CNO: Junior leader empowerment can help fix Navy

Nice words.

However, this is only one small slice of the picture. There are a great many things that go into making a successful division, a successful department, a successful crew, and a successful Navy.

There is no one leadership style which works all the time. There are very few organizations which don't have at least one "bad apple", and likely several typical "troublemakers" of various flavors. You can't have been in the military very long without running across dipsh*ts, dumb*sses, retards, and the whatever else you wish to call those who seem to want to make life harder and more miserable than it needs to be, sometimes for their own pleasure it seems.

Back when I was a Chief Selectee, going around with my charge book and speaking with all the Chiefs, Senior Chiefs, and Master Chiefs at my command (and my shore duty had a TON of them), the ONE CHIEF I remember most had one question for me and one charge, which have stuck with me ever since:

"Why didn't you make Chief sooner?" (I made it at my 17 year point.)

"Coming up in the Navy as you have, you've come across good Chiefs and bad Chiefs. Don't be the bad Chief."

It is the responsibility of those in leadership roles to LEAD. This means, among a great many other things, mentoring those under you so that they grow, mature, and move up on their leadership potential as part of their duties and responsibilities...because ideally, one day those below you will take over YOUR job as you, in turn, move on.

Leadership isn't a single layer of individuals, clearly defined as "Chiefs and Officers". From the moment the lowest enlisted starts making rank, his leadership role starts increasing. Far too often we forget that even the E-2 or E-3 is a leader in his/her own right. Make it so, and foster that leadership, as they in turn continue to follow those above them.

And I respectfully submit that if the sum total of your own leadership ability is to berate those below you for "not doing their jobs" without helping DEFINE their jobs for them, then you need to hang up your hat and move on to other pastures. The WORST command I was at was loaded with Chiefs, Senior Chiefs, and Master Chiefs who liked to go around telling all the First Class Petty Officers that they weren't doing their jobs...yet they had absolutely no time to explain to them WHAT "their jobs" were that they weren't getting done. Very intelligent, very competent technical petty officers in their own divisions...and yet, nothing they did was "doing their job". Funny, though...these same petty officers made sure their divisions got their work done, and done right and on time. They were also quite fond of giving these petty officers "responsibilities" to get things done, but denying them any of the "authority" required to accomplish them.

That command truly SUCKED. It wasn't until these people filtered out (a LONG process) and finally I moved to another command at a First Class...one in which the XO told me himself on my check-in:

"I expect you to run your division. If you do not run it, I will run it for you."

I took that and RAN with it as far as I could go...and I went a loooooong way with it.

My advice to people who may find themselves in a command where they're potential is being snubbed? Find yourself a mentor, first of all...inside or outside the command. And TAKE the authority required to do your job, whether those above you like it or not.

I fully agree that we need to empower our Jr Leaders. The question is HOW?

First - use your heads! If you are the OOD, Inport or Underway, and you get a call that there is FLOODING in Compartment 03-10-1-L. THINK before you order away a party to fight FLOODING. What was wrong with the call in the first place?

If we look at 7th Fleet then I think the answer is going to be, go back to the way we do things in the rest of the Navy. For some reason, we seem to have forgotten how to do business in the forward deployed area of Japan. Training always comes first. As one of my Commanding Officers used to say, Train like you Fight.

Let's look at that. Train like you Fight. Just a couple of examples:
Firefighting: Are your firehoses charged? Dragging around a Firehose full of water is a lot different than an empty one. Is the Compartment you are entering full of smoke and dark? There are good smoke generators then do not make a mess. Do the Electricians actually pull the fuses or just Simulate it? Fighting in the dark is really different. Have you ever seen a really gung-ho firefighting team enter a radio space with fully charged salt water hoses? I HAVE!
Damage Control: Once again - IS IT DARK. Smoke and wet - no - I do not want you to flood a space, but get wood and cut shoring! Startup and run your gear and make sure it works.

Training is used to make our junior Leaders effective and feel confident that they can do the jobs assigned. Once they know their jobs, LET THEM DO IT. Step in only if asked. Yes they may take longer and yes sometimes they may not do it right, so what? As long as no one is hurt they learn.

too bad that can't happen. not when e7 refuse to let that happen. the navy, unlike the marines, does not teach nor empower leadership to enlisted until they put on their anchors. unlike the navy, marines are taught leadership in bootcamp and that carries on to the fleet where you have senior pfc and lcpl where you were held accountable for those lower than you. in the navy, e1 and e6 are buddies who goes out drinking. and to top that off, you have e7 who only make rank because he lateral move to a mos that was wide open to promotion and they have zero experience in their mos while micromanaging everything. this is what failure is and this is why empowering junior leadership will never happen in the navy.