A commanding officer sits quietly in his stateroom. After four underway weeks full of activity, he has finally found a moment to enjoy a cup of coffee. The crew has accomplished a great deal in a short time. They have retested much of the equipment that was repaired or replaced during the last maintenance period, certified the ship for using electronic navigation, exercised with fire and flooding drills, even made good progress auditing the propulsion-plant records in anticipation of a rapidly approaching inspection.
As he reflects on the past weeks and what is still left to do, his executive officer enters carrying so many three-ring binders he has trouble balancing them. “Captain, I just finished reviewing these, and I figured I would bring them over to you before I finished with the rest.”
“What are they, XO?”
“Weight-testing records, the communications security material tracking binder, auxiliary division material history records, the quarterly battery report, classified material transfer log, navigation division training records, and the results of the menu review board.”
“Thank you, XO, please have the galley send me up another cup of coffee. It’s going to be a long night.”
The ship is reputed to have the best-managed administrative programs in the squadron, and the CO is not going to let that slip. Still, a troubling thought enters his mind. If they had to take this ship into combat tomorrow, how would the officers handle it? If the XO and he were both killed during a combat engagement, would the ship continue to fight? He looks at the pile of binders and wonders when they stopped being leaders and warfighters to become managers and mariners.
The U.S. Navy has not needed to sail into harm’s way to face an enemy head-on since it defeated the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1945. For roughly the past 70 years, the Navy has been filling a power-projection role that has not required warrior officers to lead sailors into combat knowing they might have to sacrifice ship and crew to accomplish an objective. Only highly trained mariners who can manage their crews are needed to maintain material readiness and operational proficiency.
It might seem hard at times, but management is easy and focused solely on results. Regardless of how the task is accomplished, provided it is, you have effectively managed it. Management can lead to completed maintenance schedules, audited administrative programs, and a crew that sails from point A to point B in a given amount of time. The strong manager can compensate for weaknesses in the team by either assuming responsibilities or reassigning them to other members. Since the end of World War II, this is what has been required of the Fleet, which does it very well.
Leadership is hard. You cannot lead without a trusting relationship with your team. Leaders teach. If a team is being led, then its members are growing and maturing. A team properly led will be robust enough to lose key members—including the leader—and still function. Where managers can make use of their people to accomplish tasks, leaders take the team into dangerous waters to fight and die if necessary to take control of the sea.
The comparison of leadership and management usually gets oversimplified to “we lead people; we manage programs.” This description is incomplete and misleading. Many officers today feel that as long as they are interacting with subordinates, they are leading. In fact, usually they are only managing people.
This is not to say that the Fleet has been devoid of leaders. I have served under many with whom I would be privileged and honored to serve again. Nor do I wish to devalue management, which is essential to keeping ships materially ready, personnel trained to safely go to sea, and the Navy as a whole functioning. But if the Fleet is ever again called on to fight a war in which it must obtain control of the seas, management alone will not cut it. The Fleet needs leaders who can build teams who will risk life and ship to defend the nation. Do the current officer training and personnel systems ensure we have leaders and not just managers? Let’s not wait until missiles start flying and ships start sinking to find out.