Author: captain1610

CPO 365. How did you do?

16 September 2013 marks the culmination of 364 days of preparing First Class Petty Officers for Chief Petty Officer since the last pinning ceremony.  It will be a proud day for some of our best Sailors and their families.  But what does it mean for those not selected for promotion?  For some PO1s, we’ll see them dig in and study more.  Some will chase additional collateral duties.  Others will pursue additional warfare qualifications.  Some will terminate shore duty to pursue more challenging assignments at sea.  Still others will just quit in frustration.
Where does the CPO Mess fit in all this?  Just like other Navy instructions, policies, manuals and record messages on any number of topics, the MCPON’s Guidance for CPO 365 will be ignored by Chiefs who know “a better way.”  How do we measure the true effectiveness of the mess?  Who holds them accountable for CPO365?  What can we say about the mess, which after 365 days of training can’t produce a single new CPO at a command?  Preparing PO1s for Chief Petty Officer is no easy task.  It requires the active engagement of every CPO in the mess.  The leader of the mess (not always the CMC) has to demand participation in every phase of CPO365 by every CPO in the mess.  Every PO1 in the command has to be engaged by the mess.  There has to be a plan.  The MCPON has provided the framework.  Each command’s CPO mess has to provide the particulars.  If it’s not on your mess calendar, it’s not likely to happen.  Don’t have a mess calendar?  Start one.
Go back and take a hard look at your CPO selection rate for 2013.  How many test takers?  How many board eligible?  How many selected?  Satisfied?  MCPON’s “Zeroing in on Excellence” can help you do better.  The mess has to concentrate their attention on his three fundamental focus areas: (1) Developing leaders; (2) Good order and discipline and (3) Controlling what we own.
As the MCPON says, “Making the Navy run is a job for professionals only – we simply do not have room for amateurs.  Professionals know what the priorities are and where to apply energy – they are not easily distracted by the white noise beyond their control.”
Didn’t do so well this year?  Recommit yourself to fulfilling the promise of sound leadership found in the MCPON’s CPO365 Guidance.  Need more help?  Ask for it.  Make a better plan for 2014.  Remember the adage – FAIL TO PLAN; PLAN TO FAIL. Prepare your PO1s for the challenges ahead as CPOs.  Mentor them, teach them, challenge them, quiz them, demand more of them and watch them get promoted.  There are few days in a Sailor’s career that match the pride of being pinned a Chief Petty Officer in September.  This is NOT an event where you want to be standing on the sidelines.

As we head toward pinning our newest Chief Petty Officers

The Guiding Principles
Deck Plate Leadership:  Chiefs are visible leaders who set the tone. We will know the mission, know our sailors, and develop them beyond their expectations as a team and as individuals.
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Institutional and Technical Expertise:  Chiefs are experts in their field, we will use experience and technical knowledge to produce a well trained enlisted and office team. ​
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Professionalism:  Chiefs will actively teach, uphold and enforce standards.  We will measure ourselves by the success of our Sailors.  We will remain invested in the Navy through self motivated military and academic education and training and will provide proactive solutions that are well founded, thoroughly considered, and linked to mission accomplishment. ​
Character:  Chiefs abide by an uncompromising code of integrity, take full responsibility for their actions and keep their word.  This will set a positive tone for the command, unify the mess and create esprit de corps. ​
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Loyalty:  Chiefs remember that loyalty must be demonstrated to seniors, peers, and subordinates alike, and that it must never be blind.  Few things are more important than people who have moral courage to question the appropriate direction in which an organization is headed and then the strength to support whatever final decisions are made. ​
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Active Communication:  Chiefs encourage open and frank dialogue, listen to Sailors and energize the communication flow up and down the chain of command.  This will increase unit efficiency, mission readiness, and mutual respect. ​
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Sense of Heritage:  Defines our past and guides our future.  Chiefs will use heritage to connect Sailors to their past, teach values and enhance pride in our country

Worth a post of its own from LDO 6440

USNI 2013 Leadership Essay Contest Leadership in the Sea Services: The Junior Officers’ Perspective.   

I would encourage every CO/XO/CMC to challenge their command members (not just JO’s) to at least think about and/or answer these questions. 

What does leadership look like to the led? What does it look like from below? From beside? 

What qualities and characteristics define leadership for those who are themselves young leaders who aspire to command? 

Can leadership be defined … or only recognized? Can leadership be taught … or only learned? How can leadership be nurtured? 

What does character have to do with leadership? 

What is the role of mentors? 

What were the great naval leaders saying about leaders and leadership when they themselves were junior officers? 

What other lessons can be drawn from naval history? 

Why do so many people believe their experience as a naval officer changed their lives – whether they continued to serve.

EXTRAORDINARY

Today, O5 command in the Information Warfare community offers about 100 weeks for a Commanding Officer to show his/her EXTRAORDINARY leadership ability.  100 weeks pass in a flash.  Being an extraordinary Commanding Officer is a purposeful choice.  The decision to be extraordinary has to be made long before one assumes command, otherwise it is too late.
From Seth Godin we know there are two key elements in the choice to be extraordinary:
1. Skill. The skill to understand the domain, to do the work, to communicate, to lead, to master all of the details necessary to make your promise of servant leadership come true. All of which is difficult, but insufficient, because none of it matters if you don’t have…
2. Care. The passion to see your vision through. The willingness to find a different route when the first one doesn’t work. The certainty that in fact, there is a way, and you care enough to find it. Amazingly, this is a choice, not something you need to get certified in.  It’s often been said that Sailors don’t care how much you know; they want to know how much you care.  Care enough to be extraordinary.  Our Sailors deserve it.

Admiral James Stavridis on persuading Sailors to write

First, I think the desire to read, to think about what you’ve read, and to write it down is an instinct in almost everybody. The true key is making that leap from writing it down to then publishing it, that act of courage to put your ideas out there in an open forum and recognize that not everyone is going to agree with you. Those of us who value that should encourage those who choose to take that first leap. For example, one thing I will do as the Board Chair is to read the articles every month. If four or five really stand out, I will make a point of contacting those people. I’d like to see our senior leaders do that consistently, because by encouraging our young people to stand and deliver intellectually, we will all have a far better profession.
Second, it’s using new ways of moving that information. If someone is going to take the trouble to write and have the courage to publish it, we should work hard to give it the widest possible dissemination, which means going beyond simply putting it in the pages of Proceedings , as wonderful as that is. I’m very encouraged by what we do on the U.S. Naval Institute website and our new social-networking tools. The more we can spread those ideas, the better.
Third, more prosaically, we should encourage writing through finding ways to get sponsors for contests that award prize money, life memberships, and other high-end kinds of things. And we should have conferences where we bring in and recognize those who publish.

Admiral James Stavridis

Principle of Reciprocity

Given that every human culture (even the officer corps of the USN) follows the rule of reciprocity, we can think of it as a powerful universal law. It’s very simple: “If you give something to me, I am obligated to give something in return.”
In addition, “You are given a moment of power after someone has thanked you. .  .” Take care to use the moment productively. For example, don’t say, “It was nothing, no problem at all.” Use the influence you’ve just won by saying “I was glad to help. It’s what Shipmates do for one another. I’m sure you would do the same for me.”
The idea is uncomplicated:  Get inspired – be inspiring; get a message – send a message; get a call – make a call; get a letter – write a letter; get an e-mail – send an e-mail; receive a favor – give a favor.  And so on.  Keep the cycle going.
This principle explains why successful Navy professionals are so committed to networking. In networking, we share information, leads, and even leadership secrets—relying completely on the principle of reciprocity. Without reciprocity, networking is useless.

Want to learn more?  Hell yes, you do.  Go HERE.

We Can Do Better. We Must Do Better

Recent studies show that only 7 percent of Sailors  have trust and confidence in their senior leaders. How can we ever get our organizations to succeed if so few Sailors believe in their senior leaders? 

Leadership, and specifically leadership culture, is the only real differentiator between the organizations that thrive and those that fall behind.  Charting A New Course to Command Excellence explains it all.  

Leave a comment with your email address and I’ll get a copy to you.

Sage Advice from Navy Grade 36 Bureaucrat

1. Counsel often. Get into a habit of quarterly counseling (monthly won’t work when you have a big division). I had a hard time at first counseling people, mainly because I simply waited until they messed up big time to then hammer them. That method, while in the short term is effective, means that you get to have uncomfortable conversations all the time, rather than focusing on building excellence. Quarterly counseling allows you the chance to talk to subordinates and lay out your expectations, and it gets them used to talking to you on a routine basis. It will likely nip problems in the bud sooner, and when it doesn’t, you’ll have documentation of ongoing issues.
2. Make sure your instructions are up to date. I’m shocked how many command instructions are antiquated, despite being “reviewed” every year. Take the time to make your command instructions match reality. Put in what you want and need to operate, not what you think sounds nice.
3. Use your division’s SORM. If you haven’t written a SORM for your division, you’re missing the opportunity to lay out your expectations of how things run. For example, once I wrote what working hours were for unqualified vs. qualified personnel, my unqualified Sailors began making more progress on qualifications, a win-win for both sides.
4. Remember that fairness involves the Navy and taxpayer too. Don’t screw the Navy and our taxpayers by letting little things slide because of a sob-story from one of your Sailors. There are second-order effects at play. For every sailor that cries his or her way out of a rule being enforced, you tell your other sailors it’s OK to do that, and you likely pass the problems onto the next division officer or command. Enforcing rules doesn’t make you un-human, rather, it helps you keep good order and discipline.

I agree with all four points above.  For more from NG36 Bureaucrat go HERE.