West Point NCOs Volunteer Counseling Skills to Cadets

For a few minutes, Cow Ezra Swanson was faced with quite a leadership puzzle last week. He hasn't been a platoon leader yet. Still, he took the role of one March 26 for a class project. Swanson also had to compassionately solve a problem about childcare though he has no children of his own.

One of his pretend platoon's noncommissioned officers needed help.

As a single father, the NCO wanted out of charge-of-quarters duty because he didn't have a babysitter.

What was Swanson supposed to tell the Soldier who wanted to complete his duty but also care for his daughter, especially after listening to higher headquarters speak about the importance of Family'

When Swanson gets to his first unit after graduation, he'll have to solve problems just like the childcare one, so he and other cadets taking the U.S. Military Academy Dept. of Behavioral Science and Leadership's military leadership class (PL 300) worked through an NCO counseling lab.

NCOs from across post volunteered to act out counseling scenarios with cadets and provide feedback after mock counseling sessions to help the future lieutenants learn and practice effective counseling and problemsolving skills.

"We teach a couple of blocks about counseling and want the cadets to practice counseling someone else," Maj. Darcy Schnack, PL 300 instructor, said. "The cadets don't normally get a lot of time with NCOs, so we thought asking for volunteers and having the cadets counsel actual NCOs would help the cadets learn from these professionals."

This year also is the Army's Year of the NCO, which places special recognition on the knowledge and experience in the professional NCO corps.

Sergeant Joshua Plouffe, a medic who portrayed the Soldier with a childcare conundrum for Swanson's lab, helped Swanson understand that most Soldiers want to do their jobs, but sometimes, circumstances take their attention elsewhere.

Each cadet in PL 300 received a few sentences describing their lab's scenario and had to discover the root of the challenge by chatting with the NCO they counseled.

Swanson knew Plouffe's character didn't want to fulfill his portion of the CQ roster. He knew about the childcare problem. But from there, he had to find a solution that helped everyone.

Unfortunately, Swanson made an incorrect promise. If Plouffe's make-believe daughter could not be enrolled in adequate childcare, his character no longer had to do CQ. But that was the lab's whole point-learning effective counseling.

"You gave up too quickly on not having to do CQ," Plouffe told Swanson during the lab's after-action review.

"Make the person feel like a part of the team and not like they are putting the burden on their battle buddies." Swanson was delighted he could learn from his mistake and from wise NCOs.

"It's important to have this feedback," Swanson said. "These NCOs have been through this already and can give us good feedback on what makes a good counselor."

Cow John Gibson, like Swanson, also made a couple of rookie mistakes in his counseling lab during which he had to find out why a Soldier seemed to no longer be part of the team.

"This (lab) is really helpful because we are going to have tocounsel (as lieutenants), but if we do it the right way, we'll be more effective," Gibson said. "The trust will be there, and when things get tough, our Soldiers will be more willing to get the job done."

Gibson's scenario involved a seasoned Soldier who seemed to no longer care. After some careful questioning, he discovered the NCO, played by Master Sgt. Jeffery Mays, was tired of infantry tasks.

The NCO had recently reenlisted to be an artilleryman, was tired of being an infantryman and wanted "to blow stuff up," Mays, tactical NCO for Company A-3, said. Still, his new unit required infantry tasks.

"They told me I could drive around in this cool gun and blow stuff up," Mays said in character. "Now you've got me riding around in the same Humvee doing the same stuff."

Gibson initially said he'd try to get this NCO reassigned, but as Mays explained that's hardly feasible, the two worked together to determine the best solution to the problem.

Mays praised Gibson's and Swanson's ability to find the root of the problem by demonstrating a key part of good leadership--truly caring about the Soldiers in their charge.

Mays and Plouffe volunteered to help with the lab because they know being in the Army has given them experience they can share with the cadets.

"I'm not sure cadets get to see enough from our side of the spectrum," Plouffe said. "More enlisted interaction should help them be more well-rounded when they graduate."

Cow Zack Enlow was thrilled with the opportunity to learn from NCOs.

"This is valuable even though it's pretend," he said after working through a scenario with Sgt. 1st Class Eric Stafslien, TAC NCO for Company F-1. "We get to interact with NCOs, and that is going to make us better in the long run."