Looking for some serious advice about being an NCO
First, greetings to all the Marines on this board who may read or reply to this thread, I really appreciate what advice you might have to offer.
I'm currently a Lance Cpl, I've been an E-3 for coming up on two years, and very soon I'm slated to pin Corporal chevrons on. I've been aiming for this since I first earned my crossed rifles, and I realize what an honor and a responsibility it is to become an NCO, especially in such a small, specialized, and competitive organization like the US Marine Corps.
My situation is this. For all but the last week of the time I've spent as an E-3, I've been under a command that is seriously lacking in quality leaders. For 2+ years, I served directly under everything from Cpls to SSgts, and I never once felt that I had a good role model to learn how to lead Marines from. In all this time, I even saw a number of these NCOs and SNCOs get court marshaled and sepped from the Corps for some really low and unforgivable things.
As I progressed in seniority and became closer to becoming an NCO, I was made a fireteam leader and later, a squad leader, but throughout all that time I always felt I was very much a sub-par leader to my Marines. I simply didn't know how to lead them, and my leaders didn't know how to lead me. I'm at a new command now, and my leadership here is leagues better than before. A lot of the guys and gals I was in charge of before are here with me, but for a small number of technical reasons I'm being promoted before them.
So here I am, about to be once again given seniority over a large number of Marines who have already seen how I lead, and who I suspect have no great expectations for me. Many of them are naturally charismatic and just fit the mold better, but I'm the one who the torch is being passed to. I want nothing more than to live up to the challenge, but I know some guys are bitter that they aren't picking up when I am.
I don't make any claim that this isn't largely my own shortcoming, but I do feel somewhat handicapped by the examples I've had to learn from. I have two questions for anyone who's been in my position before or feels that their time as an NCO, SNCO, or higher may relate to me here. First, how did you overcome this kind of obstacle? Secondly, how do you take the reputation you have among your fellow Marines and earn respect for your improvement instead of having them believe you're just on a power trip because you've been promoted? I want to be a strong leader, but I want to do it humbly. My weakness now lies in that I just don't know how to combine charisma and humility. Apologies for rambling. I've lost some sleep over this lately. Advice?