If there are any Marine DI’s or Army Drill Sgts on the forum, I could use some help. I am a former Army sergeant (no Drill Sgt experience) and I am dealing with what we will call a “unique leadership challenge”. Need some advice on how to handle it.
Without going into a ton of detail, let’s just say I’m dealing with the inevitable platoon full of morons. They’ve been together almost 8 weeks now, and are still acting like day one dopes. No internal leadership, no teamwork, no drive…you know the kind of platoon I’m refering to, I’m sure.
I know the training model we have been using is solid, and has worked on every other platoon / class we have had. Any advice on how to deal with a truly dysfunctional group would be appreciated…or any resources you can point me towards (i.e.; leadership programs, etc.)
I was never a Drill either. But I did take over a squad of supposed rejects who had been led by a guy who might or might not show up before nine. Missed pt almost everyday and generally smelled of booze.
I thought to myself how challenging this would be. But by crushing them for about a month. Smoking their asses daily in pt. And training them daily while the rest of the squads were sitting on their asses they turned into the best damn airborne infantry squad I have ever seen. Those boys had an average pt score of over 290 in about six months and won many platoon and company challenges.
I did nothing except remove the memories of the previous leadership and get them to understand they could either enjoy the Army by maximizing their potential or they could hate it by just getting by and looking attheir watches until COB. I also empowered the team leaders to be personally responsible for the behavior of the boys. And was not above crushing a team leader when his boys messed up or he failed to provide adequate leadership.
You might think they would hate me. And I have no doubt they did for awhile. But once they became the envy of the company and their buddies were wanting to come to the squad because of how good they did and were getting visably rewarded for doing so well. They becane a very tight knit group.
The 18 months I spent with those supposed rejects turned out to be the best 18 months of a nine year career. I have been removed from them for years now and still think of them daily and correspond with half of them regularly.
So to answer your question. Crush their nuts for making a mistake. Empower the leaders to actually lead. Never let them sit idly. And be the best damn example posssible. If you are failing in any manner as an example you lose all credability.