Episode 70: Character, Presence, Intellect: The Triple Threat of Army Leadership

Ever wondered what truly separates good leaders from great ones in the Army? Forget the stereotypes about badge-heavy uniforms and drill sergeant voices. The secret lies in mastering three fundamental leadership attributes: character, presence, and intellect.

In this eye-opening episode, we dive deep into the foundations of Army leadership according to AR 623-3 and DA PAM 623-3, breaking down what these attributes actually mean in practical terms. Character isn't just about Army values—it's about building trust and accountability while maintaining empathy and discipline. Presence goes beyond looking sharp in uniform—it's about embodying professionalism, fitness, confidence, and resilience in everything you do. As SMA Weimer puts it, "audio has to match the visual." And intellect? That's your problem-solving ability, innovative thinking, sound judgment, and tactical expertise in action.

What makes this episode especially valuable is the actionable advice for documenting these attributes on your NCOER. We share concrete examples of powerful bullets for each attribute—bullets that demonstrate both quantitative metrics and qualitative impact. Whether you're preparing for your next evaluation or mentoring junior NCOs, these insights will help you showcase not just your performance, but your potential. Because at the end of the day, the Army promotes based on what you're capable of becoming, not just what you've already done.

Ready to elevate your leadership game and stand out in your next evaluation? Listen now, share with your team, and remember: you don't have to embrace the suck if you've got the right tools in your ruck.

Chapters

• 0:00 What Makes a Great NCO?
• 1:21 Character: The Ethical Foundation
• 4:32 Presence: How You Carry Yourself
• 8:48 Intellect: Problem-Solving and Innovation
• 11:43 Building Your Leadership Resume
• 12:51 Episode Closing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Alright, listen up, I'm gonna need you guys to follow me right quick. Do you want to know what separates a good NCO from a great NCO? Do you want to know what actually makes a leader worth following? Maybe someone that earns trust, someone that commands respect, someone that actually gets results? The answer to the Army is not about how many badges you wear, how loud you can yell. It's about the Army's core leadership attributes, and those are character, presence and intellect. So those aren't just like your regular old, like I don't know how they say, like buzzwords or whatever it is. They're literally the foundation of every successful NCOER, every promotion and every mission success.

Speaker 1: 0:46

So welcome back to the Roger Sarnt Podcast, where we talk all things Army and I'm your host, sarnt Cruz, and today we're diving into three Army leadership attributes and I'm going to break down what they actually mean. I'm going to break them down according to 623-3 and DAPAM 623-3 and what it expects from you and how you can document them in your NCOER in order for you to stand out a lot more than the rest. And stick around, because I got some bullets at least three bullets per section to help you crush your next evaluation. So, first off, we're going to start off with character, and character is nothing other than our foundation of what ethical leadership is. It means just do the right thing. It means holding up the army values. At the same time, you're finding a way to build trust with the troops. Yeah, so if you look at an NCOER support form and you scroll down to the bottom not the first page, not the second page, but the third and the fourth, the third and the fourth page they're going to have a layout with everything that you need to know on how to guide you to come up with these bullets. But I'm going to give you the crash course version and then, in a future video, what I'll do is I'll bring up a support form and I'll fill it out. We can fill it out together so you can see how it works.

Speaker 1: 2:19

So it starts off with the army values, and we all know the army values is leadership spelled out. Another bullet point is empathy. Then another bullet point after that is warrior ethos and discipline. So I'm gonna give you some examples so you can have an idea of what this section should look like, right, and what to focus on. So the first bullet that I have is a mix of Sharp and EO, especially if you're rating an NCO that has those qualifiers, it's going to help them a lot and it'll also I mean, it's a mandatory bullet at the end of the day but it'll also show that they're acting in that capacity.

Speaker 1: 3:11

So for that one, bullet number one is going to be lead sharp training for 125 soldiers with 100% completion, reinforced unit climate of dignity and respect, reducing EO complaints by 60%. And you see, if you notice how I took and I mashed Sharpen EO into one bullet, and I also made it quantitative and qualitative, qualitative, yeah. So you have to do that in order to have the best impact for a bullet. Bullet number two held self and team accountable to Army values, mentored three junior NCOs on ethical dilemmas, resulting in two successful early promotions. Again, I have what I did and I have the impact of it and on who it actually impacted. Bullet number three consistently demonstrated empathy and respect during crisis counseling, helped two soldiers seek behavioral health and return to duty. So, if you can see, it has a mixture of the leadership, the empathy, the discipline and the warrior ethos all mashed up in those three bullets, which captures that section.

Speaker 1: 4:35

And because that's a mandatory bullet that you have to have for Sharpen EO. It's the basics right. You learn the army values in basic training. You learn the warrior ethos in basic training. So if you can be successful at the basics, next you'll need to work on your presence. So presence itself is all about how you carry yourself. It's all about how you display yourself in front of others, in front of your leaderships, in front of your peers.

Speaker 1: 5:07

And this one has four bullets it's military and professional bearing, it's fitness, confidence and resilience. And Sergeant Major of the Army Weimer said it really good in one of the interviews that he has. He says audio has to match the visual, audio has to match the visual. I did a reaction video to that said interview and I'll ping it up here somewhere so you can click on it. But how you show up every single day nice uniform, haircut, nails, clean, uh, boots, bloused and looking semi-fit. You know you don't got to be going to the gym like a gym nut, but you got to look the part right. And this is all part of that section. And to drive the point home a little further, I'm gonna give you guys some example. Bullets right, just as promised. So bullet number scored 545 on ACFT led morning PT sessions. Weekly increased squad pass rate from 70 to 100% in 90 days. So if you're writing this for the AFT, then adjust as needed. But as you can see, I worked on myself, I worked on the squad which works on the platoon. I worked on the squad which works on the platoon Okay.

Speaker 1: 6:34

Number two maintained impeccable appearance and command presence during BCT inspection, recognized by Brigade Command Sergeant Major for professionalism. Again, when you have what we call the dog and pony, show, show up, everyone's going gonna look good, the command hallway is gonna be all swept and mopped and buffed and all that cool stuff. But when you have an inspection by a set individual and you show up and show out, typically they'll recognize you and that's in some form of either a coin, it can be a AM certificate, whatever it, even a handshake, but it's still a recognition, a shout out. All that gets captured on the NCOER Bullet. Number three demonstrated mental resilience during 18-day field operation led platoon despite adverse weather and 60% equipment failure rate. Think about that Everyone goes to the field, there's bad weather and a lot of times there's a lot of equipment that fails. If you can still work through that and have a successful field operation, you're doing your job and you're making everyone else's job a lot easier, and some of them you're making it harder because you're showing that it can't be done. So it's a double-edged sword.

Speaker 1: 8:05

But I do have a question for you guys, though. Have you guys been taught by your leaders this, what I'm doing right now? If, if you were taught, were you taught before or after you earned your stripes? Do me a favor and drop that in the comments below. Do me another favor and like and subscribe, share, um, if you're on the podcast, download, leave a five-star review.

Speaker 1: 8:31

Be the resource you wish. Yeah, be the resource you wish you had when you were a junior soldier. And so, speaking of resources, you can show how you use yours with the next attribute, which is intellect. So intellect in itself is your ability to solve problems, be innovative and stay sharp. So there are a few ways that you can crush this section, to be honest with you, and you got to understand what they are, what the bullet points are, in order for you to crush them, and the first one is mental agility. Then you have sound judgment, then you have innovation, then you have interpersonal tact, and then you have expertise, and, like I said before, here are some bullets that I'm giving you guys. I'm no expert at it, but here are some bullets nevertheless.

Speaker 1: 9:28

Number one created a new med log tracker, reducing supply losses by 35%, and was adopted across four battalions. So you made your section better. Reduced losses, which losses means money, so you saved the army money and on top of that, four other battalions thought it was so good. They also took it. Impact qualitative and quantitative Get it.

Speaker 1: 9:53

Number two displayed sound judgment during a live fire, emergency, evacuated casualty and adjusted mission without loss of momentum. Now you're like well, there's no numbers there, there's none of that nature. If you've been to any range, if you've been to any type of training event, the last thing a commander wants to do is have a stoppage. And if you can take care of any casualty, especially a real world casualty, and that range not shut down, you've done something. Okay, you've done something really good because you saved them time, because everything you shut that range down for four or five hours, you can lose sunlight or daylight and now you have to move that table to another day, so it puts you behind. So that's the impact on that Okay.

Speaker 1: 10:57

Number three trained 15 soldiers on tactical combat casualty care, which is known as TC3, resulted in four soldiers qualifying as CLS providers during JROTC rotation. Now, as you're doing a rotation, right, you already know that there's a lot of stuff going on and on top of that you manage to train soldiers and now those soldiers can go sit at said ranges and now it's less manpower that you're using from your platoon. So the attributes of character, presence and intellect are all important because they reflect who you are, what you lead with and how you're judged. When it counts and that's your NCOER you can do whatever you want, but when that pen hits the paper it has to show who you are, what your performance is and what your potential is right who you are, what your performance is and what your potential is right. And the army itself promotes off of potential, which is why the senior raider bullet is so heavily weighted. Okay, so they're going to see what you do and they're going to see what you're capable of, and all of this time you're building that resume. So when it goes to a decentralized promotion board, you they can see who you are as a troop, the full soldier concept, right, and that's how they make their decision.

Speaker 1: 12:28

So do me a favor share this with your senior specialists, share this with your nco so they can also lead with a purpose and never stop developing, because that's my goal. And if you found this video helpful, check out my other video that I have on the ncoer support form and it'll pin somewhere around here. And remember you don't have to embrace the suck if you got the right tools in your rug. I'm sarn cruz and I'll see you in the next one. You can fall out now. Peace.