NCOER Develops Bullet Examples: 9 Bullets With the Tier Reasoning Shown
Develops is the block boards read to find out whether an NCO builds other NCOs: and it’s the block most raters pad with “counseled Soldiers monthly” and move on. These nine examples come with the reasoning underneath: why each one reads as Met, Exceeded, or Far Exceeded under DA PAM 623-3 ¶3-11a: so you learn the calibration, not just the sentence.
I’ve spent twenty years on the rating chain. This is the Develops installment of the series that started with the Achieves examples post: real bullets at every tier, with the paragraph-level reasoning shown.
// 01What the Develops block measures
The NCOER’s Part IV blocks follow FM 6-22’s Leadership Requirements Model: three attributes and three competencies. Develops is the Part IV-f entry, and FM 6-22’s framing table for the competency (Table 2-7) gives it four components: Creates a Positive Environment / Fosters Esprit de Corps, Prepares Self, Develops Others, and Stewards the Profession.
Two of those get ignored on most reports. Prepares Self means the NCO’s own growth: military education, civilian education, self-development: belongs in this block, not just what they did for subordinates. And Stewards the Profession means work that leaves the institution better: programs stood up, standards codified, the next generation certified. The strongest Develops bullets name who got developed, how, and what became of them: a counseling statistic with no visible outcome is an attendance record, not development.
And formatting is not optional. Per DA PAM 623-3 ¶3-6b, bullets start with a small letter “o,” begin with a past-tense action word, and run no longer than two lines: preferably one. Every example below fits two printed lines on the form.
// 02The tier definitions in one breath
Full verbatim text and the deep dive live in the four-tier explainer; the short version for reading the examples below, per DA PAM 623-3 ¶3-11a: Met (¶3-11a(2)) is appropriate initiative with positive impact: the solid work a majority of NCOs at the grade demonstrate. Exceeded (¶3-11a(3)) is disciplined initiative taken often, with immediate, measurable impact: upper-third work. Far Exceeded (¶3-11a(4)) adds what Exceeded doesn’t have: consistency across the period, an enduring effect that outlasts it, and leadership that enables Soldiers and unit to far surpass the standard.
// 03Met-tier Develops bullets
Met: ¶3-11a(2)
o counseled 9 Soldiers monthly and mentored 2 toward promotion; both earned points and advanced on the first board
Why this reads as Met: monthly counseling is the standard, performed on schedule with a positive outcome attached. The two promotions keep it from being an attendance record: but mentoring your own Soldiers toward promotion is appropriate initiative inside the billet, which is ¶3-11a(2)’s lane.
Met: ¶3-11a(2)
o sponsored 3 inbound Soldiers through integration; all 3 fully mission qualified within the unit's 30-day standard
Why this reads as Met: Creates a Positive Environment in its plainest form: new arrivals received, integrated, and qualified inside the unit’s own published standard. The phrase “within the standard” is the tell: this bullet claims the standard met, and nothing more. Honest and solid.
Met: ¶3-11a(2)
o completed DLC II and 6 college credit hours while sustaining monthly counselings for 8 Soldiers
Why this reads as Met: this is Prepares Self: the component raters forget lives in this block. Own education advanced, subordinate obligations sustained, register kept plain. Note there’s no comparative claim and no intensity dressing; a Met bullet should read solid, not breathless.
// 04Exceeded-tier Develops bullets
Exceeded: ¶3-11a(3)
o developed a 6-week certification program; trained 24 Soldiers and raised section qualification from 70% to 96%
Why this reads as Exceeded: nobody ordered a certification program built, that’s disciplined initiative, and the 70-to-96 delta is the immediate, measurable impact ¶3-11a(3) asks for. No claim the program outlived the period or spread beyond the section, so it stays honestly at Exceeded.
Exceeded: ¶3-11a(3)
o trained 8 mechanics on services QC through weekly hands-on classes; cut repeat faults 45% in one quarter
Why this reads as Exceeded: the frequency marker (“weekly”) shows initiative taken often, not once, the exact word ¶3-11a(3) uses, and the 45% cut in repeat faults ties the development directly to a mission outcome. Development bullets get stronger when the trained skill shows up in the unit’s numbers.
Exceeded: ¶3-11a(3)
o revived the troop's monthly crew-drill competition; lifted crew qualification rates from 75% to 92%
Why this reads as Exceeded: Fosters Esprit de Corps with a result attached: the competition is the morale engine, the qualification delta is the immediate impact. Why it is NOT Far Exceeded: nothing here says the program survived the rating period or was picked up by anyone else. If it did, write that: it changes the tier.
// 05Far Exceeded-tier Develops bullets
Far Exceeded: ¶3-11a(4)
o built and ran company NCOPD all 4 quarters; mentored 11 Soldiers into NCO roles, 6 on first look; POI adopted BN-wide
Why this reads as Far Exceeded: two of ¶3-11a(4)’s own markers, both checkable: consistency stated as fact (“all 4 quarters,” the regulation’s “consistently” earned rather than asserted) and enduring effect (the POI now runs at echelons above the NCO who built it). Eleven Soldiers developed is the multiplier on top.
Far Exceeded: ¶3-11a(4)
o stood up the BN's first driver-mentor program; certified 22 new licenses in 2 quarters; program written into the BN SOP
Why this reads as Far Exceeded: Stewards the Profession, literally: a program that did not exist, now institutionalized in the SOP where it outlasts the NCO who built it. That is enduring effect, the exact discriminator ¶3-11a(4) adds over (3). The 22 licenses are the immediate impact riding alongside it.
Far Exceeded: ¶3-11a(4)
o mentored 4 medics to NREMT recert and 2 to SGT; section led the BDE in medical readiness all 4 quarters
Why this reads as Far Exceeded: the leadership multiplier plus consistency: the NCO’s development work lifted the whole section to the top of the brigade and held it there the entire period. Note the tier signal is “led the BDE all 4 quarters,” not the BDE scope itself: scope alone never sets a tier.
// 06What to notice across all nine
- Every bullet names who got developed and what became of them. Promotions, certifications, qualification deltas: development you can verify, not counseling you can count.
- All four components appear. Environment built, self prepared, others developed, profession stewarded. Prepares Self is a legitimate Develops bullet: use it.
- The format never varies. Small “o,” lowercase past-tense verb, no closing period, two printed lines max, ranks written as ranks: “2 to SGT,” never “2 to E-5.”
- Tier lives in the markers, not the adjectives. The Far Exceeded bullets earn it with consistency, enduring programs, and sections lifted: the regulation’s own vocabulary. More on that line in Far Exceeded vs Exceeded.
- No future tense anywhere. Rater bullets are performance-based per AR 623-3 ¶1-40c: “mentored 2 to SGT” is a rater fact; “will make an outstanding SGM” is the senior rater’s lane.
// 07Now write yours
Copy-paste bullets are always a size off: someone else’s Soldiers, someone else’s program, sometimes someone else’s tier. BulletForge generates Develops bullets from your rating period: your facts in, tier-calibrated bullets out, formatted to the two-line rule, grounded in ¶3-11a: and if your input doesn’t actually support the tier you asked for, it tells you instead of inflating.
Bullets like these start with facts written down in February, not remembered in November. The free Accomplishment Log keeps them.
Get the free logWriting one right now? Open BulletForge.