Personal Leadership Philosophy

Good morning Master Chief Marlatt and Senior Enlisted Leadership Class 66. My leadership philosophy has been heavily influenced by my career as a Surfman and some of the people I have served with. First, what is a good leader? Many of my peers would say a person who is a good lifeboat driver. Does that person have the guys to cross a rough bar at night? Those are things that I think a lot of Surfmen would say a good leader is.

I would differ with that. Those are characteristics of a leader, things we want a leader to do. My definition of a leader is a person who can form a group, unite a team and then lead them towards a goal no matter how unpopular, uncomfortable or unpleasant that task is. Leadership and leaders are not always positive. Some of my biggest influences came from people who showed me how not to act and how not to be. My first Officer in Charge(OIC) was a fantastic boat driver who taught me a lot about driving a lifeboat in heavy weather. He also had an incredibly bad temper and was a

grouch. In addition to boat driving his grouchiness taught me that as an OIC you set the tone for your command and it is up to you to pick between miserable and up beat and positive.
Unfortunately that OIC was not the only incredibly negative person that I worked for. This second OIC did not spend a lot of time at the unit but when he did he was toxic. He had his group of insiders who could do no wrong and the rest of us were treated like dirt. I don’t know if he was a competent Surfman, I never saw him underway in rough weather, but the boat crews were not ready for heavy weather. Compounding this was the fact that he asked for a person to be fleeted up into the Executive Petty Officer.(XPO) This person was not proficient with his craft as a Surfman and way too young too young of a petty officer to be the XPO of a station. When confronted with difficult decisions he took the easy way out every time. The biggest influence these two people had was to cause me to make a vow that if every given the chance I would do what was right, no matter the cost. I also vowed to be present at the unit, be involved with people and to stand up for the whole crew, not just my favorites.
The first leadership behavior that I need to work on is to look for more feedback on how my words or actions affect others. I need to remember how quiet I am and how this can make it appear that I am unhappy or grouchy. This will make me more approachable, especially to people who don’t know me well or who are also quiet or shy. This is something that I have worked hard on over the past year, being more approachable, working to over come my natural quietness and to socialize more with the crew. I have also been very conscious of the fact that people will listen to me because of my position and I make sure to be clear on what I am trying to communicate.
The second leadership behavior is very closely related to my being quiet. That is to tell more stories of encouragement about the work of others. It isn’t good enough today to say that a person was doing their job and that is all the thanks they deserved. The millennial generation has changed and to be a good leader I need to change with them. Words and praise cost very little but can have a big effect on the people at the unit. Praise doesn’t need to be over the top because people would see right through that, but it is easy to praise somebody for things like their appearance and bearing, or seeing them do something to fix a problem and given them some immediate praise.
The last leadership behavior is also related (surprise!) to my quietness. Because I am quiet and soft spoken I sometimes don’t inspire a shared vision or get people to work towards a common goal. I often do have a shared vision with the command cadre and senior members of the crew but I need to communicate this to the most junior people too. The can be done through posting leadership goals and a vision of where the unit should go. Spend more time talking with junior members, both is a formal setting like a town hall meeting, or while out and about around the unit. In addition to getting to know people this is a good time to communicate that vision and enlist others into striving for that goal.
My personal values and my own leadership philosophy are much more upbeat that you would expect from reading my leadership influences.

My values were mainly instilled in me by my parents. They insisted on honesty and integrity above all else. Following that was respect. My father taught me that unless I treated others with respect they would not do the same for me. I was lucky enough to attend a speech given by James H. Webb to a group of Naval Academy midshipmen. In addition to his thoughts on risk taking and courage he said something that I will never forget. He told those midshipman that they needed to put integrity and moral courage above all else, including their career. If faced with compromising their integrity or lacking the mental courage to do what is right even though it is the difficult decision, he said that that person should vote with their feet and leave the service. That stuck with me all these years and will till the day I

die.
My personal leadership philosophy has been the same for my last three assignments. Be honest. If you aren’t honest your crew will know it and eventually it will come back to bite you. Live by the Golden Rule. Respect others and they will respect you. This will create a positive command climate, a key to success. Last, you have to be technically competent. What is the point of spending all the time, money and effort into maintaining a station and lifeboats if you don’t have the skill to assist others when needed.