US Navy Sets New Standards for Future COs

Stars and Stripes ^ | 6/14/12 | Slavin

[pabianice]

The June 4 instruction makes command leadership school mandatory and sets servicewide standards for command qualifications that had been left up to the myriad officer communities within the Navy.

The directive comes in the wake of dozens of dismissals of commanding officers in recent years. Ten commanding officers have been relieved this year for problems ranging from mishandling classified materials to extramarital affairs and personal misconduct. Another 23 commandersw were relieved in 2011.

The biggest change comes within the Navy’s surface warfare community, where department heads will be subject to a 360-degree evaluation pilot program beginning no later than June 2013, according to the instruction. Although details of the program have not yet been announced, 360-degree evaluations typically include input from subordinates and peers, as well as supervisors.

[AndyJackson]

Retired Capt. Mike Abrashoff, who supported 360-degree evaluations, said at the time that consulting subordinates aided him when he decided not to recommend his executive officer for command.

So he does what a good CO does and walks around the command to find out what is going on and how his subordinates are doing. That is very different than a 360 which is a bureaucratic process with a lot of high paid consultants wasting everyone's time.

Actually, he is not a good CO because if he had to talk to the XOs subordinates to decide not to recommend him for command, he was not doing his job to mentor the XO, after sufficient time at which he would know whether the XO was CO material or not.

[Night Hides Not]

The best leadership training I ever received was during my first ARTEP. Why was it so valuable? I flunked it. Not my platoon, not my squad leaders, but me. It didn't matter that I had been handed the platoon the week before, while at NBC School at Vilseck.

In other words, it all came down on me...a real live lesson out of the Platoon Leader's Handbook! LOL!

From that point on, I was determined to do what I thought was best, because it was my a$$ on the line. At times, I was a thorn in my superiors' side, and I knew that I could often be an SOB.

Was I an effective leader? Good question. I had more hits than whiffs, i.e. passed ARTEPs, IG inspections, pretty much all the definables. Had great OER's from all but the two raters that I had clashes with, but that's the breaks. Virtually all memories of my eight years in the service are awesome, and the years have washed away the few bad memories.

[matginzac]

All you guys have made excellent posts which I totally agrre with...
To add to pionts made, I’d say the “leadership” in the military services have just demonstrated how they “manage”, not lead by passing ok-ing the repael of DADT to give O’bummer a political win.
It was NOT good for the service and did NOT enhance the capabilty of our military to kill bad guys who want to hurt us.
I served 10 yrs as an O and supported hubs another 20 while he went up the chain...seen it all, heard it all, know a lot of the players personally and hated a lot of it.
Again, you guys are absolutely right!
(As for Graf, I’ll see your Graf and raise you six more females I knew who made it to 0-6 who had no business getting promoted...)

[matginzac]

All you guys have made excellent posts which I totally agrre with...
To add to points made, I’d say the “leadership” in the military services have just demonstrated how they “manage”, not lead by passing ok-ing the repeal of DADT to give O’bummer a political win.
It was NOT good for the service and did NOT enhance the capabilty of our military to kill bad guys who want to hurt us.
I served 10 yrs as an O and supported hubs another 20 while he went up the chain...seen it all, heard it all, know a lot of the players personally and hated a lot of it.
Again, you guys are absolutely right!
(As for Graf, I’ll see your Graf and raise you six more females I knew who made it to 0-6 who had no business getting promoted...)

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

“That’s not to say it should be strictly a popularity contest as their superiors certainly also need to assess the individual’s ability to accomplish the missions they’ve been assigned.”

General George Patton was like by his men, no matter how tough he was at times with them, and hated by many of his superiors. But he always accomplished the mission. In my opinion the two best generals in WWII were tank commanders...Patton and Rommel.