Getting Respect: Differentiating between people

You would think the phrase "I treat people all the same" would be a good mark of true equality, but when I hear someone say it, I shudder. You're not supposed to treat people the same. In fact, doing so is a key reason why junior personnel are losing respect for the chain of command.

Let's start with giving mentoring time. Personnel that have lots of problems tend to consume our time. You have to write counseling chits, which get stored in a binder. Then when you realize a Sailor isn't going to last, you have to bring in legal, which involves more paperwork. Then, since Sailors have rights, you have to give them time to talk to the defense legal people, even when it is painfully obvious that the Sailor is in the wrong. When it's all said and done, you've dumped a lot of time on a crappy Sailor, only to have them swear at you in a final form of disrespect on their way out the door.

Yup, been there, done that. And good leaders will continue to do this.

Getting respect: Sometimes you just need to do

The last few months, I keep hearing about "respect," typically as in "someone is not respecting me as a (chief/division officer/naval officer/petty officer/whatever)." I am told that Millenials don't respect their chain of command, and that if we could only harken back to the old days, we would be far better for it.

To that I say, bullshit.

Final Multiple Score for your Sailors

CNP put out some good gouge on what makes up your final multiple score:

http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=83528

I thought this part was interesting:

6. Service in Pay Grade has been reduced from seven percent to a weight of one percent of FMS for advancement to E4 through E6.
7. The Good Conduct Medal and the Reserve Meritorious Service Medal will no longer contribute award points in the FMS. 

So basically, less points for simply hanging around without getting in trouble.

MCPON nails it on Senior Enlisted Academy, and a relook at DIVO leadership

I have to admit, every time I read about the MCPON, it reaffirms that we picked the right Sailor for the job. He nails it again on Senior Enlisted Academy:

http://www.navytimes.com/article/20140210/NEWS/302100006/Senior-enlisted-academy-shakeup

Essentially, he wants it laser-focused on Senior Chiefs, make it mandatory, and reshape the course so that some is done via distance and only a few, intensive weeks of in-resident training. His goal seems to be that every Master Chief not only be a deckplate leader, but also have a toolbox of leadership traits to be able to lead across a large command.

When you make the jump from division to department, it requires a whole new set of tools, and almost all of our leaders are left finding those tools on their own. The Navy in general is more inclined to OJT a lot of training, including leadership training. Why are we surprised then when commands don't get EVALs in on time? Or when we allow bureaucracy to slow down what should be quick processes? A big part of that is our department leadership never gets the tools to lead groups of over 20 people.

There is one piece where I disagree with the MCPON though:

We don't need no leaders!

How many folks have heard this joke:

- A submarine that deploys with just enlisted does the job well, but comes back dirty
- A submarine that deploys with just chiefs comes back clean, but no mission done
- A submarine that deploys with just officers...well, we're still looking for it

I think I heard this about a thousand times as a JO onboard a submarine. The implication was that junior officers and chiefs only cared about the superficial things (like cleanliness) and that the real knowledge was at the enlisted level. You can find more such sentiment here: http://www.goatlocker.org/resources/cpo/humor/humor.htm. This sentiment has been amplified by books talking about "flattening the organization" and "leading horizontally."

So where does it say Chiefs will train Junior Officers?

I thought you'd never ask!

http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/reference/nec/NECOSVol1/Documents/05-NAVSTDs_CH-51,%20Jul12.pdf

Thanks to a friendly Senior Chief for pointing this out to me, I actually had never seen it in writing before.  It's a useful document to serve as an understanding of what exactly is expected of the various enlisted ranks in the Navy.

I couldn't find a similar document for officers.  My guess is we simply step up or down accordingly to fill the role we're given.