Senior Non-commissioned Defence Force Members
Implement and enforce directives of commissioned officers of the Australian Defence Forces.
Thursday before the inspection
You are a sergeant running a section of new soldiers at a training depot, with an inspection by the company commander tomorrow morning. It is 5:30am. Your section has a full day of drill ahead and one last chance to get ready for tomorrow. Three people need something from you before breakfast.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
Sergeant, Private Dunn's boots are still not up to standard, and that is the third day running. He says he ran out of time. Do you want me to put him on a charge or let it go?
Let it go, because the inspection is tomorrow and the section needs every soldier on side
Dunn is relieved, but the others saw the boots too. Next morning one of them asks why the rule only counts for some people. A standard that bends when it is inconvenient stops being a standard.
Put him on a charge straight away so everyone sees the rule is the rule
The message is clear, but Dunn is angry and embarrassed before a big day. You never found out why he kept running out of time, and that might have been the real problem.
Talk to Dunn first, find out why, then set a clear deadline with a consequence
He has been taking extra duties for a friend who is struggling. You hold the standard, fix the boots by lunchtime and sort out the duty roster. He feels heard and so does the rest of the section.
Sergeant, can I speak to you privately? I do not want to make a fuss, but I got some news from home last night and I am finding it hard to concentrate on the drill today.
Listen properly, tell her who can help her, and ask what she needs to get through the day
She talks for a few minutes and it clearly helps. You point her to the welfare officer and agree she will do lighter tasks this morning. She does not feel like a problem, and she is back in the section by lunch.
Tell her everyone has bad news sometimes and she needs to push through until the inspection is over
She nods and says nothing more. On parade she makes a mistake that costs the section, and you realise she was asking for help, not for toughness. Pressure on a section is a reason to check on people, not to skip it.
Send her to the welfare officer straight away and get on with the morning's drill
She gets proper support, which is good. But she came to you, and she walks away feeling passed along. A few minutes of listening first would have made the handover feel safe.
Sergeant, I need an honest read of the section before the inspection. Are they ready? I will pass what you say up the line, so tell me straight.
Say they are fully ready, so the lieutenant looks good and nobody worries
The lieutenant reports confidence upward. At inspection two soldiers are caught out on something you knew was weak, and he asks why he was not told. Officers can only make good decisions on honest information.
Give a clear summary: strong on drill, uneven on kit, two people who need support and your plan for each
The lieutenant thanks you, adjusts the order of the inspection and arranges extra time for kit. Telling your officer the true picture is part of your job.
List every small problem the section has, in detail, so nothing is left out
He gets the full picture but cannot tell what matters most, and the conversation takes twenty minutes you did not have. An officer needs the priorities as well as the facts.
How it went
The inspection goes well enough, and you finish the day tired and a little proud. As a senior non-commissioned member you carry orders down and honest information up, while looking after real people in between. Which part of that would you find easiest, and which hardest?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The sergeant who noticed the quiet one
A fictional case set in a fictional army training depot, working between the officers and a section of new soldiers.
The situation
Sergeant Priya Menon ran a section of twelve new soldiers at the Kestrel Ridge training depot. Three weeks in, one of them, Private Joel Nguyen, had gone from the fastest in the section to barely speaking. His drill was still sharp and he never complained. The platoon commander wanted the section ready for an inspection on Friday, and the easy view was that Joel was fine because his work was fine.
What they did
Priya did not wait for a problem to appear on paper. She asked Joel to help her carry equipment to the store, where it was quiet, and said she had noticed he seemed flat. He told her about trouble at home. She did not try to fix it herself. She made sure he knew who the chaplain and the welfare officer were, told the platoon commander only what was needed, and arranged for him to make a call on Thursday evening.
How it turned out
Joel took the call, passed the inspection with the rest of the section and stayed in the training course. Some of his problems at home took months to settle. Priya later said that enforcing standards and looking after people were the same job done at different speeds.
What would you do?
- Why might someone who is doing everything right still need a check-in?
- How would you decide what to pass up to an officer and what to keep private?
- How hard would it be to enforce a rule on someone you respect?