Friday, March 4, 2011

A Responsibility of Leadership

A well-disciplined organization is one in which all members of the organization are taught to work willingly, enthusiastically and skillfully as individuals and as a group, to fulfill the mission of the organization with an expectation of success.

The ultimate test of discipline is combat.  The only discipline which will surely meet the test of combat is one that is based on the fact that all hands have pride in a great service, a belief in its purposes, a belief in essential justice, and complete confidence in the superior character, skill, education and knowledge of its leaders.

All leaders must have continuous concern for their subordinates.  This concern must be evident at all times, not just when the subordinates get into trouble or when the leader want a special effort.  Leaders must know their people as individuals, and their men must realize and appreciate that their leaders do know them.  Foremost in each man's heart is the desire to be known, to be appreciated and understood, to be an individual in the eyes of his leader and not a nameless cog in the machine.

Admiral Forrest P. Sherman
Chief of Naval Operations
1949-1951

7 comments:

John Byron said...

If you want a look at naval leadership of the finest order, you will do no better than to review John Harvey's actions in the matter of the ENTERPRISE videos. We should all be proud of him.

Mike Lambert said...

Rubber Ducky,

Yes indeed. That is tomorrow's post. I got an excellent personal letter from Admiral Harvey on this very subject.

Vr/Mike

Anonymous said...

Agree.
However, there are still many current and former service people that still don't understand the Admiral's actions.

Anonymous said...

Read, "All the Ships at Sea" and then anything by Dan Gallery.

What Harvey did is actually unlawful.

Anyone want to explain how an admiral can hold NJP on officers over incidents more than 2 years old?

Anonymous said...

Anon at 9:11PM

Where did you get your law degree?

If it's unlawful, I await the legal challenge of those subjected to NJP. It is, in fact, NON JUDICIAL. It is administrative.

John Byron said...

Anon at March 4, 2011 9:11 PM:

Verbatim from page 51 of the investigation report: "In accordance with Part V of reference (c), nonjudicial punishment may not be imposed for offenses because the events investigated in this report occurred over two years ago...therefore, no punitive disciplinary action is recommended." And there was none taken. Administrative action yes, disciplinary no.

SWO Bubba said...

To Anonymous Sea Lawyer: No one in this case was taken to NJP (contrary to what CAPT Honors states). He was Detached for Cause, an administrative action. All the actions taken this week following the conclusion of the investigation were administrative. In fact, the investigation report clearly states Article 15 NJP was not an option since the acts were greater than 2 years old. Read the report at http://usfleetforcesfoia.info/enterprise_investigation.htm

Not only did Admiral Harvey exhibit superior leadership in handling this case, he demonstrated exceptional organizational communications.