Quote Originally Posted by Old Eagle View Post
Gotta disagree with the "so easy a caveman could do it" position.
But I don't think that's what I said...

I thought I said ""Advising is not easy but it isn't all that hard, either and ones effectiveness as an advisor is directly related to his currency and subject matter knowledges and abilities.""(emphasis added)
There are a host of reasons why perfectly good officers and NCOs fail miserably when trying to advise others. Some of it has to do with the degree of sophistication required to shift from being a doer and a trainer to being an advisor, and some of it has to do with inter-cultural stuff.
True, no question -- and language...

Plus a lot of it -- failure to do well -- and perhaps even most of it has to do with the attitude and the ego of the Adviser in question but it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to screen for that. Not least because different cultures affect people in odd ways. For example, I did not like one culture I worked with and did like the other while a friend who had experience in the same two nations reversed that.