Friday, September 6, 2013

The First Component of Naval Leadership

According to Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, "The first component of Naval leadership is personal example. Your subordinates will reflect your sincerity, enthusiasm, smart appearance, military behavior, technical competence, and coolness and courage under stress.

To be an effective leader you must first look and act like one." Perry instinctively understood this principle.

"The commodore was blunt, yet dignified. . . heavy and not graceful. . . held in awe by the junior officers and having little to do with them, seriously courteous to others. . . The ship seemed to have a sense of importance because he was on board."

From LEADERSHIP EMBODIED, Chapter 7, Mathew Calbraith Perry by Dr. Michael J. Crawford

2 comments:

running man said...

"Heavy and not graceful" Presumably a PRT failure in the navies of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Anonymous said...

Captain Lambert,

The first paragraph of this post are the words that I felt that I lived by for my entire Navy career, but that third paragraph indicates that the ADM did not necessarily live by the words that he authored.

Very Respectfully,
Navyman 834