More from …The Old Salt

Our CNO’s accountability letter, the charge of command, is a very good first step in reminding our commanding officers and all in command that we are necessarily held to a far higher standard than what society and our popular culture deem acceptable – and the expectation to meet this higher standard is explicit in Navy Regulations.

We’re not suggesting here – it is a must do. And those who won’t, or can’t, meet this standard will be held accountable for their failure.

However, we need more than simply episodic engagement with our leaders. We need a continuum that starts early and teaches our JOs and our petty officers about the essentials of leadership – about the importance of professional competence, intelligent good sense, and respect for the dignity of those they are privileged to lead throughout their careers.

We can’t have JOs learn about leadership at USNA/ROTC/OCS and the next time they really hear about it in an organized manner is at the PCO course. At the end of the day, it is all about re-instilling and reinforcing trust in the chain-of-command. And you build trust through principled leadership. And we need to help our leaders learn what principled leadership really means as they advance up the chain-of-command.

This trust is established through internalizing the standard, living the same standard, and communicating the standard through direct, human contact with meaningful engagement at every level of the chain of command at every opportunity. Quite simply, this trust is the glue that holds it all together and that trust must be built steadily and consistently, every day at every level of the chain-of-command.

The most important demand on any of our officers and senior enlisted is that they understand exactly what it means to provide leadership to the Sailors we place in their charge. We must provide that understanding in a continuum of professional development training at every significant step in their career.

This fundamental responsibility, leading sailors, transcends all others – it is the single most important thing we do, bar none and so we must give the same level of attention and concern to developing our officer and enlisted leaders as we do to anything else we do.

Steering one’s true course

Captain Mark Light, Profession U.S. Army War College

As standards of behavior for COs have been raised, so has the likelihood of violators being caught. In years past, allegations of wrongdoing often remained mere allegations, because words alone are generally not sufficient to indict anyone, let alone a commanding officer. However, e-mails, security cameras, cellphone cameras, electronic records of calls and texts, and “smart phones” with web access have changed the landscape dramatically. As Eyer points out, subordinates have a plethora of means to document and report perceived offenses of their skippers.

Furthermore, that same technology has made it increasingly difficult to deal with such transgressions quietly and privately; it is just as easy to post incriminating evidence on YouTube as to send it to the officer’s superior. Commanding officers who violate the trust bestowed on them can expect technology to allow them to be caught and held accountable, often in the public eye.

So why do some take the risk?

Read the rest of Captain Mark Light’s paper THE NAVY’S MORAL COMPASS available from the U.S. Navy War College website HERE.

ADMIRAL John Harvey retires

Admiral Greenert and Admiral John C. Harvey

Commander, Fleet Forces Command, Admiral John Harvey turns over command to Admiral William Gortney today. Admiral Harvey is a Flag officer who BELIEVES in COMMUNICATING and I have a couple of personal letters to prove it. He sent his parting message to the SWO leadership HERE.

For me, Admiral Harvey’s career in the Navy boils down to this –

“We’re not going to give way on our standards. We’re going to hold to them”, he says. Maintaining those standards, he said, involves educating Sailors on those standards. “Holding the trust of the people and the trust of the force – why should I trust my boss if my boss isn’t going to deal with the tough things that have to happen?”

Standards – hold on to them.

Standards – keep them high.

Standards – help keep your Sailors trust.

Commanding Officer in the SPOTLIGHT – Navy Information Operations Command Sugar Grove, West Virginia

Commander Bill Kramer, Jr. a native of Halethorpe, Maryland, enlisted in the Navy in 1982 as a Nuclear Trained Machinist’s Mate. His enlisted tours include serving in USS ENTERPRISE and as an instructor at the Navy Nuclear Power Training Unit, Idaho Falls, Idaho. Through the Navy’s Enlisted Commissioning Program, he graduated from University of Idaho in 1992 and received his commission as an Ensign.

His first assignment as a Navy Cryptologist was in Naval Security Group Command Misawa, Japan where he was the Electronic Materiel Officer and Operations Watch Officer. CDR Kramer’s subsequent tours include USS NIMITZ; Naval Communications Telecommunications Station, Diego Garcia; Naval Security Group Command, Fort Meade; Navy Personnel Command, Millington; Multi-National Forces-West, Fallujah, Iraq; and Navy Information Operations Command, Georgia. He recently graduated from Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama with a Masters Degree in Strategic Studies.

He holds various decorations and awards including four awards of the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, two awards of the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal and a Iraq Service Medal with Eagle, Globe and Anchor device for service with I Marine Expeditionary Forces.

Commander Kramer assumed command of Navy Information Operations Command Sugar Grove on 24 August 2012, relieving Commander Doug Schelb.

The Navy Information Operations Command Sugar Grove website is HERE.

Back in the day

Back in 2000, when Navy Knowledge Online (NKO) was just being birthed, the Chief of Naval Education and Training was looking for content to populate some of their leadership pages. I am proud to say that I was one of the “leading” contributors to those pages. Among my contributions was a book summary essay of John Maxwell’s The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.

The First Law that John addresses is the law of the lid. He postulates that there is a lid on a person’s leadership ability and this lid determines his level of effectiveness. The lower a person’s ability to lead, the lower the lid on his leadership ability, and the lower his effectiveness. On the contrary, the higher the leadership ability, the greater the effectiveness. These same principles apply to organizations.

The conflict between THE LID of an organization and THE LID of its leader can provide incredible levels of tension – within the organization itself and across its domain.

My Shipmate, Commander Sean Heritage, addresses his concerns about THE LID on his blog HERE.

Never Forget

Read, Think, Write and Publish

My occasional mentor and correspondence friend, Admiral James Stavridis continually admonishes us all to Read, Think, Write and Publish. Each is worthy of doing and doing well.

The connection between these activities involves appreciating how reading, thinking and writing all work together as tools for information storage and retrieval, discovery and logical thought, as well as communication.

There is considerable benefit to be derived from connecting reading, thinking and writing – which should lead to publishing. Recent research has validated that:

depending upon the measures employed to assess overall reading, thinking and writing achievement and attitude, the general correlation between reading and writing is moderate and fluctuates by age, education history, and other environmental factors;
selected thinking and reading experiences definitely contributed to writing performance, just as selected writing experiences contribute to thinking and reading performance;
writers acquire certain values and behaviors from thinking reading, while readers acquire certain values and behaviors from writing; and
successful writers integrate thinking and reading into their regular writing activities, and successful readers integrate writing into their thinking and reading experiences.

So, follow the Admiral’s lead – Read, Think, Write and Publish – persistently.

Who can argue with Uncle Sam?

Remembering Kirk Harness

Kirk as a Midshipman

Kirk Nakashima Harness, Captain (1610), USN, Retired of Gambrills, MD, passed away a year ago on Wednesday, September 7, 2011 in Baltimore, MD, at the age of 52. Kirk was born on August 6, 1959 in Lynwood, California to Glenell (Robinson) Harness of Jacksonville, Florida and the late David Harness.

Kirk attended the United States Naval Academy and graduated in May 1981 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and was commissioned an Ensign. After a distinguished and significant career, he retired as a Captain in December 2005. Following retirement from the Navy, he was employed as a Director of Network Systems with BAE Systems.

In addition to his mother Kirk is survived by his wife, Brigitte Harness; four children, Kirsten Harness, Kathryn Harness, Helena Harness and David James Alexander “D.J.A.” Harness; brother, Johnny Harness of Jacksonville, Florida and his grandmother, Helen Mae Robinson of Summit, Mississippi. He is also survived by four nieces, one nephew, numerous aunts and uncles and a host of other relatives, friends and Shipmates.

“Fair winds and following Seas”

Command Qualification Exam

“The establishment of the command qualification examination is part of the Chief of Naval Operation’s new Navy Command Qualification requirement, which set the standards for qualifying and screening Navy commanding officers. This exam will ensure that the officers going to command will have the requisite knowledge to successfully lead their commands.”

Any word out there on progress with the IDC or IW command qualification process?

How will we deal with command screened O5/O6 candidates who fail the command qualification exam? If everyone passes, do we need a command qualification exam? Early reports are that the first 9 of 10 test takers failed the SWO exam. Those who fail must wait 90 days to take the next proctored exam. No word on how many times you can take the exam.

CNO’s COMMAND QUALIFICATION PROGRAM Instruction 1412.14 is HERE. Feel free to discuss among yourselves. Be kind!