to improve. This gives subordinates an opportunity to learn and improve, provides formal notification of where they stand amongst their peers, and eliminates surprises when evaluation reports are generated. 

Utilize event-oriented counseling 

An event-oriented counseling captures specific events, as opposed to performance over a period of time. These documents can be used to capture both positive and negative events for which the rated Soldier was responsible. For example, if your subordinate is consistently missing suspense dates for projects or having other work related problems, you should identify that and put a plan in place to improve the situation. On the other hand, a training event or other project done particularly well should also be recognized in writing so that your subordinate knows their contribution was valued and that they are on the right track.

Taking the time to establish an effective counseling program in your organization establishes clear expectations and standards. It also provides an effective mechanism for holding your personnel accountable and provides justification for the contents of evaluation reports. Most importantly it facilitates dialogue at all levels and ensures that all members of the team understand where they fit into the commander’s priorities as you execute mission command operations. 

This is the sixth article in Nate Player series on leadership. Check out the first post in the series HERE

Major Nathan Player is currently assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg. He has 13 years of combined enlisted and officer service, has commanded and served in various joint staff and professional education assignments.