When a Company Commander and First Sergeant work well together, their unit is like a well oiled machine.  Things run smoothly.  And, morale is high.  On the contrary, when the command team relationship doesn't work properly, it negatively affects the entire unit.

In my opinion, there are four major reasons the command team relationship struggles.  They include: undefined roles, weak leadership, micro-management and personality differences.  We will cover them in more detail below.

Undefined Roles: From day one, I told my First Sergeant to stay in his lane and that I would stay in mine.  More importantly, we sat down together and determined what his responsibilities were and what mine were.  It made life that much easier.  For instance, my responsibility was mission planning, collective training and leader development.  The First Sergeant handled individual training, Solider issues, and administration.  From time-to-time, we occasionally drifted, but kept each other in check.  This helped our command team relationship work well.

Weak Leadership: If either the First Sergeant or Company Commander is weak, or unwilling to do their job (such as enforce the standards), the command team relationship will struggle.  Both the First Sergeant and the Company Commander need to be strong leaders.  They must be willing to make tough decisions and on-the-spot corrections.  There’s nothing worse than seeing a First Sergeant or Company Commander walk by a problem without correcting it.

Micro-Managing: You see it all the time in the military and in the corporate world.  Micro-management.  I hate it.  Micro-management is when you try to do someone’s job for them.  Either you think you can do it better or you do not trust that person’s capabilities.  Either way, micro-management is poor leadership.  If you truly think someone is incompetent, replace them with someone else.   Form a strong command team relationship and you won't need to micromanage.

Personality Differences: I call this the clash of the type “A” personalities.  Sometimes, a Commander and First Sergeant simply can’t get along.  Maybe they have similar personalities.  Or, maybe they just have different beliefs about how things should be done.  Either way, this needs to be remedied fast.
Key leaders must set aside their personality differences to make the command team relationship work.

These are the four major reasons some command team relationships don’t work.

Throughout my fifteen years of service, I’ve seldom seen a command team that didn’t work well together.  Most of the time, the Company Commander and First Sergeant put their personal differences aside, for the greater good of their unit.

In cases where that didn’t happen, one or both of them were relieved.  Now, I don’t want that to happen to you.  If you have a great command team relationship, keep moving forward.  But, if you are struggling with your First Sergeant or Company Commander, the two of you need to sit down and have a heart-to-heart talk.

Chances are you are violating one of my four rules above.  Try to figure out what the problem is.  Be honest with each other.  If you truly can’t work things out, consider talking with the Command Sergeant Major, Battalion Executive Officer or Battalion Commander.

Do whatever you need to do to ensure your command team relationship succeeds.

Learn more about Command Team Relationships in my Company Command eBook