What makes a good officer vs. a bad officer in your experience?

Question

Are there really that many bad officers out there?

Answer 1

The difference is when they first get commissioned. When an officer first starts his career, he needs to heed the advise of his senior enlisted. They have been doing the job for many years prior to the butter bar getting out of grade school. They have a lot of knowledge and are willing to share it. Those who listen seem to me to have more respect from the troops and later become a great officer. Those who come in with the attitude that they are commissioned and everyone else is not, are arrogant and have no respect.

Answer 2

Yes, yes, yes...there are 'bad' officers out there as well as 'bad' anybody (whatever profession) and there are good officers (and other good people in their professions) I think that our society has been so heavily mauled by the negative reports we hear about others that our faith in people has wained. A police officer is supposed to be a servant of the public. But it seems that the friendly days where you can call for help from an officer and receive assurance and respectful treatment have long gone. I think a lot depends on 1) the chief 2) the people in the town 3) the media 4) how difficult the relationships have been between officer and people. The more negatiave we hear about what the bad police are doing, the less likely we are to receive and believe the good ones. In my community, our churches have been working with the police departments to help ensure basic and decent treatment of the people they stop, and more public announcements from the police in an otherwise less threatening position have helped to bridge the gap. I have never been mistreated by an officer however, I do know of other incidents where others have. A good officer will always try to remember that he got 'into the business' because he wanted to help the public. Some of them have more access to drugs, and they take full advantage of the business of harboring and looting and keeping that stuff. Our society is sick. There are people who would kill a policeman as to look at them. There is a lack of respect of the law and the enforcers of the law. The ones who have gone astray are probably hurting, disallusioned, disappointed, distraught, feeling not respected and unfortunately, fall into divers places and do the wrong thing.

Answer 3

Officer who do not listen to their noncom will often find themselves in trouble because anyone who have serve knows the non com run the unit. If Officer aren't willing to accept advice they might find it a only place at the top. If the Officer just shouts out orders and has no idea what hes is talking about he will look foolish and will loose respect
Example: Three nights into Desert Storm someone saw an income SCUD yelled incoming everyone except the Commander went to MOPP4 the highest level of chemical protection when the blast/intercept was over(sonic boom rattle building) and after the all clear was given he came out of his room and yelled at us for not telling him to put on his chemical suit.
Do you think anyone respect him?

I spent a total of 20 years boy do I have the stories. Yes there are a few good ones but I seen my share of bad ones.

Answer 4

I would say trust, competence and patience. Without competence, you can never believe in the leadership a person presents. Without patience, you don't give subordinates enough opportunity to develop or instill trust. And without trust there can be no loyalty. You add all that together with the single greatest attribute an officer can have, common sense, and you will be dealing with a true bona fide leader of men and women.

I don't know that there are that MANY bad officers out there, but I do know that there ARE bad officers out there. In general, I'd say much more good than bad. Best you can do with the bad ones are to support them the best you can and survive to work with better officers and remember your experiences with them as things NOT to do.

Answer 5

For what is is worth... (famous last words I know)... My Dad told me that a good officer takes care of his troops and realizes they are why he or she is in the position they are.
My Dad said one of the best officers he ever served under before he became an officer was a West Pointer who was stuck in his rank of Major because of alcoholism. He said that one of the soldiers in their unit kept going AWOL because he wanted to see his family in Milwaukee (they were at Ft. Lewis Washington) and the officer took up a collection to move the guy's family there and made up the difference in cost himself.
Now that is a good officer. There are good officers, bad officers, and many inbetween that are neither particularly good nor, particularly bad.
I think a big part of it is a passion for what you do, some people have it and most don't.
Don't ever assume because someone has a bar on their shoulder that it is a chip, although for some it is.

Answer 6

The ones that just think of there self and the career and not of the others. The good officer are the ones that look out for all.

Answer 7

Good officer- Maintains a professional, disciplined demeanor. Gives wide discretion to competent NCO's, but still provides oversight and guidance when appropriate. Sincerely cares about the well-being of his troops and will lead by example, even if it envolves rubbing elbows with or doing the work of enlisted men from time to time.

Bad officer- Tries to be a "buddy", instead of a leader. Micromanages matters that should be left to NCO's. Lacks basic proficiency in common tasks. Believes that enlisted men are incapable of independent thought or behaving responsibly, even when the evidence proves otherwise.

I haven't run across many bad officers, but even one is too many in my opinion.

Answer 8

The Difference in a good vs bad officer is in how they treat and most importantly LISTEN to their enlisted troops.

The most junior officer is still a higher rank than the most senior enlisted man. However that junior officer has almost no real experiance whereas the senior enlisted has somewhere between 10 to 20 years of experiance. Any good officer will listen to the advice of his Chief (or Sargent, if not Navy).

In a technical environment an Officer has to listen even to his junior troops when it comes to information. An Officer makes decisions, but to make the right decision he has to have the right info. That info comes from the enlisted men manning the consoles.

We were conducting an exercise in CIC one day simulating being over in the Persian Gulf. We were briefed to expect anything. one thing specifically though was that sometime later a CNN news helicopter would do a flyover to get some stock film footage of ships at sea.
Very early on we got a radar contact on a low/slow contact. no IFF. Evaluated as a possible Helo based on flight profile. a few minutes later I (standing watch on the Electronic warfare console) got indications of an ORB-32 Fire control radar on the same bearing as the Helo. I evaluated the unknown Helo as a Super Puma or Allouette III Iraqi Helo based on the FCR radar. I advised AAWC of this and added that both of those Helo's are capable of carrying the Exocet Anti-ship missile. I was an E-2 at the time. the AAWC (Anti-Air Warfare Coordinator) was an O-1 Ensign new to the ship. BEcause of the briefing, This ensign decided that the first helo we got just had to be that CNN chopper we were told about. It didnt matter to him that we had no IFF on the Helo (As we would if it was a civilian chopper) or that they were lighting us up with a military fire control radar that a News Chopper would not have. That contact was a Civilian HElo and that was the end of story. He refused to listen to my information and even told me to be quiet when I insisted.

Well to make a long story short. Our ship was "killed" that day by two Exocet missiles fired from only 9 nautical miles out. Even though I intercepted the Missile seekers We had no time to react from 9 miles. it was over in seconds.

During debrief with the training instructors, they pointed out we failed due to a breakdown in communications. I pointed out I was trying to communicate the info. The instructors agreed.

After the debrief the Ensign Cornered me and started chewing me out for making him look bad during the Debrief. I told him the Difference between an E2 and an O1 was that I have been promoted at least once. I was sent up to Captains mast for disrespect to an officer. The XO who was also part of the training and also witnessed the Ensign chewing me out, dismissed the charges.

To be a good officer you have to listen to the technical input from your enlisted manning the consoles and the advice of your senior enlisted with long years of experiance in the Navy. ( Or any branch of service)

Answer 9

The answer is quite easy. There is no good or bad officer. The problem with this is leading. Leadership is not a thing that you learn at school. Leadership is like a gift. We need leader aroung here, officer or not, politician or not, teacher or whatever, but please we need leadership. Anyway, to answer your question, a bad officer is someone with no leadership, those shouldn't be officers. Officer's got to be a leader. LEADERSHIP

Answer 10

Good officer motivate their troops and lead by example.
They listen to the non-coms and don't dismiss their experience.

Bad officer think since they are an officer they don't have to listen to non-coms and demand repsect. They aren't good examples.
They give orders to push troops and not lead.

As a corpsman with Marines I would give officers like that 90 days before they be kill.
My bother also a corpsman in Nam said the same thing.