Officer and Enlisted Relationships
EPISODE 14
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Welcome back to the Team Room, here with the OnesReady crew. On this episode the team shares their experiences and insights into how Officers and Enlisted folks work together in the Spec Warfare arena. No Lieutenants were hurt while making this episode.
Intro:
You're listening to the Ones Ready podcast, a team of Air Force Special Operators forged in combat with over 70 years of combined operational experience as well as a decade of selection instructor experience. If you're tired of settling and you want to do something you truly believe in, you're in the right place. Now here's your host, PJ Team Leader, Jiu jitsu lover, meme enthusiast, and dad joke aficionado, Aaron Love.
Aaron (00:28):
So let's get down to it. You're going to be at assessment selection, whether you're a STO, a CRO, PJ, a TACP, a Combat Controller, and you're going to have a boss on your team. You're going to have bosses at the school house, you're going to have eight bosses Bob. We All have a bosses. But the real question here is somebody that you're shedding those blood, sweat, and tears right next to, you're almost drowning every day. You're almost failing on those pushups, doing grass and gorillas. You can't go one step further on your ruck. You look to the support to the guy on your left or the female on your right. And that person might be your boss. So what does that relationship look like? Well, in the words of, Chief Master Sergeant Ramón "CZ" Colón-López, if you want to fly with the eagles, you can't hang out with the turkeys. So you're going to make sure that you make that relationship as best as you possibly can. But how do you do it when there's those lines, especially officers and enlisted. So, man I'm going to start out hot. I'm going to go straight to peaches. Can you explain, explain what is the officer's role on any team? So this, and of course this could be a boss in the civilian world, but what is the officer's role on a team? Like what are their responsibilities? Is there a difference between in charge and in command? I'll just tee it up for you and let you go.
In Charge vs In Command
(03:18):
Peaches talks about intent vs execution. Officers give intent to the SNCO’s whose job it is to ensure the intent is met.
(05:42):
Aaron covers where authority is derived from and how it’s used thereafter. Sends it over to LT(?) Brian.
(06:53):
This is where we learn that Brian is currently inhabiting some kind of fake rank. No one knows what it means.
Young Brian did not want to be an officer for reasons. Now he is well on his way. Bottom Line: The military provides a lot of educational benefits.
Brian is going to be a true leader. Giving intent without micromanaging.
(09:31):
Aaron goes on a sleep deprived rant about Spongebob and George Washington.
What Have Officers Lacked
Brian (10:34):
Micromanaging is bad. Real bad.
Let people grow through failure.
Get to know your boss. Communicate.
Aaron (12:37):
Got it. So, they're peacocks, you got to let them fly, make sure Peaches always has snacky snacks.
Brian (12:43):
Exactly. Snacks are the biggest, I can't believe I didn't say that. Yeah, yeah. Snacks at all time. Otherwise everything just collapses.
Aaron (12:53):
So many movie quotes.
Micromanagement
Trent (13:32):
Team Sgt handles down and in. Team Leader handles up and out.
Brian/Aaron (14:48):
Don’t create a toxic environment by undermining the boss behind his back.
Peaches (15:11):
Team Leadership, O and E need to make decisions together, talk about friction points behind closed doors and present a united front to the team. Team Sgt takes the message to the team.
Aaron (17:09):
Story about a PJ, a CRO, and a helicopter seat.
Protect your leaders. Do the right thing.
Trust
Trent (20:08):
As a leadership team you can’t fight in front of team and undermine each others authority. Find a way to communicate effectively and trust each other.
Aaron (22:29):
The Team Sgt should present the intent of the leadership in a way that makes the team want to execute.
Expectations
Peaches (23:15):
Expectations need to be clear from both sides.
Aaron (25:41):
After asking Trent and Peaches hard questions Aaron asks Brian to clean up the mess.
Brian (26:01):
We’ve been talking in idealistic terms. Life is messy.
Find out what your bosses priorities are and knock them out. Give yourself room to do what you value.
Aaron (28:01):
Sometimes you have a plan for the day. Sometimes your “to do” list changes and grows.
Brian (28:14):
Do the right thing. Know your job. Be willing to flex.
Aaron (29:24):
You may have to adjust your own leadership style or techniques based on who is above and below you.
Peaches (29:44):
If you’re doing the right thing then you’re good.
Aaron (30:08):
Aaron asks Trent if he ever wanted to be an officer…
Dirty Jobs
Peaches (30:40):
Peaches likes the dirty work. He wants to be in the trenches getting stuff done.
You’ve never ranked past getting done what needs to be done.
Trent (32:39):
The SW community has a lot of people enlist that could have gone to the officer side of the house.
Brian (33:12):
Story about Ivy League bro’s.
Take care of the small things. Care about the people you’re with.
Mentorship
Aaron (34:55):
Help people get to where they need to be. Mentor before judgment.
Peaches (35:53):
It’s on everyone in a leadership position if the team or unit fails. It’s not an Officer vs Enlisted thing.
Aaron (36:22):
As a leader try to make everyone better. Applies to NCO’s and Officers.
Aaron asks Brian for examples of failed teams at INDOC.
Brian (37:03):
As an officer just entering the pipeline it is imperative that you come prepared. You need to lead by example. Don’t be a turd.
Peaches (38:47):
People tend to judge other people based on appearance.
Aaron (39:35):
We start to go off the rails. Aaron asks Brian to take charge with his made up rank.
Peaches (39:56):
Peaches recites one of the best quotes of all time.
Aaron (40:23):
Enlisted leaders also need to lead by example.
Trent Is Biased Against Fat People
I blacked out during this portion of the podcast and have no recollection of what was said or not said. -Trent
Aaron (41:54):
Okay, well that seems like a good place to wrap it up today. It's been fun. I'm SrA Love signing off. But seriously guys, thanks for tuning in this week as we talked about those officer enlisted relationships, remember we talked about all those things that you're going to need to interface with that boss, with that officer, but that next line supervisor in order for you guys to work as a command team. So just like Brian said, we're peacocks. You got to let him fly. But overall the officer's in charge or the NCO is in charge and that officer's in command. So once again, thanks for coming back to the team room. I'm going to open it up for some parting shots from the guys. Peaches, what you got?
Peaches (42:39):
I don't have anything but just remember or I don't have anything. Obviously I have something about to say something. I don't have anything but the thing cosmic that I haven't already said. You're your team. Trust each other. Transparency and communicate often.
Trent (42:57):
Get to know each other. You're always going to find something in common. Developing that base relationship that you can build the trust and everything else off of. You just got to spend some time together and get to know each other to build that, to make that team successful.
Aaron (43:12):
Yeah, absolutely. I just want to say thanks for my parting shots. Just thanks to everybody for listening to the podcast. Go rate review. Find us on socials, go to Instagram, go to Facebook, find us at Ones Ready on Apple Podcasts and again, leave us a five star review, put a comment in there, go to the YouTube channel, check out the last a couple of podcasts that we did. They've been great topics and we got some more guests coming out, some more exclusive YouTube content, so make sure to go check out that stuff and I'll turn it over to Brian to close this out.
Wrap Up
Brian (43:38):
All right. Thanks again for everybody listening to the episode. We really appreciate you guys. Just like Aaron was saying, go hit up all those links and we're always here for you guys to help you out and let us know how you're progressing through the pipeline. We always like to hear stories of what's going on and kind of how you guys are implementing some of these things that we're talking about. Because this is a team right here. So today we're talking about officer and enlisted relationships. So in that, in that Avenue, make sure that the officer is the person first of all, show up, ready to go and be the leader on the team and exemplify what you want your people to perform like and then give the direction. Don't micromanage, let the people fail. Let them figure out their left and rights as far as the team. And if you're that enlisted person, you need to know your left and rights and always be in that correct lane where you can be in a defensible position. And you can always say, I'm doing the right thing. I'm trying to help. And you're always busting your butt to make sure that team performs effectively. So, and with that, just to, like Trent was saying, you guys always need to know whether your officer or enlisted and you're in charge of anything, a leadership role, then you need to actually pay attention to your guys, know what they're feeling, know what they're doing, know what you're thinking. Know where everything is supposed to go. Know everyone's job and what kind of place they should be doing. Because just as you work up, like you're a ship captain, you have to know what they're doing on the bottom, low level deck. That way if you give an order, then you can be like, Oh, that's going to probably take him about, you know, 20, 30, 40 minutes or whatever, but be realistic and know that they're trying to learn their jobs. Everyone's trying to learn. So just know a little bit about it but don't micromanage it. The other thing is just like we were talking about with the messing up and showing up, you always want to outperform and do your best to like I said, exemplifies a leadership position. If you guys have any questions or you want to hit us up, you're ready. And that's right now. You can always hit us up at the Instagram or email. We're always there for you guys. So again, thank you for listening to the episode and we will catch you guys on the next one. Train hard.
.
TLDR: WE ALL HAVE DIFFERENT JOBS AS OFFICERS AND ENLISTED FOLKS. COMMUNICATE AND GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER. BUILD TRUST. ACCOMPLISH THE MISSION. TRENT IS GETTING CANCELLED.
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