Leadership from the Pump and Valve Level

 

quired to turn in an individual evaluation input form. The division officer can no^[1] remember everything, and the individual is less likely to neglect a specific im­portant point.

 

Okay, enough with the ethereal stuff on leadership! You are up to your eye­balls in PMS schedules, your next three inspections are just around the comer, and your executive officer is on you because your people can’t keep their berthing compartment straight. You’re already get­ting to the ship before the sun is up and leaving it after sunset. Just exactly how are you going to apply traditional lead­ership practices—like courage, loyalty, and vision?

From my observations over the years, I have compiled a list of “hands-on” qual­ities that seem to be present in success­ful naval officers—officers who have been promoted early (and often) to posi­tions of increased responsibility and have been recognized by their respective com­munities as good leaders. I genuinely be­lieve that the consistent practice of the following qualities will help all junior of­ficers become better leaders, both in the Navy and in future careers.

Administrative Skills

• Planning Ahead. One of the most use­ful skills for leaders is being able to see past the immediate demands to plan for the future. The good leader constantly looks ahead, anticipating problems and events and planning for them. Very few surprises occur in the normal course of the Navy’s routine, since most manage­ment scenarios in the military are repe­titious. For example, most command-level inspections are administered on a cycle, and it’s no secret when they come due. Planning ahead reduces the “pucker fac­tor” considerably, because ample time can be set aside for the necessary prein­spection preparations.

• Information Review. A leader must be able to review large quantities of infor­mation and extract the points salient to the particular situation. The ability to quickly arrive at the bottom line is a valu­able administrative skill—especially in an emergency situation.
• Steady-Strain Management. Good lead­ers all seem to practice a variation of this theme—a consistent, high level of con­cern for the command’s mission. Con­sider, for example, a ship’s many in­spections. The purpose of an inspection is to ascertain the command’s readiness in some area—the true level of readiness, not a pumped-up inspection level. A ship that practices intense preinspection prepa­ration, followed by long periods of weak leadership and low levels of concern, might be tasked with an operational com­mitment and be unable to respond. Its normal readiness level might be well below average, despite its having sailed through the most recent inspection cycle.

A leader can avoid these peaks and valleys in operational readiness by adopt­ing a steady-strain management philoso­phy—maintaining systems, personnel, and equipment at peak or near-peak readi­ness levels on a continuous basis. True operational readiness would be markedly higher, and much less preinspection sweat would be needed, because systems and equipment would only need to be checked prior to inspections.

Subordinates are held year-round to the same standards by which they will be inspected. It might take time to get to this level of performance, but the benefits are obvious.

• Inspection Preparation. Virtually all inspection organizations publish the in­spection checklists they use, stating the appropriate references. One organization even publishes a “List of Recurring Dis­crepancies,” which outlines its most com­monly encountered discrepancies. These inspectors actually experience about an 80% agreement between inspection “hits” and these lists—for all commands in­spected. Most commands, therefore, could profit handsomely by an honest apprais of their operational condition in th months preceding the inspection.

Inspecting organizations generally careful to ensure that their inspectio standards align with existing, approve parameters. They don’t create the stan­dard; they simply verify command com pliance by asking units to demonstrat that systems and equipment operate to de sign levels.

> Performance Documentation. A goo leader never forgets to document the pet formance of his subordinates—good and bad. At evaluation time, it is much eas­ier to generate a powerful, effective list of Petty Officer Jones’s accomplishment* if you’ve kept track all along. In addi­tion, all division personnel should be re­

Actions against personnel who do no¹ perform up to standards also are easief with clear documentation of counseling and other actions taken by the command to provide guidance and assistance to tltf individual. Formal counseling should always be documented, but need not al­ways be negative.

Personal Skills

____________________________ ^_

► Positive Attitude. Good leaders alway* respond to tasking in the affirmative Their first answer is “Can do!” Whef faced with apparently impossible, con­flicting, or extremely difficult tasking' they present all options to superiors and ask for further direction. They commu­nicate a sense of positive energy to thei⁽ subordinates. Tomorrow is not good enough, if it is reasonable that it can b^e' done today. In general, a positive, proac­tive attitude gets more accomplished.

You don’t have to be a born leader to be a good leader. Many leadership qualities really are basic skills that can be practiced on a day-to-day basis. Good communication, for example, begins with knowing your subordinates and keeping your interactions on a predominantly positive track.

• Flexibility. Flexibility is an essential leadership quality. Flexibility in reacting to new taskings is key, as is the ability to assess the specific situation. The ju­nior officer should quickly recognize management decisions that are ineffec­tive or inappropriate, and should provide alternate paths and solutions, reallocating resources or personnel as necessary.
• Even-Keel Behavior. Calm, organized thought processes and personal interac­tions—versus explosive bursts of energy or anger—are vital to defusing crises. Most people lose their ability to think ra­tionally and objectively when they be­come emotional. Unfortunately, the negative approach is sometimes Used as a daily management tool,

With subordinates becoming desen­sitized to the constant bursts of anger. People working in this en­vironment are never sure when there is a real crisis, because the boss is always upset.

• Focus. The ability to focus on pertinent problems—while keeping other less pressing issues in per­spective—is a necessary leadership skill. The successful junior officer can focus on central issues, while at the same time juggling many competing issues, all at various stages of completion.

^ Cognitive Thought. A good leader can handle several conflicting or contrasting issues simultaneously,

Versus handling issues in linear fashion. He can consider multiple Problems concurrently, while still affording each its own unique de­gree of concern.

* Job Knowledge. A junior officer Will not know all of the technical details of the equipment and sys- iems he is responsible for, but he must have enough knowledge to be conversant and fluid in discussions With his increasingly technically trained subordinates. He risks a great deal of credibility if he is per­ceived as weak in this regard. A good leader is technically compe­tent and garners respect from his subordinates in proportion to his knowledge.

^ High Standards. High expecta­tions, regardless of the existing environ- thent, are a mark of good leaders. Stan­dards should be high, but reasonable, and consistent with approved, published doc­umentation.

Military Skills ^{[2] I}

should be unwavering. He should never voice disagreement with the chain of command or policies of superiors in front of subordinates, but should express his objections and proposed solutions to su­periors in private. He never uses superi­ors as “the bad guy” or as the reason a job must be done, as in, “The XO wants this done today before anybody goes home.” Rather, he says, “We’ve got to get this done today, Chief.”

Division officers or department heads should never directly task junior enlisted personnel. Ignoring this most basic prin­ciple can result in friction between the

offender and senior enlisted division per­sonnel. The division officer also should jealously guard his own rights in this regard, objecting (at the proper time and in an appropriate manner) to superiors that bypass him in interacting with sub­ordinates. Likewise, juniors should not be allowed to bypass the chief or divi­sion officer, except for command mech­anisms such as Captains Call and XO

open-door policies. In general, problems should be solved at the lowest level possible.

► Relationship With the Leading CPO or PO. The experience and management ex­pertise of our CPO community is a re­source for the junior officer—one he should respect and cultivate. A new en­sign is both positionally and functionally in charge of his division and should lead the division. He also should realize that senior NCO leadership exists to provide the direct guidance to division personnel. The CPO mess will respect a junior of­ficer who is trying hard to do his job, es­pecially if he lets the chief do his job! Run all tasking through the chief. Hold him to the as­signed tasking, but let him be a leader as well!

When occasional strong differ­ences of opinion occur—which can be misinterpreted by junior enlisted—they are best discussed in private. Regardless of the in­teraction, when the discussion is over, both the chief and the offi­cer should resume their normal, professional demeanor and rela­tionship, especially in front of the troops.

• Delegation. One of the most common errors of new division officers is a reluctance to delegate. New ensigns believe that they can work long and hard enough to do just about everything, and most chiefs will be glad to let them try. But one ensign can’t do it all, and an ensign who does not delegate does not develop subor­dinates. An ensign tasked with a new assignment should not ask “How can I do this?” He should ask, “Who can best do this for me?” He should be sure the task actually requires his personal at­tention before starting in on it.

People Skills

• Communication. A good leader communicates his intentions in a clear, understandable manner, with appropriate consideration for the target audience. For example,

command goals would be presented to the CPO mess differently from a group of seamen.

> Goal Setting. Another important qual­ity is the ability to present clear, under­standable goals with a timeframe for completion. Goals are assigned both a time requirement and a responsible per­son. A “Plan of Action and Milestones” (POAM) has become quite popular and

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can appear in many forms as a planning and tracking tool for job assignments. Goals must be specific, reasonable, con­sistent with published guidance, and mea­surable, so that progress can be gauged. ► Sensitivity to Personnel. The junior of­ficer should be keenly aware of the unique problems, needs, strengths, and weaknesses of his personnel. He must ac­cept and acknowledge the varying de­grees of intelligence, creativity, interest, and energies of his workers. Although our sailors are increasingly technically trained, they have widely varying degrees of ability. He must be able to extract the maximum from his subordinates by matching assignments to personnel, when possible.

Sensitivity also means knowing your personnel outside the work environment. Sailors are real people with families, spouses, children, and off-duty interests. It is not unreasonable to expect the divi­sion officer to know his personnel’s fam­ily situations (number of children and spouse’s name for example). People ap­preciate it when their organization is gen­uinely interested them.

Praise in public, admonish in private is a tenet of good leadership. Petty Offi­cer Jones could be praised publicly in his work' center, but should never be criti­cized in front of his peers or the troops. Criticism of a subordinate’s work should be preceded by a positive comment about some aspect of that work. Interactions be­tween the officer and subordinates should be predominantly positive; people should know you appreciate their good work. Punitive, negative actions, when neces­sary, should be applied uniformly and fairly.

► Matching Personnel to Jobs. The care­ful matching of jobs to personnel allows personnel to perform in areas in which they excel. But unless this practice is balanced by also assigning personnel tasks that are challenging or new to them, their professional development will suf­fer. The practice of letting only those who have proven expertise in a particular area continue to perform in that area provides a greater expectation that the job will be done right. On the downside, we begin to ask for a disproportionate amount of work from those who can, and less from those who can’t. We then fail to develop new talent and risk losing both the over­worked and underdeveloped sailor to dis­couragement.

The desire to achieve a high quality product must be balanced against the need to develop subordinates. The man­ager who is interested in the long-term development of his people must be will­ing to accept some larger degree of im­perfection—at least initially. .Of course, in a high-threat or combat situation, the manager will always defer to those who have the proven ability to produce the de­sired result rapidly. You can’t afford to train someone in the heat of the battle.

>• Recognition of Subordinates. One of the least expensive investments we can make, in terms of esprit de corps, is in the formal recognition mechanisms of the Navy. Navy Commendations, Navy Achievement Medals, CO’s Letters of Commendation, or simple recognition in front of peers are great motivators that cost a command very little—a few hours of composition and a bit of follow-up.

Sailor of the Month, Quarter, and Year must be viable, meaningful programs. An ensign that says, “We didn’t have any­body we could nominate this quarter” should be hung up by his heels. Candi­dates should be submitted for all of these programs. Just being nominated is a note­worthy achievement for your best sailor, and one that can be mentioned in the sailor’s next evaluation. The chain of command is generally quite willing to use award mechanisms, provided that the initiator does the paperwork—a small price to pay!

Command award allocations, if ap­plicable, should never go unfilled. The CO or XO, when faced with an end of the year decision about how to distribute a few remaining awards, should not have to ask for additional writeups. Division officers and department heads should have several writeups on file or working and should be able to fill any open re­quirements almost immediately.

There you have it—one Navy lieu­tenant’s observations on leadership- Hopefully, this will provide a sort of how-to checklist that one might find prac­tical at the pump-and-valve level. We learn some leadership qualities by on-the- job training, some by osmosis, but the skills listed here can be practiced hands- on, on a daily basis. Ultimately, we are all individuals and must act out our own unique leadership roles in the Navy and in life. However, I am convinced that the qualities I have listed are part and par­cel of a successful naval officer’s lead­ership bag.

Lieutenant Jenkins currently is assigned to the Naval Postgraduate School. His previous tours include as­signment to the Fleet and Mine Warfare Training Center as mine countermeasures instructor, main propulsion assistant on board the USS Sellers (DDG- 11), and operations officer on board the USS Ford' fied (MSO-446). He was commissioned in 1983 via Officer Candidate School, after seven years of en­listed service.