One Commander to another in the p-way on the C-Ring.
"John, I think you'll find that the toughest part of working on this staff is learning good leadership traits without ever having the benefit of seeing any." hmmm
Let's hope he was just messing with you.
Let's hope he was just messing with you.
7 comments:
If you failed to learn good leadership traits in the fleet as an Ensign and JG, you never will. If you have the misfortune to start out in places like Pentagon or major staff, you never will. You'll learn other traits that serve well in a major bureaucracy, but leadership isn't one of them.
As HMS Defiante wrote, if you don't already have those traits, you probably won't develop them in the Pentagon.
In that situation, one is more likely to learn traits that pass as good leadership but are not. That is perhaps even more dangerous to the organization.
@ HMS. Would disagree a bit. You can learn a lot about good leadership from the lack of leadership in many places. Even bad leaders have something you can learn, even if it's knowing to do the opposite of what you saw from them when given your time to shine.
To Gary O, one needs to know the difference before a discrimination filter is applied. What works very well in the Pentagon or major staff, is a disaster at unit level leadership, but how would a newbie know that?
Agree with you to an extent. I did not have good leadership my first 2 tours in regards to who the leadership was suppose to be, however I did find good leadership in those tours with those who worked around me. I would hope most folks regardless how junior they may be have a basic idea of what constitutes good leadership. guess I view it like the pornography test...you know it when you see it.
Gary,
I was lucky beyond belief in my first ship. Senior 06 in command, LCDR XO, excellent department head. Only line officer in Engineering with all the rest being LDO, CWO, or Senior Chiefs. Permanently forward deployed. I can't tell you how many conversations with my immediate peers were prefaced with a, "come alongside shipmate!"
The First LT or Bosun wrote me up 5 times on that ship in a year. I don't actually know another officer who was ever even written up on charges a single time. I think I set a record. But it was the First LT who taught me the best practices for Officer of the Deck and not at all in a negative way. On watch he was a very different animal.
I learned the other parts of leadership from the XO and skipper as each of my 'crimes' was investigated at XOI and the XO dismissed me and the CHENG to chew some ass off both of my nemeses.
One of the take-aways from that first tour was that a JO looking out for the welfare of his men and with a due appreciation for the mission, can go to the limit against petty tyranny and walk away unscathed.
Years later on 3 star Fleet staffs, I used to despair of LTS and LCDRs who I could easily believe had never even been to sea so limited was their understanding and appreciation for the people that worked for them.
The only time I appeared in the Pentagon during almost 30 years of service, an Army Colonel bustled over to ask me if he could get me a cup of coffee. It was a kind of surreal experience. I dealt with N85 et al for the last 10 years of active duty but they came to me. There was something about work in the Pentagon that enamored the officers I knew there with the idea of traveling to San Diego, particularly in winter, to 'conference' with us low level SPAWAR minions on our turf. Whenever I had to go to them, they had their pet contractors in Crystal City arrange for the meeting in Crystal City.
I'm pretty much done proving I'm not a robot. I commented on Jame's site but decided that I hate robot protocols from people too lazy to maintain.
You know, you intel/cyber war guys?
IT SPEAKS VOLUMES WHEN YOU CAN'T BE BOTHERED BY ACTUALLY MAINTAINING THE CYBER ON THE HOMEFRONT.
YEAH, I KNOW, YOU GOT AN ALGORITHM FOR THAT.
AND YOU KNEVER WONDERED WHERE SNOWDEN CAME FROM TO EAT YOUR LUNCH.
A little personal attention does wonders in that regard, but you wouldn't know that.
out here.
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