7 Habits--Put First Things First

In this chapter, Covey talks about how prioritizing and putting effort towards what is truly important is both a vital and rare skill.  What struck me in this chapter as being relevant to ROTC and the military was his differentiation between leadership and management.

"While leadership decides what 'first things' are, it is management that puts them first, day-by-day, moment by moment.  Management is the discipline of carrying it out."

This really reminded me of the duties of the officer and NCO teams.  The officer is the leadership aspect of the team, concerned with putting the first things first, making sure that the platoon has its mission priorities clearly in order.  The NCO is responsible for disseminating those priorities to the platoon and ensuring that the mission is carried out.  The officer provides the vision and desired endstate, and it is up to the NCO to make sure that action is taken to make those reality.

Understanding the difference between officer and NCO roles is a vital part of our training and careers.  It is also at times difficult to concretely separate the responsibilities.  But this distinction between leadership and management parallels the officer/NCO relationship and I think it is a good summary of the team's different responsibilities.