Leadership Lessions from the United States Naval Academy

Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy – Don’t Bilge Your Teammates

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StrategyDriven Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval AcademyBilge (n): nonsense; worthless and vain matter
Bilge (v): to damage, to fail or expel a student

Dictionary.com

Effective teamwork demands that each team member value and respect the others with whom they are working. Nothing diminishes this more than when one team member openly attacks or in some way seeks to diminish the value and respect of another.[wcm_restrict plans=”25541, 25542, 25653″]

Bilging your teammate

How do people bilge their teammates? Bilging takes place in several forms and fashions some of which include:

  • publically airing out the shortcoming of a teammate
  • blaming others for team shortfalls
  • one upping a teammate publicly
  • taking credit for the actions of others
  • being a tattle tale especially if unsolicited

The team is only as strong as its weakest link

A team’s performance can only be as good as its lowest performing member. While one might feel some justification or gain a sense of personal importance by putting others down, the act itself only serves to disenfranchise the targeted individuals; diminishing their performance and risking the same of other team members who now fear that they will be subject to similar putdowns.

Be a leader

Teams succeed when team members value and respect each other. Value and respect is gained not by covering up for an individual’s shortcomings but by constructively helping them to recognize and overcome these challenges. As their performance improves, so too does that of the team. The weakest link is strengthened.

Not bilging a teammate is about being a team player and owning the team’s results as though they were your own. By coaching instead of bilging, you forfeit a momentary sense of personal satisfaction, importance, or superiority and instead embraces team-centric accountability that serves to strengthen the team and enhance its performance.

Final Thought…

Every team has stronger and weaker members. Regardless, all team members should help their teammates improve their performance using the appropriate feedback mechanisms that include the private, constructive correction of undesired behaviors as well as the public, positive reinforcement of desired behaviors.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”25541, 25542, 25653″]

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About the Author

is a StrategyDriven Principal and Class of 1992 graduate from the United States Naval Academy. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

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Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy – Human Connection

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StrategyDriven Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy“The sweetest sound to anyone’s ears is the sounds of his own name.”

Robert C. Lee (1888 – 1971)
Rear Admiral, United States Navy

From their first days as Plebes (freshman) at the United States Naval Academy, midshipman are taught that all people are social creatures who need to connect with others; to be valued and respected. They learn that unstoppable teams are first created through knowledge, value, and respect for each other.[wcm_restrict plans=”25541, 25542, 25653″]

Beyond knowing just the names of their classmates, individuals who are critically important to their success during the indoctrination process, their four years at the academy, and their years of service in the United States Navy, midshipman are also required to know the hometown, family names, and a unique like or quality about each classmate within their assigned unit (company). Consequently, these strangers, brought together from every state, territory, and allied nation, go from being complete strangers to being deeply familiar with each other quickly; creating a knowledge, value, and respect for each person as an individual and contributor to their team.

Through this practice, every midshipman gains a sense that who they are and where they come from is important to their classmates and their classmates become important to them.

This lesson is important in business and in life. Business professionals need to not only know and properly use the names of their seniors, peers, and subordinates, but to establish an even greater personal connection through knowing more than just each person’s name. When individuals believe those around them know, value, and respect them, a team is formed that can accomplish incredible things.

People appreciate when others care enough to know more about them than just their name. Think about it… those we respect the most as leaders are often those who walk into a room and almost instantly create a connection with everyone. And we marvel at those who can remember people’s names and something special or specific about their past interactions; especially over long periods of time.

We as humans are social creatures and, as taught the United States Naval Academy, a social connection begins with knowing a person’s name and a little bit more.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”25541, 25542, 25653″]

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is a StrategyDriven Principal and Class of 1992 graduate from the United States Naval Academy. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy

Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy – Make the Decision Your Own

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StrategyDriven Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval AcademyNations entrust their military personnel with the responsibility of providing for the national defense and securing the rights and liberties of their people. This goal places many who serve in harms way, whether during peacetime or when at war. Ambiguity in how these outcomes are to be achieved on a strategic or tactical level can be disastrous for both service members and their country.

As future military officers, United States Naval Academy midshipmen learn the importance of eliminating uncertainty for those they lead. The orders they issue must align with the organizational decisions made to achieve their unit’s strategic and tactical mission goals. To achieve this, directives must not only be consistent with higher-level commands but must also be personally owned by the issuing officer. Orders presented as directions from another authority conveys less than full support by the issuing officer; creating doubt among subordinates and resulting in less than complete commitment. It also causes subordinates to question the issuing officer’s authority to give such orders, a critical risk during times of crisis. This uncertainty can lead to execution hesitation and deviation; diminishing outcome achievement.

Lost Organizational Alignment, Productivity, and Moral

Ambiguity in direction setting and decision-making degrades organizational alignment and results achievement within any organization. Too often, managers assign ownership for unpopular directives or those they don’t full agree with to executives or senior managers. Employees readily recognize this lack of commitment and consequently put off such work, take shortcuts in its performance, and become disgruntled for having to perform what is viewed as low value work. The organization’s overall performance suffers as does employee moral.

Diminished Managerial Authority

Issuing directions as coming from another, often higher authority, causes subordinates to question the manager’s authority. Each time a direction is given as coming from someone else, the manager creates the appearance that he/she does not have the right to direct such action thereby limiting his/her own authority. This effect is additive and over time can so diminish the manager’s perceived authority so much as to render him/her incapable of effectively executing the management role.

Disagree In Private

All organization members are obligated to challenge those directives that are unethical, illegal, or exceed the issuing manager’s authority. Employees should convey these and other concerns related to received assignments in private; vetting issues with their manager before action is taken but out of sight of others who might be negatively impacted by the opposing opinion. Good leaders welcome this type of dialog as a way to both improve on their decisions as well as to train subordinates. After such discussions, if the directive is ethical, legal, and within the manager’s authority, subordinates should themselves own the directive and see that it is faithfully executed to the best of their ability.

Additional Resources

Leadership training at the United States Naval Academy includes reading and in-depth discussion of Damn Exec by Lieutenant Commander Stuart D. Landersman. This story clearly illustrates the importance of assuming ownership for organizational decisions and issuing directives as such.

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About the Author

is a StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal, and Class of 1992 graduate from the United States Naval Academy. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy

Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy – Prioritization: Knowing that you can’t do it all

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StrategyDriven Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy ArticleUnited States Naval Academy midshipmen are under never ending pressure to learn and develop, to become the finest military officers in the world. Each midshipman is assigned a full undergraduate workload to be completed in no more than four years. In addition, they are required to participate in four years of physical education training, naval leadership and law classes, naval science and engineering courses, seamanship and navigation studies, varsity or intramural sports, and military drill besides attending Forrestal Lectures (formal presentation series keynoted by noteworthy government and military leaders), all home football games, and a host of other developmental activities. These men and women often find themselves doing more in one day than many in the public would do in half a week. Consequently, midshipmen learn to prioritize their efforts to ensure satisfactory achievement of all requirements for graduation – their personal mission. A failure to do so may leave an individual falling short in any one area resulting in possible dismissal from the academy.

Prioritization is a real part of every professional’s life. While few are challenged to the degree midshipmen are, all face the daunting task of deciding where to best apply their scarce resource of time. Like the midshipmen who focus on the requirements of graduation, StrategyDriven Professionals focus on personal goals achievement. By doing so, these individuals are better able to weigh the goals contribution of their efforts. Lesser contributing activities present themselves as opportunities for demotion or elimination from the application of individual attention. Likewise, high contribution activities should receive increased attention.

Having prioritized his or her efforts, the StrategyDriven Professional finds goal achievement occurs much more readily and with much less effort. Such prioritization helps reduce the amount of stress one incurs and provides for an overall improvement in personal fulfillment.

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Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal, and Class of 1992 graduate from the United States Naval Academy. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy

Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy – Expect What You Inspect

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StrategyDriven Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy ArticleLeaders motivate and inspire their followers to collaboratively pursue achievement of an established vision. Thus, the very nature of leadership necessitates employee interaction, direction setting, and performance standard establishment.

Every day at the United States Naval Academy, upper class midshipmen inspect the rooms of their subordinates. The outcomes of these daily inspections are documented and posted in public view; communicating to the room’s inhabitants and their seniors, peers, and subordinates their level of success in achieving the organization’s shared goal for cleanliness and order. Perhaps a seemingly mundane task, this activity is a lesson in leadership for senior midshipman and in followership for subordinates. Upperclassmen learn the importance of setting performance expectations, routinely reinforcing those standards, and motivating subordinates to the achievement of shared goals. Subordinate midshipmen gain a respect for discipline and a value for quality. Collectively, this and a myriad of other similar activities create an esprit de corps among all midshipmen as they come to share a commitment to common values, goals, and experiences.

Expect what you inspect applies equally to the business world. Leaders who remain in their offices performing administrative work fail to interact with employees with a frequency necessary to promote consistency and quality. Over time, employees begin to deviate from established protocols, whether out of a belief that their method improves outcomes or to minimize their work commitment regardless of the outcome. Soon thereafter, internal and external customer experiences change, for better or worse. Jealousy between employees may erupt if some are perceived as having a lighter workload while continuing to share equally in the organization’s rewards. Moral, commitment, productivity, quality, and ultimately profitability all begin to decline.

Expecting what you inspect is not simply management by walking around. While interacting with employees is important, simply being in the field is not enough. Inspections imply a degree of accountability, both positive and negative, for achieved outcomes. It is this accountability that motivates and inspires, that creates commitment to organizational values, and that aligns employees’ decisions and actions to the optimal achievement of mission goals.

Return to the Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy Forum

About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal, and Class of 1992 graduate from the United States Naval Academy. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.