Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Seven Leadership Principles for the Information Dominance Corps

"The most important criteria for succeeding in the Navy, as in most places, is to attain professional competence. Seniors, peers, and juniors all judge us based on our basic knowledge of our business. Generally, the greater breadth and depth of professional competence, the more opportunities you will have to be successful. I hope this revelation doesn’t shock anyone, but it is important to emphasize. I believe individuals will be more successful if they spend time and energy on improving their professional skills, rather than wasting time trying to get face time or maneuver to find the right assignment. Depth and breadth in our field is immediately recognized. For officers and enlisted members, the best way in our business to expand professional competence (and professional reputation) is to go to sea and other operational assignments and do well there.

I believe there are a handful of fundamental principles that, when followed, can lead to success. These principles, I believe, apply to all members of our business, regardless of Service, specialty, personal or professional background and skills, paygrade, position or seniority. What are the fundamentals?

They are:
(1) professional competence,
(2) relevance,
(3) dedication,
(4) sense of urgency,
(5) attention to detail,
(6) leadership and
(7) maintaining the highest ethical standards.
There are other attributes of the successful Information Dominance Corps professional, and I will discuss them as well." (in later blog posts).

Vice Admiral Jack Dorsett
Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Dominance
"The Art of Success in Naval Intelligence"

2 comments:

Anchored said...

awesome book with lots of great wisdom. pertinent to being a SWO as well. thanks for sharing it!

1630 CDR retired said...

Interesting that the admiral is putting forth leadership principles. Some of us recall a guy with a very short fuse and was mostly just an ill tempered senior officer. Not having contact with him since he became a flag, my only hope is that he has grown out of his habit for treating subordinates poorly. I know it probably came from the infamous SWO training he had as a JO, but that just becomes a cop out at the commander and above paygrades. There was a rumor going around the five sided palace that Pete Pace gave him some personal counseling. Maybe that worked.