Back to the Future...Again

Measuring What Matters in NCO Development

Sergeant Major of the Army (SMA) Michael Weimer recently proposed a transformative shift in how we promote enlisted Soldiers by making military skill set testing the primary metric for advancement. ¹ While this concept may strike some as bold or radical, it feels more like a return to fundamentals for those of us who’ve been around a while.

I’m not a member of the Senior Enlisted Council, but I’ve spent my career closely tracking Army doctrine and advocating for the development of our Noncommissioned Officers (NCOs)². I recall when the Army previously implemented a similar concept: the Skills Qualification Test (SQT). Though short-lived, it was, in my view, a forward-thinking initiative that may be even more relevant today than it was then.

A modernized combination of written and practical testing could be a critical tool for assessing a leader’s readiness and technical proficiency. How else can we meaningfully evaluate whether our leaders understand their profession? Can we genuinely expect Soldiers to regularly “hit the books” without a structured mechanism to hold them accountable?

The Army’s three learning domains, institutional, operational, and self-development, each play a unique role in leader development. Institutional training provides the foundational knowledge; operational assignments deliver real-world applications, but the self-development domain ties everything together. A leader’s growth is at risk without self-directed study and doctrinal literacy. Reading, reflecting, and refining one’s understanding of the profession is not a luxury; it’s a duty.

Testing should not be viewed as punitive or outdated. I’ve done it. My peers did it. And today’s Soldiers are equally capable of rising to the occasion. We say we want competence and credibility in our ranks, so let’s measure it.

As the SMA succinctly asked at the recent AUSA Global Force Symposium, “What’s more important, 60 credit hours of online self-study from your online university, or the data point of how good you are at your current job?” “I think we all know the answer to that.”

CSM (Ret.) Lance Lehr

Executive Director, IamNCO

Notes

“SMA Weimer on Changing the Promotion System,” Army Times, accessed April 3, 2025, https://www.stripes.com/branches/army/2025-03-28/army-enlisted-promotion-tests-17286340.html.

I Am NCO, Trustees, accessed April 3, 2025, https://iamnco.org/