Author: captain1610

Overheard in the passageway

“Humility doesn’t get any respect in this wardroom.”

And my response to that is a quote from Tony Schwartz at Life@Work.

“Humility is a way of acknowledging that none of us stand at the center of the universe. No matter what role we occupy, or how much we know, we don’t have a lock on the answers. A position of authority over others scarcely guarantees that you have real authority.

When leaders openly accept the whole of who they are – for better and for worse – they no longer have to defend their value so vigilantly.”

Are you being too defensive?

We’ve all been assigned to that great command and marveled at how much fun it was to be a part of its success.

And then you hear from your Shipmates who are there now, that the once great command is no more. How does that happen?  It’s actually easy to understand.  Sailors make a command great and it is a rare time indeed when you get just the right Sailors in the right command at the right time with the right leadership.  With Sailors transferring in and out on a continuous stream of PCS orders, it doesn’t necessarily have to be this way.  The great command can remain great and the suffering commands can get better.

Patrick Lencioni suggests that commands not wait for “right Sailors, right leaders, right time” moment but rather build an organizational health which can sustain excellence over a long period of time.  To paraphrase him for the Navy model:

Organizational health is about making a command function effectively by building a cohesive leadership team, establishing real clarity among those Navy leaders, communicating that clarity to all the Sailors, Chiefs, civilians and contractors within the command and putting in place just enough structure to reinforce that clarity going forward.

The advantage of organizational health is undeniable and massive. Commands get more done in less time. They avoid losing their best Sailors, Chiefs, civilians and contractors. They identify problems earlier and solve them faster. They fill the gap for low performing commands which waste time, money and energy fighting among themselves, which ultimately drives away good Sailors, Chiefs, civilians and contractors.


You can read more about his ideas HERE.

Top 50 Thinker – Top 10 Leadership Thinker

How does one become a peer recognized leadership thinker?  It doesn’t happen by accident, I can promise you that.  Several years ago I read Liz Wiseman’s book MULTIPLIERS – How The Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter and thought to myself “Liz Wiseman belongs on the Thinkers50 list.”  Then, I told Liz that I thought she belonged on the list.  Together with Liz, we provided her excellent book to people in the IDC we thought were leading thinkers and doers – Commanding Officers.  A few of them actually read the book and took some of the lessons to heart and practiced them.  Some are still hard at it today but, only a few.
Quite honestly, most did not bother with the book or try to learn anything new.  Many in senior Navy leadership positions believe that, because the Navy has placed them in leadership positions, they have arrived and have nothing more to learn.  Admiral Vern Clark put it into my head in 2000 that I would have to devote myself to lifelong learning and so I have.  I make a point to learn every day.  And, I try to improve my learning by doing a little teaching as well.
Liz has taught around the world, including the Senior Leadership Seminar at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Teaching others is how Liz Wiseman became a Thinkers50 – Top 10 Leadership Thinker.  She shares her considerable experience and knowledge with others at every opportunity.  And, in that sharing, she has become known around the world for helping everyone around her become smarter.  She has truly brought out the genius in so many people.  Congratulations Liz!

2014 CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE CAPTAIN JOSEPH ROCHEFORT INFORMATION WARFARE OFFICER DISTINGUISHED LEADERSHIP AWARD

CAPTAIN JOSEPH ROCHEFORT

REPOSTED FROM “ON THE NET GANG”

It is time for us Information Warfare Officers to nominate our deserving peers, CWO2 to O5, for recognition of their “superior career achievement”.

Nominations are due to FCCC10FNSAHAWARDS@NAVY.MIL NLT 07 February 2014.

There were 7 nominations for the 2013 award.  The 2013 winner was LCDR Lemuel “Seth” Lawrence, executive officer of Navy Information Operations Command Pensacola.

SUBJ/2014 CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE CAPTAIN JOSEPH ROCHEFORT INFORMATION WARFARE OFFICER DISTINGUISHED LEADERSHIP AWARD
MSGID/GENADMIN/COMTENTHFLT//
POC/JERRY BECKLEHIMER/CIV/COMUSFLTCYBERCOM FORT MEADE MD/TEL: 443-634-4676//
GENTEXT/REMARKS/PASS TO FLEET INFORMATION WARFARE AND CRYPTOLOGIC UNITS/SSES
1. THE PURPOSE OF THIS MESSAGE IS TO SOLICIT NOMINATIONS FOR THE CAPTAIN JOSEPH ROCHEFORT INFORMATION WARFARE (IW) OFFICER DISTINGUISHED LEADERSHIP AWARD.
2. CAPTAIN JOSEPH JOHN ROCHEFORT WAS A MAJOR FIGURE IN THE U.S. NAVYS CRYPTOLOGIC AND INTELLIGENCE DEVELOPMENT FROM 1925 TO 1947. HE HEADED THE NAVYS FLEDGLING CRYPTANALYTIC ORGANIZATION IN THE 1920 S AND PROVIDED SINGULARLY SUPERB CRYPTOLOGIC SUPPORT TO THE FLEET DURING WORLD WAR II, LEADING TO VICTORY IN THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC. AT THE END OF
HIS CAREER (1942-1946), ROCHEFORT SUCCESSFULLY HEADED THE PACIFIC STRATEGIC INTELLIGENCE GROUP IN WASHINGTON. ROCHEFORT DIED IN 1976. IN 1986, HE POSTHUMOUSLY RECEIVED THE PRESIDENTS NATIONAL DEFENSE SERVICE MEDAL, THE HIGHEST MILITARY AWARD DURING PEACETIME, FOR HIS CONTRIBUTIONS DURING THE BATTLE OF MIDWAY.
3. THE INTENT OF THE CAPTAIN ROCHEFORT IW OFFICER DISTINGUISHED LEADERSHIP AWARD IS TO ANNUALLY RECOGNIZE THE SUPERIOR CAREER ACHIEVEMENT OF ONE IW OFFICER. IN THE SPIRIT OF CAPTAIN ROCHEFORT, SPECIFIC CONSIDERATION WILL BE GIVEN TO LEADERSHIP, TEAMWORK, OPERATIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS AND ADHERENCE TO THE PRINCIPLE BY WHICH HE SERVED, WE CAN ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING PROVIDED NO ONE CARES WHO GETS THE CREDIT.”
4. IW OFFICERS (181X, 644X AND 744X) RANGING FROM CWO2 TO COMMANDER ARE ELIGIBLE FOR THE AWARD WITH CONSIDERATION GIVEN TO CONTRIBUTIONS WHILE SERVING AS BOTH IW OFFICERS AND CRYPTOLOGIC TECHNICIANS.
5. NOMINATION PROCEDURES:
A. PEER NOMINATIONS WILL BE THE ONLY SOURCE OF NOMINATIONS.  ONLY COMMISSIONED OFFICERS WHO ARE THEMSELVES ELIGIBLE TO BE SELECTED IN THE SELECTION YEAR MAY NOMINATE ONE PEER. THE NOMINATION WILL BE MADE ON A TWO PAGE, SIGNED LETTER CONTAINING THE FULL NAME AND UNIT OF THE PEER NOMINATED WITH TYPED JUSTIFICATION (WHICH WILL BE HELD IN CONFIDENCE) BASED ON THE CRITERIA. THE NOMINATION LETTER WILL BE FORWARDED DIRECTLY TO COMFLTCYBERCOM AWARDS VIA EMAIL AT: FCCC10FNSAHAWARDS(AT)NAVY.MIL NLT 7 FEB 2014.
B. NOMINATIONS WILL BE REVIEWED BY A SELECTION BOARD OF CAPTAINS DESIGNATED BY COMFLTCYBERCOM. FINAL SELECTION WILL BE MADE BY THE COMMANDER.
6. AWARD SELECTION WILL BE ANNOUNCED VIA NAVAL MESSAGE. PRESENTATION VENUE OF THE AWARD WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED AT THE U.S. NAVAL CRYPTOLOGIC VETERANS ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONVENTION TO BE HELD IN MID MAY 2014 (IF FUNDING IS AVAILABLE BY THE COMMAND ATTACHED.) THE AWARDEE WILL RECEIVE A PLAQUE COMMEMORATING SELECTION AND A DISPLAY IN THE FLTCYBERCOM HERITAGE ROOM WILL HONOR ALL AWARDEES.//

Two Legitimate Questions

Two legitimate questions to ask in any command are: “What does the Chiefs’ Mess assure in this ship? And, what do they provide that requires little or no officer involvement?”
 
The captain should be able to ask the Chiefs’ Mess to take care of something important, and in an idealized world, that would be the end of it. Actually, the captain shouldn’t even have to ask.
 
The chiefs would know what needed to be done, without signal, simply through their collective breadth of knowledge and experience. This is not what happens.
 
The sum is no longer greater than its parts, and that collective engine of expertise and experience is faltering. Indeed, to guarantee success it has become necessary to find some new engine to bind and drive forward motion. Short of that synergistic Chiefs’ Mess, the disconnected nodes and fragments and individuals of a ship are now, we hope, driven in the right direction by a few individuals who vary ship to ship or unit to unit.
 
Certainly, some of these driving individuals may be chiefs, but the idea of the Mess being the engine that organizes and informs all activity is not generally the case.
 
From
Reviving the Chiefs’ Mess HERE
Captain Kevin S. Eyer
He commanded the USS Thomas S. Gates (CG-51), USS Shiloh (CG-67), and USS Chancellorsville (CG-62). 
 
MY NOTE:
The issue of: “What is the Chiefs’ Mess responsible for?” came up during my discussion with one of the senior officers in our community.  He said, “Your thoughts on this are really appreciated.  We have it pretty easy at our command. We just do things the Navy way.”  Then, he pointed me to the NAVY NEWS article about some excellent training required for CPO, SCPO and MCPO.  
 
IS YOUR COMMAND MASTER CHIEF RUNNING THIS TRAINING FOR YOUR CPO MESS?  
Or is this just more training that you don’t have time to do?
 
Some excerpts are below:
 

New Chief’s Mess Training Course Released

Story Number: NNS130528-09Release Date: 5/28/2013 1:23:00 PM

By Susan Henson, Center for Personal and Professional Development Public Affairs
 

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (NNS) — The Center for Personal and Professional Development (CPPD) has released the revised Chief’s Mess Training (CMT) course, CPPD leadership said May 28.

The CMT course is year-round training with lessons that provide additional leadership topics for the Chief Petty Officer (CPO) mess. The course took six months to revise and was piloted in the Hampton Roads area in December.

CMT provides CPOs with the tools to lead with courage, respect and trust, as well as the tools to mentor our junior Sailors to become the next generation of strong Navy leaders.

The new CMT is a library of 22 current, relevant topics that include scenarios designed to facilitate deep discussion. Each session can be taught at any time and in any sequence throughout the year, according to Hazley. “The previous CMT consisted of 10 topics designed to be delivered every month from October to July each year,” he said. “The new course provides flexibility to CPO messes to cover topics in a sequence that best fits a command’s schedule.”

CMT is designed to provide leadership sustainment training for chief petty officers through communication, teamwork and mentoring.

(CMT) is intended to enable the mess as a whole to learn from each other’s experiences and develop the problem-solving skills chiefs must have to succeed. Topics include command unity, ethics, operational stress control, maintaining standards, mentoring, conflict resolution, character and integrity, professionalism, suicide awareness, bystander intervention, and prevention of sexual assault, sexual harassment and hazing. 

Chief of Naval Operations Instruction (OPNAVINST) 5351.2A governs CMT, which is required for all active duty and reserve chiefs, senior chiefs and master chiefs. The revised CMT course will be documentable in Fleet Training Management and Planning System (FLTMPS).

Commands can access the new course material by logging on to Navy Knowledge Online, selecting the Leadership tab, selecting Chief Petty Officer Selectee Leadership Course (CPOSLC) /CMT and following the instructions on the screen. Commands experiencing problems accessing the material should contact the course manager at CPPD for assistance.

 

A man after my own heart – U.S. Army Captain Joseph Byerly

CPT Joseph Byerly is an instructor with Cavalry Leaders Course, 3-16 Cavalry Regiment, Fort Benning, GA. His past duty assignments include plans officer, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, GA; commander, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1-64th Armored Regiment; commander, C Troop, 3-7 Cavalry Regiment; squadron plans officer, 3-7 Cavalry Regiment; and platoon leader, Troop A, 2-1 Cavalry Regiment, Fort Lewis, WA. 
His military schooling includes Armor Officer Basic Course and Scout Leaders Course. CPT Byerly holds a bachelor’s of science degree from North Georgia College and State University in criminal justice. 
In addition to the Purple Heart, he is the recipient of the Fiscal Year 2011 General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award, Bronze Star (one oak-leaf cluster) and the Meritorious Service Medal. 

He has the beginnings of a superb blog HERE. I highly recommend it.

As a lover of letters, I had to grab this from CDR Salamander

The letter in its entirety is HERE.

The part I liked the most:

Start being a leader as soon as you put on your civilian clothes. If you see intolerance and hate, speak out against them. Make your individual voices heard, not for selfish things, but for honor and decency among men, for the rights of all people.
Remember too, that No American can afford to be disinterested in any part of his government, whether it is county, city, state or nation.
Choose your leaders wisely– that is the way to keep ours the country for which you fought. Make sure that those leaders are determined to maintain peace throughout the world. You know what war is. You know that we must not have another. As individuals you can prevent it if you give to the task which lies ahead the same spirit which you displayed in uniform.

… I know the people of America are counting on you. 

 General J M WAINWRIGHT 

You can follow AN ENLIGHTENED SOLDIER’S blog HERE.

Message Precedence Refresher – This is FLASH OVERRIDE !!!

The Combined Communications Electronics Board (CCEB), a five-nation joint military communications-electronics organization (consisting of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States), uses the following message precedence designators, in descending order of importance:

FLASH (Z)
This precedence is reserved for initial enemy contact messages or operational combat messages of extreme urgency. Brevity is mandatory. FLASH messages are to be handled as fast as humanly possible, ahead of all other messages, with in-station handling time not to exceed 10 minutes. Messages of lower precedence are interrupted on all circuits involved until the handling of FLASH messages is completed.
IMMEDIATE (O)
This precedence is reserved for messages relating to situations gravely affecting the security of the nation. It requires immediate delivery. Examples include reports of widespread civil disturbance, reports or warning of grave natural disaster, and requests for or directions concerning search and rescue operations. IMMEDIATE messages are processed, transmitted, and delivered in the order received and ahead of all messages of lower precedence. They are to be handled as quickly as possible, with in-station handling time not to exceed 30 minutes. Messages of lower precedence should be interrupted on all circuits involved until the handling of the IMMEDIATE message is completed. The use of the letter “O” comes from the original name for this level, “operational immediate”.
PRIORITY (P)
This precedence is reserved for traffic requiring expeditious action by the addressee or for conducting operations in progress when ROUTINE precedence will not suffice. PRIORITY precedence messages are processed, transmitted, and delivered in the order received and ahead of all messages of ROUTINE precedence. Examples include requests for supplies or equipment during the conduct of an operation, time-critical items requiring quick response, and situation reports. They are to be handled as quickly as possible, with in-station handling time not to exceed 3 hours.
ROUTINE (R)
This precedence is used for all types of message traffic justifying transmission by rapid means, but not of sufficient urgency to require higher precedence. ROUTINE precedence messages are delivered in the order received and after all messages of higher precedence. Examples include any message that requires the documentation of its transmission or delivery; messages concerning normal operations, programs, or projects; and periodic or consolidated reports. They should be handled as soon as traffic flow allows, but no later than the beginning of the next duty day.
FLASH OVERRIDE (Y)
The National Command Authority (usually the President of the United States) has access to a FLASH OVERRIDE (FO) capability. FO is not a precedence, but instead represents the authority and means to override all other traffic, including FLASH precedence messages. In written message traffic, the proword ‘Y’ is used to indicate a message having the authority to override all other traffic and is usually assigned to Emergency Action Messages (EAM).

Does this reflect the reality of how your team handles message traffic?  Or has everything become PRIORITY.