Chapter 1 Leadership, Supervision, and Training

CHAPTER 1 LEADERSHIP, SUPERVISION, AND TRAINING Basically the world has three types of people: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who don’t know what’s happening. Today’s petty officer must work diligently to stay away from the last group and should direct all energy toward the first two groups. As a leader, you must look and listen to what is happening within your work environment; then, at the right time, you must make things happen. The purpose of this chapter is to help you build a base for self-development. Thus, you can use this information in building your own leadership style. The first section of this chapter tells you about the basics of leadership. The second section explains the relationship between leadership and human behavior. Why is this chapter so important? Because the Navy needs professional leaders who have high standards, who are highly skilled in their roles, and who are willing to study and learn to achieve their full potential. Being a Navy leader has always been a tough, demanding, but rewarding job because of the high standards and responsibilities involved. The challenges facing today’s leader are greater than ever before. FUNDAMENTALS OF LEADERSHIP Learning Objectives: Identify the fundamentals of leadership. Recall the Navy’s policy to provide leader development opportunities and training. Recognize the relationships between leadership and people. We need men and women who by their personal integrity, their sense of moral purpose, and their acceptance of the requirement for hard work will exemplify the best in the leadership traditions of the Navy and of our country. —Admiral Arleigh A. Burke (USN RET) (Former Chief of Naval Operations, 1955-1961) Fundamentals of leadership is another term for basic principles of leadership. These terms are used interchangeably in many books. They boil down to the art by which a leader influences people to work toward a specific goal. The art of influencing involves reasoning ability, experience, and personal example. Until you grasp the basics of leadership, you will be unable to apply the more in-depth principles. For example, you had to learn to crawl before you learned to walk, and you had to walk before you learned to run. Where do leadership basics come from? What determines their limits or capacities? How do they relate to people? These questions are answered in the following paragraphs. WHERE DO LEADERSHIP FUNDAMENTALS COME FROM? We learn many fundamentals, or basic principles, from the experiences of our successful leaders; we learn from their mistakes and successes. For example, suppose you saw your leader or supervisor do something that ended in negative results. You would then reason that if you repeated the same action in a similar situation, you could expect the same results. As children pattern their behavior after their parents, we pattern our leadership behavior after people who are successful leaders. WHAT GOVERNS LEADERSHIP ACTIONS? Every society sets up laws to govern its people. The Navy, being a unique service, is a society within itself. Navy ships are literally floating cities, and each ship is an individual society within the naval society as a whole. Naval ships have their own form of government (the chain of command) and a system of laws that sets their operating limits. The petty officer, as a leader, fits into this “chain of command” as an official representative of the naval society. The petty officer’s job is to be sure his or her leadership actions conform to the rules and regulations governing that chain of command. The publications that govern the rules and regulations of the petty officer’s actions are U.S. Navy Regulations, Manual for Courts-Martial, and Standard Organization and Regulations of the U.S. Navy. 1-1