Choices - Make Good Ones

Redemption through remediation

An honorable retirement as a PO1 after 20 years Service.

Sailors are everything to our great Navy.  I have cared deeply for all of my Sailors, though some required some really "tough love" to see their own limitless potential and then pursue it.  The Sailor in this photo with me was one of my "tough love" Sailors.  Our best communicator at the time, he was persistently and predictably late.  Verbal counseling, threats from his Chief, written counseling from his division officer and chiding from the Executive Officer - nothing worked.  Three months from retirement he appeared before me at Captain's Mast.  All because he repeated;y chose not to come to work on time. The punishment was severe, reduction from E-6 to E-5 and a healthy fine.  20 years in the Navy and forced to retire as an E-5!

Fortunately, the story has a better ending than that.  That Captain's Mast and the personal mentoring that followed turned things around for this Sailor and others who were headed in the same direction.  The Sailor changed his behavior and became a better example for his peers and subordinates.  A week before his retirement, I reinstated him to E-6.  He earned it back and in the intervening years, has turned his life completely around.  He's Vice President for IT at one of the world's finest banks.

Captain Donald E. Elam assumes command of NIOC Maryland

Navy Information Operations Command Maryland (NIOC MD) held a change of command ceremony July 26 at Fort Meade's McGlachlin Parade Field.

Vice Admiral Michael S. Rogers, commander, U.S. Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. 10th Fleet, presided over the ceremony in which Captain Donald E. Elam relieved Captain Timothy J. White as commanding officer of NIOC MD.

General Mattis on Reading

For my protege, LCDR Christopher Nelson, at the Navy War College.

"Thanks to my reading, I have never been caught flat-footed by any situation, never at a loss for how any problem has been addressed (successfully or unsuccessfully) before. It doesn’t give me all the answers, but it lights what is often a dark path ahead."

General James Mattis, USMC

Top 50 Thinker - Liz Wiseman

When it was launched in 2001, the T50 was the first-ever global ranking of management thinkers. It has been published every two years since.

In the intervening decade, the scope of the T50 has broadened to include a range of activities that support its mission of identifying and sharing the best management thinking in the world.

That mission is based on three core beliefs:

    Ideas have the power to change the world

    Management is essential to human affairs

    New thinking can create a better future.

A friend and mentor, Liz Wiseman, aligns well with T50's core beliefs.  She has shared those ideas with many middle and senior management level leaders in the Navy over the past several years.  She's taken her "Multipliers - How the best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter" seminar to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and to the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.  Hundreds have benefited from her seminar and thousands from reading her book.  I've distributed her book to dozens of senior leaders in the Information Warfare Community.

I hope some of the readers here will agree with me that she belongs among the TOP 50 Thinkers in Management/Leadership today.

You can vote for her HERE.  Liz Wiseman, President, The Wiseman Group.

Thank you for your consideration.

Wednesday Thoughts

Always bring something to the table that will make you more welcome.

Critics are good. They are the ones who show they care about what you are doing. Their criticism is affirmation that you are doing SOMETHING.

Make sure the artifacts of your life show purpose and meaning.

Benjamin Zander's rule #6 - "Don't take yourself so damn seriously".

Command is the zenith of military achievement.

Be worthy to lead. Then, lead a life of consequence.

Think as a man of action; act as a man of thought.

Honor never grows old.

The truth provides a fixed point of reference.

Audacity matters. Be audacious !

Givers, Matchers and Takers

When it comes to when and how we help others, most of us fit into one of three categories: Givers, who help others unconditionally, demanding nothing in return. Matchers, who usually only help those who have helped them. Takers, those who demand help but never offer. Which are you? From Sean Blanda at www.99u.com

Command

You may only get to do this once. Make sure you do it right. Some of your peers only want to survive the tour. Make sure you thrive in command. Make it EXTRAORDINARY !

The Importance of the Cause

“Require nothing unreasonable of your officers and men, but see that whatever is required be punctually complied with. Reward and punish every man according to his merit, without partiality or prejudice; hear his complaints; if well founded, redress them; if otherwise, discourage them, in order to prevent frivolous ones. Discourage vice in every shape, and impress upon the mind of every man, from the first to the lowest, the importance of the cause, and what is it they are contending for.”

–– GEN George Washington

U.S. NIOC YOKOSUKA Change of Command

R 190200Z JUL 13
FM NAVIOCOM YOKOSUKA JA
TO COMTENTHFLT
CTF 1070
INFO CNO WASHINGTON DC
COMNAVCYBERFOR VIRGINIA BEACH VA
CENINFODOM CORRY STATION PENSACOLA FL
COMNAVNETWARCOM VIGINIA BEACH VA
NAVIOCOM FT GEORGE G MEADE MD
NAVIOCOM MEDINA TX
NAVIOCOM HAWAII
NAVIOCOM FT GORDON GA
NAVIOCOM BAHRAIN
NAVIOCOM MENWITH HILL UK
NAVIOCOM MISAWA JA
NAVIOCOM DENVER CO
NAVIOCOM PENSACOLA FL
NAVIOCOM WHIDBEY ISLAND WA
NAVIOCOM SUGAR GROVE WV
NAVIOCOM SAN DIEGO CA
NAVIOCOM SUITLAND
NAVIODET KANEOHE BAY HI
NAVIODET SEOUL KOR
NAVIODET SAN ANTONIO TX
NAVIODET GROTON CT
NAVIODET YAKIMA WA
NAVIODET ALICE SPRINGS NT AS
NAVIODET DIGBY UK
COMFLEACT YOKOSUKA JA
ALL TENANT COMMANDS FLEACT YOKOSUKA JA
NCTAMS PAC HONOLULU HI
NAVCYBERDEFOPSCOM VIRGINIA BEACH VA
NAVCOMTELSTA FAR EAST YOKOSUKA JA
COMNAVPERSCOM MILLINGTON TN//PERS472/PERS455//
NAVIOCOM YOKOSUKA JA
BT
UNCLAS
SUBJ/ASSUMPTION OF COMMAND
MSGID/GENADMIN/-/JUL/-//
REF/A/DOC/SECNAV/16SEP1990//
REF/B/MSG/COMNAVPERSCOM MILLINGTON TN/051316Z DEC 12//
NARR/REF A IS U.S. NAVY REGULATIONS, REF B IS BUPERS ORDERS 3412//
POC/TEWS, J/LT/COMM: 011-81-468-16-7655/DSN: 315-243-7655//
RMKS/1. EFFECTIVE 0200Z, 19 JULY 2013, CDR MICHAEL C. ELLIOT, USN, RELIEVED CDR MICHAEL L. DOUGLAS, USN, AS COMMANDING OFFICER OF UNITED STATES NAVY INFORMATION OPERATIONS COMMAND YOKOSUKA JAPAN.

ALL COMMAND DIRECTIVES AND INSTRUCTIONS REMAIN IN EFFECT UNTIL CANCELLED OR SUPERSEDED.//
BT

Change of Command - NIOC Menwith Hill

ON THURSDAY, 18 JUL 2013, CDR CLARENCE FRANKLIN JR., USN, RELIEVED CDR MUSSELWHITE, USN, AS COMMANDING OFFICER NAVIOCOM  MENWITH HILL.

ALL ORDERS, DIRECTIVES, NOTICES AND INSTRUCTIONS PREVIOUSLY ISSUED REMAIN IN EFFECT UNTIL CANCELLED OR SUPERCEDED.

U.S. NAVIOCOM YOKOSUKA JAPAN Change of Command

Very proud that Commander Michael C. Elliot (my Ops officer when I was CO of NSGA Yokosuka) assumes command of our former command today on Friday, 19 July.  He relieves Commander Mike Douglas.  Another former JO, LCDR Andrew T. Reeves is the Executive Officer.  A former PO3 has returned as the Command Master Chief - Cedric Rawlinson.  What an awesome opportunity for all involved.  Looking forward to EXTRAORDINARY things from this team.  BZ!!

Freedom to act based on responsibility

“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.” 

- Robert A. Heinlein

Navy Grade 36 Bureaucrat offers some thoughts on Reducing Administrative Distractions

Goto this LINK.

CHANGE OF COMMAND Center for Information Dominance Unit Corry Station

Commander Chris Bryant assumed command of CID Unit Corry Station on 11 July 2013.