A soldier and senior NCO I admire was appointed as the State Sergeant Major. His first critical tasking was to clean up the massive amount of delinquent Non-commissioned Officer Evaluation Reports (NCOER’s). He did not send out a scathing email to all concerned individuals. He did not call subordinate unit Sergeant Majors on the carpet. He did not host a conference of senior leaders at an expensive hotel to discuss the problem. **
The first thing he did was generate a list of all NCOERs that he had a part in as the Rater, Senior Rater or Reviewer. Once these NCOERs were complete, he initiated a program for the completion of all delinquent NCOERs. The State Sergeant Major felt he could not in good conscious, hammer his subordinates for not completing a task that he had not completed himself. It also showed that even though it was a massive, time consuming task, it could be completed. This is Lead by Example. Not tasking a subordinate to complete a task, that you yourself are delinquent in, have never done or will not do yourself. Other than the Military, it seems to be a foreign concept in our government today.
Wouldn’t it be great if the rest of the government would use the “Lead by Example” instead of “Do As I say, Not As I Do” method of leadership? Do you find it offensive that the IRS demand you pay your taxes on time while thousands of IRS employees owe millions of dollars in back taxes? Does it bother you that our leaders demand you conserve energy while they live in huge, extravagant houses and jet around the world on a whim just to play golf? That they want you to give up your 2nd Amendment right of self-protection while they surround themselves with armed guards? And the ultimate, they sign directives forbidding use of private email for government business, but exclusively use private email for government business themselves. The list goes on and on.
How did we get this kind of leadership?
Is this the kind of leadership you want?
Why do we tolerate it?
Have we reached the point where signs stating “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” will start appearing in government offices? (If you’ve never heard this statement before, you need to read George Orwell’s book, Animal Farm because we are starting to live it)
** Other things he did not do that are normal government reactions to a problem:
He did not appoint a council to study the problem and advise him how to proceed.
He did not have the Inspector General investigate why NCOER’s were delinquent.
He did not make speeches about how hard he is working to fix the problem.
He did not ask for more money to better implement the current system.
He did not offer bonuses to leaders who completed all their NCOER’s.
He did not ask for more employees to be hired to fix the problem.
He did not initiate a study to find a new, better system.
He did not blame his predecessor for the problem.
He did not make excuses for the problem.
He did the job he was hired for.
He made others do theirs.