One Down

Lessons in leadership: Your first tour will not go how you want it to.

The end of my first tour just reached its end. Serving on USS Lake Champlain, America FINEST Cruiser, has been a wild ride. For starters it was by pure chance I was able to serve onboard and I consider myself one of the luckiest junior officers alive.  I joined the ship during its deployment the same year I graduated school making me one of the fastest turnaround times to put myself in the point of friction of the Navy. Unfortunately, the slow aspect of “project sea power” coupled with not wanting to be a SWO in the first place caused me to be short sighted. I was so distracted with how miserable I was my quals suffered, I failed to learn quickly, and I dreaded every second of bridge watch. I could only think of all the mistakes I made leading up to whatever moment I stared into the infinite horizon of blue. I was a pretty sad undesignated SWO and that sentiment was often found in more people than just myself.

              Past that, I did learn from the opportunities being a SWO did afford me. I was essentially served up a SWO sandwich and learned to take some big bites until it was finished! I was able to visit Guam, Hawaii, Cabo San Lucas Mexico, Kodiak Alaska, San Francisco California, and Seattle Washington on my port stops. Each stop taught me to make the best with where I was. I could not be more blessed to have the crew and wardroom onboard. When we dive into the real meat and potatoes of being a SWO here’s some reflections of my first tour:

1.       What I did right

I came aboard swinging in the wardroom and had high expectations for myself and the sailors I led.

2.       What I did wrong

I came aboard swinging in the wardroom and had high expectations of myself and the sailors I led.

On coming in hot

Now both of those sound the same but I assure you they are different and before any JO checks into their command I plead for you to heed my words. Be excited to learn, if you can’t find anything to do in the workday, I guarantee you can complete something as hard as a SWO ENG Professional Qualification Standards (PQS) within a week underway. Swing for learning hard! (But not too hard)

What I did was procrastinate my PQS. I pushed hard but completion became an emergency, and other people don’t appreciate it when an emergency to qualify becomes their emergency to help you. I essentially dropped my metaphorical heart on the table, stabbing it, and asked someone to help from bleeding out. It will strain relationships, personal and professional. Like any relationship put in good communication, clear expectations, and hard work and I guarantee you will scramble like I had to.

On expectations

Every day you (should) stand in front of your division, platoon, maintainers, air-crew, or whatever you lead. There is one thing that will hurt you leading effectively within two days: Inconsistency. You have the first day to set expectations, and every following day to lower them. This may sound ridiculous from the perspective of someone who hasn’t checked in but I assure you, the most valuable thing you will do for your sailors is hold them to your word from day one. Set a foundation and do not let it be eroded unless you carefully consider why you will no longer follow or uphold an aspect of what you originally set. For example. My late policy was not enforced to what I claimed it would be. I claimed that if a sailor was late without notifying Chief or myself it would lead to a counseling chit. Needless to say, It led to numerous counseling chits being issued the first month but there reached a point where there’s only so much a piece of paper could do. Some sailors were sent to the Chief’s mess for a verbal scolding and eventually with the ship soon decommissioning we let the occasional tardiness punishments slip. It’s one thing to make a plan and a whole other to enforce it knowing those things will have an impact on a sailor’s career.

 On Opportunities

The most noticeable things I learned from being a SWO was that I have the opportunities to shape my career into specialties more than any other officer community in the Navy. Take the time to look into where else these opportunities can be found and take full advantage of them. It’s your career so own it, lest the Navy will place you into the nearest missing billet.