My definition of leadership is: Inspiring others to achieve a goal. My definition is simple and it’s taken me many years to come to this definition. I’ve developed my leadership definition based on my observations of leaders and my own leadership successes and failures. My influences include three of my Officers in Charge (OIC) from early in my career.
The first example is what I believe a leader shouldn’t do; lead exclusively from position power. This OIC ensured everyone mustered for quarters and then waited, sometimes for hours, until he decided to come to quarters and grant liberty. All of his task direction was just that, completion of tasks. There was no leadership, no vision, no leadership message, just …show more content…
Leadership is not measured on a graph, but through experience and feedback. My first significant leadership experience was when I was a coxswain and section leader as a BM3. I thought I was on top of my game. The problem was that I was leading from position power more than personal power and I didn’t realize what I was doing. I was getting things done and keeping my bosses happy. The problem was, I wasn’t listening to my crew and one day they let me know it. One of my friends called me into the training room and when I arrived, I found my entire duty section waiting. They explained to me that I was acting like a dictator and not a leader. I was stunned. I asked them what I needed to do to get better and they told me that we needed to operate as a team. Again, I had no idea that I was having a negative effect on my crew’s morale. It was a humbling experience that has helped me become the leader that I am …show more content…
My values are family, relationships/friendships, health, happiness and love/affection. We must take care of our families, both family at home and the work family. Family is the most important thing in our lives. Family will be there when we leave the service so we must foster our family relationships. We must treat people as we want to be treated by aspiring to build positive relationships and friendships. Relationships and friendships are important for our quality of life and often last a lifetime. We must maintain our health and fitness. Health and fitness is often treated as a secondary priority. By engaging in fitness activities and team sports, we build our overall health and foster team spirit and goal accomplishment. We must remember that our happiness is up to us. We shouldn’t let others influence our attitudes or emotions. We are in control of both and are responsible to maintain both. We need to try to do what makes us happy. Happiness is vital to our overall life experience. Finally, we should try to leave it better than we found it, showing that we care about and respect those we interact