LETTERS OF INSTRUCTION AND COMMAND COUNSELING SHEETS

approaches for completion of one of the major jobs. Remember the old adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”? Don’t sacrifice seemingly less important jobs that are completed so often you take them for granted. Neglected too long, those sacrificed minor jobs could become the major jobs on your next quarterly schedule. Try to achieve a proper balance between assignments of major and minor jobs to prevent your division from falling behind in task completion. Assign challenging jobs to junior petty officers to help them increase their leadership skills, but be careful not to assign jobs they cannot achieve. Unachievable jobs can make subordinates feel they have failed and interfere with the meeting of your task completion goal. Responsibility Since many evolutions take place within your division at any given time, you need to delegate authority to your subordinates to help you achieve task completion. However, as the work center supervisor, you have the final responsibility for overall task completion. Give subordinates the authority for overseeing jobs involved in completing each task. That will give them a feeling of self-worth, thereby fine- tuning their leadership skills. To delegate authority effectively, assign each petty officer to the job where he or she will do the most good. To develop the leadership abilities of your subordinates and improve the efficiency of your organization, delegate authority to the lowest competent level. Always ensure the authority you delegate corresponds with the duties assigned. COUNSELING Counseling subordinates is the most effective way to inform them of their standing in the division. Counseling on performance and military bearing identifies both the good and bad performers in your division and provides the means to correct any deficiencies. Your division can use three methods of counseling: 1. 2. 3. Generate a letter of Instruction or a command counseling sheet. Make a Page 13 entry in the enlisted service record. Discuss the positive and negative marks on the Enlisted Evaluation Report. LETTERS OF INSTRUCTION AND COMMAND COUNSELING SHEETS Your division officer or division chief generates letters of instruction and command counseling sheets and forwards them up the chain of command for review and possible counseling. A counseling sheet notes a discrepancy, recom- mends a solution to that problem, and provides a follow-up date for reevaluation. A letter of instruction identifies a number of discrepancies individually and gives recommended solutions in addition to dates for reevaluation. Divisions don’t provide this type of counseling as punishment, but rather as a helpful tool to assist personnel with problems. Letters of instruction and command counseling sheets enable the command to solve problems using written guidance. Counseling sheets and letters of instruction are not entered in a member’s service jacket. However, they may be retained in the member’s training jacket or division officer’s notebook as evidence of improvement, PAGE 13 ENTRY IN THE ENLISTED SERVICE RECORD Page 13 is the administrative remarks page of the enlisted service record used to provide a chronological record of significant miscellaneous entries not provided on other pages of the record. You can provide a page 13 entry regarding a subordinate member that reflects good or bad performance or pertains to military bearing. If you provide unfavorable information on page 13, you should have exhausted all other forms of divisional counseling. Always give careful consideration before submitting a page 13 entry for unfavorable actions, even though it is considered counseling. A page 13 entry can be given for favorable performance as well as unfavorable performance and can have a very positive impact on a person’s career. Figure 2-7 illustrates a page 13 entry containing different administrative entries. ENLISTED PERFORMANCE EVALUATION REPORT Counseling is an integral part of the evaluation process and helps to give a performance appraisal the proper perspective and meaning. Counsel subordinates when reviewing their Enlisted 2-8