Leadership & Counseling

The leadership requirements model is the Army's common description of a leader at every rank and in every branch. Attributes are what you are. Competencies are what you do. A leader who has one without the other fails, just in different ways.

The model is not decoration. NCOER and OER performance language is built on these competencies and attributes, and so is the structure of a good counseling session. When you are stuck on how to describe a subordinate's shortfall, name the competency and the behavior you observed.

Counseling is a leader talking with a subordinate about performance, potential, and what happens next. It is a two-way conversation with an agreed plan at the end. A monologue that ends in a signature is not counseling; it is a filing exercise.

Event counseling

Tied to a specific event or situation. Reception and integration, a superior or substandard performance, a crisis, disciplinary action, promotion, separation, or the transition out of the unit.

Performance counseling

A review of a subordinate's performance during a period against the duty description and the standards, and a look at how to sustain and improve. This is what feeds the evaluation report.

Professional growth counseling

Forward looking. Builds a development plan: schooling, assignments, certifications, and the short and long term goals the Soldier is working toward.

1. 1

   1. Identify the need for counseling

   Some counseling is required by regulation or the calendar. Some is driven by what you observed. Be clear with yourself which one this is before you schedule it.

2. 2

   2. Prepare for counseling

   Select a suitable time and private place, notify the Soldier in advance, review previous counseling and records, and outline the points you will cover and the outcome you are aiming for.

3. 3

   3. Conduct the counseling

   Open by stating the purpose, discuss the facts, let the Soldier talk, and build a plan of action together with specific tasks, standards, and dates. Close by confirming the Soldier understands the plan.

4. 4

   4. Follow up

   Assess whether the plan of action worked. Follow-up is the stage most often skipped and the one that turns counseling into development instead of documentation.

• Counsel new Soldiers on arrival, then on a recurring schedule set by unit policy, not only when something goes wrong.
• Bring facts and observations, not conclusions about the Soldier's character.
• A plan of action needs an owner, a standard, and a date. Without those three it is a wish.
• Document it while it is fresh. A counseling written a month later reads like it was written a month later.

Levels of leadership describe scope, not worth. A squad leader and a corps commander apply the same competencies. What differs is how many people they touch personally, how far out they have to think, and how much of their influence travels through other leaders instead of directly.

Direct

Face-to-face, first-line leadership. The leader knows their people personally and sees the results of their decisions immediately. Teams, squads, platoons, companies, and battalions operate largely at this level.

Organizational

Leadership exercised through subordinate leaders and staffs across larger formations. The leader influences through systems, policy, and priorities rather than by being present everywhere.

Strategic

Leadership at the highest levels of the Army and the Department of Defense, shaping policy, force structure, and resources with effects measured in years.

The Army Values are the shared standard of conduct for everyone who wears the uniform. They belong to the character attribute in the leadership requirements model and they are the practical expression of the Army Ethic.

1. I will always place the mission first.
2. I will never accept defeat.
3. I will never quit.
4. I will never leave a fallen comrade.

Reciting values is the easy part. The follow-up question at a board is usually a scenario: what do you do when a peer asks you to sign a document you know is inaccurate. Answer with the value, the action you take, and the standard you are enforcing.

A DA 4856 gets read later by people who were not in the room: a commander considering separation, a legal reviewer, an appeal board. Write it so those readers can tell exactly what the Soldier was told, when, and what they were expected to do about it.

1. 1

   Part I: administrative data

   Name, rank, date of counseling, organization, and the name and title of the counselor. Get the date right; it anchors everything that follows.

2. 2

   Part II: background information

   State the purpose of the counseling in one or two plain sentences. Name the type of counseling and the specific event, period, or goal it addresses.

3. 3

   Part III: summary of counseling

   Key points of discussion, then the plan of action, then the session closing with the leader and counseled Soldier signatures. This is the section that does the work.

4. 4

   Part IV: assessment of the plan of action

   Completed at the follow-up. Record whether the plan was met, partially met, or not met, and what happens next. An empty Part IV tells a reviewer the leader never followed up.

• Cite the standard by publication when one exists. It converts your opinion into an objective measure.
• Write in specifics: dates, times, what was said, what was observed. Avoid characterizations of the person.
• Keep the plan of action within the Soldier's power to execute and within your power to check.
• Give the Soldier the chance to write a response. Their comments belong on the form, not in a hallway conversation.

The evaluation is the Army's formal record of how an NCO performed and what they are ready for next. It drives promotion, selection for schools, and assignments. Everything that makes an evaluation credible happens months before it is written, in counseling.

Rated NCO

Responsible for knowing the rating chain, participating in counseling, and keeping the support form current with duty description and accomplishments.

Rater

The first-line supervisor in the rating chain. Conducts the counseling, assesses performance against the leadership requirements model and the duty description, and writes the performance bullets and box checks.

Senior rater

Assesses potential rather than day-to-day performance, evaluates the rated NCO against peers, and writes the potential comments and box check. The senior rater's assessments are managed within a profile.

Reviewer

Provided for in AR 623-3 in specified circumstances to confirm the rating chain acted properly and that the report is fair.

• The rating chain is published and the rated NCO is told who is in it. A Soldier who does not know their rater cannot be properly counseled.
• The rater must be senior to the rated NCO and in a position to observe the performance being rated.
• AR 623-3 sets minimum rating periods and rater qualification periods. Check the current edition before assuming a report is valid, because these change.
• Non-rated time is accounted for on the report rather than ignored.
• The support form is not optional paperwork. It documents the initial and follow-up counseling that makes the ratings defensible.

DA PAM 623-3 is the procedural companion to AR 623-3 and shows entry by entry how the forms are completed. When a question is about what the rule is, read AR 623-3. When it is about how to fill in a block, read DA PAM 623-3.

Bullet comments are read fast by people who do not know the Soldier. The reader has seconds to decide what this NCO did and how well. Give them an action, a measure, and an outcome.

1. 1

   Start with the action

   Lead with a strong past-tense verb describing what the NCO personally did, not what the section was responsible for.

2. 2

   Add the scope

   Quantify it. How many Soldiers, how much equipment, what dollar value, over what period. Numbers give a board something to compare.

3. 3

   Finish with the result

   State the effect on the mission or the unit. A bullet without a result is a job description.

4. 4

   Check it against the standard

   Make sure the bullet supports the box check it sits under. A rating of exceeded standard needs bullets that show performance above the standard, not at it.

• Use accepted abbreviations only. If a board member has to decode it, the bullet failed.
• Do not repeat the duty description in the performance bullets. The reader already saw it.
• Avoid adjectives doing the work that facts should do. Outstanding, superb, and phenomenal are not evidence.
• Do not include prohibited content such as references to a Soldier's protected status, pending investigations that are not resolved, or anything AR 623-3 bars from an evaluation.

The OER runs on the same regulation as the NCOER. What differs is the form set, which is organized by grade plate, and the emphasis on the rated officer developing and owning their own objectives on the support form.

• AR 623-3 prescribes additional grade plates for colonels and general officers beyond the two shown above.
• The rated officer drafts the support form, and the rater conducts face-to-face counseling on it at the start of the rating period.
• The rater assesses performance; the senior rater assesses potential relative to peers and is managed within a profile.
• Height, weight, and fitness test data are recorded on the report as the regulation requires.
• An evaluation containing adverse or negative information is referred to the rated officer for acknowledgment and comment before it is filed.

These are the two areas where a junior NCO can do lasting harm by improvising. You are not the investigator. You are the leader who takes the report seriously, protects the Soldier, and gets it to the right people without delay.

Restricted report

A sexual assault reporting option that gives the victim medical care, advocacy, and counseling without notifying the command or triggering an investigation. It can be made to a SARC, a victim advocate, or a healthcare provider.

Unrestricted report

The command is notified and a criminal investigation begins. A disclosure to anyone in the chain of command, including a squad leader, results in an unrestricted report.

SARC and victim advocate

The trained personnel who receive reports, explain the options, and support the victim through the process. Know who yours are and how to reach them before you need them.

1. 1

   Listen and do not interrogate

   Get enough to understand that a report is being made. Do not press for detail, do not ask why they did or did not do something, and do not repeat it to peers.

2. 2

   Address immediate safety and medical needs

   If the Soldier is in danger or needs medical care, handle that first.

3. 3

   Report it immediately

   Notify your chain of command and the SARC. Once a Soldier discloses to you as a leader, you have a duty to report and the restricted option is no longer available through you.

4. 4

   Tell the Soldier what happens next

   Explain honestly that you are required to report and connect them with the SARC or victim advocate who can explain the full range of support available.

5. 5

   Protect against retaliation

   Watch for and shut down retaliation, ostracism, and rumor inside the squad. That is squarely your responsibility.

• Equal opportunity complaints can be informal, resolved at the lowest level, or formal, filed on a DA 7279 and investigated by the command.
• AR 600-20 sets the window for filing a formal complaint and the suspenses for investigation and feedback. Check the current edition rather than repeating what you were told at a previous unit.
• A Soldier may take a complaint outside the chain of command, including to the equal opportunity advisor, the inspector general, or a chaplain.
• Retaliation or reprisal against a complainant is a separate offense from the underlying conduct and is treated as one.
• Command climate is measured and it belongs to the leaders in it. What you tolerate in the squad bay is your climate, whatever the survey says.

When a Soldier is failing a standard, the counseling record is what shows the Army gave them notice and a chance to correct. Separation and bar actions are routinely disapproved because the counseling behind them was vague, undated, or never followed up.

1. 1

   State the deficiency and the standard

   Name the specific act or failure, the date, and the published standard or order that was not met.

2. 2

   State the consequence plainly

   Tell the Soldier in writing what may happen if the conduct continues, in the terms the regulation uses. Vague warnings do not put a Soldier on notice.

3. 3

   Give a real plan of action

   Specific corrective tasks, the standard for each, and a date for assessment.

4. 4

   Follow up and record the result

   Complete Part IV of the DA 4856 on the assessment date whether the Soldier improved or not. The follow-up is the evidence.

5. 5

   Route it correctly

   File the counseling where the unit SOP directs and make sure the chain of command sees it. A counseling that stays in a squad leader's notebook helps nobody.

When an action is heading toward separation, involves a possible offense, or touches a protected report, bring the commander and the servicing judge advocate in early. Adverse actions are harder to fix after the fact than to build correctly the first time.

FM 6-22 treats counseling, coaching, and mentoring as distinct methods of developing others. Choosing the wrong one wastes the conversation. Telling a Soldier you want to mentor them and then handing them a plan of action is counseling with a nicer word on it.

Coaching

The coach does not need to be more expert than the person being coached. The value comes from structured questions, observation, and feedback that raise the other person's self-awareness.

Mentoring

A voluntary developmental relationship built on mutual trust and respect. A mentor is not assigned by a roster, and a mentor outside the rating chain can speak more freely than a rater can.

All three depend on the same underlying skills: listening, asking questions that are not leading, and giving feedback the other person can act on. Develop those and the label matters less than the conversation.