"in putting a man in a position with a job to do, and let him do it – [and] give him hell if he does not perform . . . We . . . capitalize on the capabilities of our individual people rather than . . . make automatons [out] of them. This builds the essential pride of service and sense of accomplishment. [And] if it results in a certain amount of cockiness, I am [all] for it.”
Your title should read "The Navy used to believe"
ReplyDeleteThis Navyman still believes it. So do others. And, it is successful where it is practiced.
ReplyDeleteI side with 31 Knot. The navy still gives men jobs and tells them to perform them regardless of the difficulties. Doing the job and overcoming the difficulties makes for cocky sailors. We were a cocky lot. :)
ReplyDeleteWhile some of our leadership still practices this, I do not think it is practiced enough. The issue I see is too many times leaders are afraid of letting their personnel succeed or fail at a task, because if the individual fails the thinking is it will reflect upon them as a leadership failure. We should help give rudder when needed, but allow our personnel to run on their own, fall hard at times and still finish the job. The failure is only if we did not learn from any mistakes made when completing a task. You need to fall and earn some scars as the scars go well with the cockiness.
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