Trent Burnard

This week on the WarriorU Podcast, we welcome former member of the Australian Army and long-time friend of host Bram Connolly, Trent Burnard. We will hear about his decades of experience in combat training, structures and situations.

This episode we’ll discuss a range of topics relating to platoon leadership, including leading as a brand-new platoon commander, relationships with Senior NCO’s and their wider impact within a platoon as a leader.

 Episode Highlights:

• Leading as a brand-new platoon commander.
• The wider impacts of such leadership within a platoon.
• Platoon Sergeant and senior NCO’s.
• The role of Platoon Sergeant and Senior NCO’s.
• The difference between operational and life experience.
• High speed and low speed of Senior NCO’s.
• The rules of the Platoon Sergeant’s leadership and listening to advice.
• Soldiers themselves are an eclectic mix of fitness levels, standards, professionalism, personalities and enthusiasm.
• The role is a relationship job and needs to understand this.
• Development management and high-performance culture.

3 Key Points:

1. The role of a senior NCO.
2. It is a relationship job and knowing your soldiers is essential.
3. The importance of counselling skills.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “As the commander, your job is to assess the information before you, and that includes the advice of your senior NCOs” – Trent Burnard
• “Being a Platoon Commander is a relationships job” – Trent Burnard
• “Counselling is so important and it needs to be done correctly.” – Trent Burnard

Resources Mentioned:

• WarriorU Podcast 
• Hindsight Leadership and Resilience

Credits:

Podcast Produced by Pretty Podcasts