Saturday, January 26, 2013

More advice from JOs from a 'seasoned' Navy Captain with more than a few years at sea

The worst two chains of command (or leadership interactions if you will) I have had were AFTER my command tour. In both cases there was enough blame to go around - on my end on theirs - but I ended up in the "senior has the personality" realm because I was junior.

The basic takeaways as I look back are these:

1. Don't assume your senior sees everything you are doing.
2. Don't assume your junior knows your rule set or boundaries.
3. Early, early, early and non-confrontational discussions can solve most problems before they are a real problem.
4. If a senior lets something slide once, the junior should not expect all is forgiven and forgotten.

Anyway, DHs need to give guidance early, and positively if they way to have an impact. NEVER assume that a DivO knows what the rules are, what to do, or how to do it. Don't assume they are idiots either. Find the middle ground, that's your job as a leader. If you can't hit the right note with that DivO, talk to his peers and see if they can help. Either by helping you understand, or by translating to that DivO.

DivOs need to look, listen, read, and learn. And ask questions. Lots of questions. And know what the books say. And not be afraid to say to their DH "but..." even when the DH tries to crap all over them.

DivOs, if your DH is one of those "crap down and forget" types, go find another DH as a mentor that you can talk to. NOT another division officer, no matter how salty that LDO may seem. Another DH.

1 comment:

Navy Grade 36 Bureaucrat said...

Awesome advice! Sadly, the SWO and SUB communities have a tendency for DHs to simply crap all over their JOs, which leads to the JOPA and an "us vs them" mentality, when the reality is that it's a team effort. My current DH is a great mentor, and takes the time to ensure I know what he's thinking and why. It pays off, because I can act on his behalf like he would have wanted, saving him time in the long run.