The Overlooked Mentors: Developing a Commander’s Judgment

This is our third post in a series of guest posts from Terron Wharton.  Here he takes it up to the next level, looking at the NCO’s influence at the command level.  We hope that this series is helping you to start conversations that will potentially spark a transformation in your leader ability.

As a Cavalry Troop Commander, I was fortunate to have MSG(R) James Gentile as my first 1SG.  MSG(R) Gentile had been a First Sergeant for two other commanders already. I met him down range on a small COP in Afghanistan and he had an incredible impact while mentoring me as a Troop Commander.  We started every morning with coffee, a cigarette, and a talk: old business, new business, MSG(R) Gentile’s thoughts on how the Troop was doing, and my own concerns and doubts.

A defining trait for our Troop was disciplined Soldiers. One day the inevitable happened – a Soldier screwed up and landed before my desk.  This Soldier was a relatively new NCO and was very good at his job.  I really did not want to take any action other than a slap on the wrist.  However, there was a problem: the screw up involved a sensitive item.  The NCO had directly set conditions for the equipment to be stolen, and, despite the item being recovered, it showed a fairly large lapse in judgment on his part.

I constantly preached discipline, justice, and holding people accountable regardless of their rank.  I certainly did not want to ruin the NCO’s career, but I had few options.  In a moment of intense personal conflict, Gentile told me something I would never forget: “Sir, at the end of the day it comes down to this: Do we have the strength to do what the Army tells us to do as leaders?”  That was it: black and white, right and wrong, a single standard.

I let the NCO keep his stripes, but the cost was steep.  I suspended the loss of rank, but took the maximum amount of pay I could and maxed him out on restriction and extra duty.  Did I mention this was issued a week before we came home from deployment and his restriction and extra duty would not start until we returned?  I held the NCO accountable, sick to my stomach the whole time, but the lesson stuck with both of us. Doing anything else would have been abdicating my legal and moral responsibility.  I had heard that time and again from more senior officers, but I truly learned it from MSG(R) Gentile that day.

Over those morning coffee and cigarette sessions, MSG(R) Gentile mentored me by molding, shaping, and refining my sense of judgment.  My officer mentors gave it to me in stark, discrete terms.  MSG(R) Gentile helped me to understand the nuance, to read the unit’s pulse in order to adjust accordingly, and to ensure my actions communicated my intent.  He taught me how to be a Commander by living what he preached: standards, discipline, attention to detail, and knowing one’s craft.  Most of all, he helped develop my sense of judgment.  ADP 6-22, Army Leadership, does not mention judgment directly, but captures it under the intellect leader attribute:

“The leader’s intellect affects how well a leader thinks about problems, creates solutions, makes decisions and leads others. …Sound judgment enables the best decision for the situation at hand. It is a key attribute of the transformation of knowledge into understanding and quality execution.” ADP 6-22, pg 7

The ADP makes a critical point near the end – it is not enough for the officer to have knowledge to execute sound judgment.  Intellect’s awareness must advance to understanding and must be actively applied, not passively maintained.

Do I take rank or just pay?  Do I take the UCMJ route at all?  Do I formally counsel or sit down and have a heart-to-heart?  Do I chew someone’s ass or give praise?  Do I hang out with the Soldiers and clean weapons after mission or do I keep a distance?  Am I being too hard or too soft?  Am I communicating the right commander’s intent with my action or not?  Learning the answers to those questions is the essence of a commander’s judgment.

There is no other responsibility like Command.  I could drastically alter someone’s life with a single word or stroke of pen.  I could take rank and pay, erasing years of work and imposing financial burden.  I could send a Soldier to jail.  Most of all, my decisions in combat, right or wrong, could cost a Soldier their life, potentially widowing a spouse or orphaning a child.  The weight is tremendous.

Judgment comes from the character established during the cadet years and the competence grown as a Platoon Leader.  Applying these to a situation and making a decision is judgment.  Company Commanders have tremendous responsibilities in exercising judgment.  However, the key is establishing good judgment now when it really counts.  A Company Commander can send a man to jail.  A Brigade Commander can end a 15-year career.  A General can send a man to prison.  A junior leader’s bad judgment in combat may kill a squad, while a senior leader could kill the majority of a company.  Our NCO’s ability to or failure in mentoring judgment can have serious implications for hundreds or thousands of Soldiers in the future.

Critical Takeaways

Mentorship Focus: Judgment

For All: The judgment an officer develops as a company commander will typically follow throughout their career with greater repercussions the higher they ascend.

For Company Commanders:  How does my 1SG exercise judgment in Soldier issues?  How does my judgment tie into “good order and discipline”?  What are indicators that my judgment has been good or poor?

For NCOs: Does my Commander have any character or competence flaws that must be addressed?  How do I help my Commander evaluate his judgment?  How do I shape my Commander’s judgment?