It’s about service. I constantly battle with this one with NCOs and sometimes even junior staff.
‘What powers do I have as an NCO?’ NO, NO, NO! Ask yourself, ‘what can I do to make CCF better for the junior cadets I’m looking after?’ If you answer that question (and all cadet NCOs were once a junior cadet) then you’ve won half the battle; and if the junior cadets can see that is where you are coming from, they will respect you and forgive you for your mistakes in doing it.
Of course, that applies to senior vs junior staff, too.
its two things, its integrity, and its serve to lead.
as a cadet NCO your purpose is to enable those cadets in your care to both enjoy their time, and to get as much out of it as possible.
they aren’t going to enjoy what might be their first ever night spent away from home at a sector/wing AT camp if their Cpl/Sgt/FS/CWO jumps off the bus and spends the next four hours chatting and flirting with his/her colleagues from other Sqn’s instead of sorting the cadets out into their rooms/tents, making sure everyone knows where to go and when to be there, helping them sort their gear out and just being a friendly face and a reasuring voice in a big, new, possibly frigtening world. the cadets under your care aren’t going to get the most out of a fantastic opportunity to do a weekend of fieldcraft training and exercises on 40,000 acres of DTE training area if, in early march, some of them have done barely any basic expedition training, and their cadet NCO’s wander off into a corner to cook breakfast leaving untrained cadets out in the wind and snow of the Brecon Beacons.
the second one applies to VR(T) and SNCO (ATC) as well. (sorry, i’m still venting about that…).
I can’t add to what has already been said but can say, at my Squadron, we do have the very best NCO’s.
The staff have gone out of their way to mentor and create a standard by which the rest of the cadets follow. I’m not sure if this is possible in your unit but having a good age spread of cadet NCO’s helps but each one needs a role to do on Squadron that a) maintains a good chain of command b) helps the staff and c) allows them to grow as a leader. Obviously this is easy words to type but the organisation of a unit from the top down will create the standards you are looking for.
Thank you to everyone who was replied! Quite a lot of good points that are definetly worth thinking about.
I may even bring up some of these suggestions to my WO or at least CO to see what can be done regarding some not-so-dandy happenings/people that are pretty much ruining it for everyone.
Ain’t gonna name anyone when talking to the officers but the suggestions will definetly be welcome since the officers themselves have asked for suggestions regarding the improvement of current NCO leadership.
Again, many thanks to everyone that has contributed!
They were VR(T) and SNCO(ATC) when the particular incident occurred, and I know using the terms winds up people who give the slightest credence to anything that comes out of the idiot box, so I do it for a bite…