Take No Prisoners!
September 1, 2009 by admin
Filed under Uncategorized
The organization I inherited was a mess! I should have remembered that NAVY stood for Never Again Volunteer Yourself when I raised my hand for the job to be the Director of Security for Naval District Washington, DC. We didn’t have enough people to do the essentials, we were way under budgeted, and morale was in the toilet. Everything was going 1000 miles an hour and there was absolutely no way I could sit back and think about my job in its totality because, when I did, the questions of self doubt would start flashing through my head. Who was I kidding? I graduated in the bottom 25% of my high school class, got voted “class clown” out of 600 kids, and here I was responsible for the safety and security of 25,000 people on multiple Navy Installations in Washington, DC? Certainly, I was way out of my league. There was no time for this! The people I led needed decisions made. Decisions that impacted the security of where they worked, their quality of life, and (ultimately) the people we served. My predecessor failed to make those critical decisions and that’s how our current mess evolved. When we, as leaders, are faced with times of trial, we must be steady at the helm. When chaos abounds, we must be firm in our resolution to make decisions, move forward, and lead the way - even when the chatter in our head is telling us to retreat. I was able to move past that chatter by using my own “LUTZ” decision-making matrix (acronyms are infinitely easier to remember if they’re your last name).
Listen
The first part of this matrix concerns listening. Please note that I didn’t say communicating. Yes, I think that knowing where you are going and communicating that is crucial but you can’t get to that point without first listening. The best suggestions for the decisions that needed to be made came from the people around me who would be responsible for carrying out those decisions. The people on the beat, the customers on the street, and the superiors that I’d greet (had to make that rhyme) knew what would make our machine run better. I just had to have my ears open and hear them when they spoke.
Understand
The second part of this matrix is about understanding. When I volunteered for that job, I knew next to nothing about physical security or police work. What I did know was how to research. I read all of the manuals, went through whatever training I could, and picked the brains of anyone who allow me to use their grey matter. I had to understand how it all fit together - the wants of my people, the needs of my customers, and the strategic vision of the organization. Without that understanding, it would have been impossible to make any effective decisions. Sure, I could have made make plenty of “shoot from the hip” decisions but that would have resulted in further complicating our situation. We must know and understand.
Take No Prisoners
Taking no prisoners is about attitude. It’s about blocking out the self-destructive chatter that can make you second-guess every decision and keep you from making any decisions at all. It’s about risk and not waiting for the next big piece of information before you can move ahead - the speed at which information comes to us now there is always something more to come and something more to keep us from making a decision. I had listened, worked to understand and now it was “go” time. Some of the decisions we face are not going to be popular. Some of the decisions are going to impact on a much larger scale than was previously anticipated. Regardless, the decisions have to be made so takek a deep breath, call the shot, and move forward.
“Z” (See) it Through
Once the course is set, it’s time to push forward. With a difficult path, we might think about going back and changing our original decision. If this chatter starts rambling through your head, go back to the previous step. I am not against re-evaluating a path for the sake of improvement, but we should never shroud a difficult path under this guise. We never move ahead by taking it easy! Make a commitment, keep a commitment, and keep it going.
In the end, the difference between a good leader and a great leader can come down to a matter of moments. The moments we are given to make the critical decisions that need to be made when it counts the most. Those are the times the risk (as well as the reward) is the greatest and are the times that your people need your steady hand on the helm the most. We went from a rag tag dis-organization to an organization that was efficient, effective, and had team members who WANTED to be there in less than a year. Was decision making the only thing that took us there? No, but without it we would have remained in a stagnant cesspool of confusion and bad morale. Don’t get mired in the muck - decide to step up, step out and make the decisions!
Make It Through The Trials
August 3, 2009 by admin
Filed under Uncategorized
I was two months into my first Command tour when the call came in. It was the call I hoped would never happen but, in the back of my head, knew would eventually come. As the senior Naval Officer in my area, one of my responsibilities was to make the notification to next of kin when a Navy member passed and now it was time. A young Sailor had gotten killed and I had to go tell his mother that her son wasn’t coming home.
My heart raced as I recorded the details from headquarters and I wondered how I was going to be able to handle this duty. This wasn’t something I wanted to do nor was it something that I was prepared to do. I mean, I had gone through the training on the “what and how” to go about doing this but it wasn’t something that was conducive to my personality type - I am a nice guy…a joker…I have never liked giving bad news (especially news like this).
There are times when each of us are all thrust into situations that can test what we’re made of and make us question our ability to handle it. I relied on these three thought processes to get me through.
Best Case/Worst Case
Worry and fear can cloud our mental processes and this is what happened to me. This notification was unlike anything I had to do before. I had faced tough situations before but it was never personal. It was a mission I had to do. Since this was personal, my mind was all over the place on how it was going to go. A series of “what if” scenarios flashed through my head - clouding what I was supposed to do. To see clearly, I had to break this down into best case and worst case scenarios. This helped me through the worry and fear of what had to be done and see just two. Best case, this happens…worst case, that happens. This clarity helped get a new perspective.
Perspective
Personal perspective makes all the difference in being able to get through any challenge. My initial perspective on this, however human, was all wrong. This wasn’t something that anyone could do. This was something that I was given the honor to do. My duty was to take care of one of our own and his family. Once I realized this, my perspective changed from one of sympathy to that of empathy. What would I want for my family if the situation was the same? How would I want them to be notified? How would I want them to be treated? Changing my perspective changed everything. It enabled me to act according to my beliefs and be “there” for those who needed me.
Commitment
Even if we’re given something that is trying or that we don’t want to do, it should still be done with all of our heart. Before I went to the door to make this notification, I committed to myself that I would be the best representative I could be for this family. I owed it to this service member, I owed it to the Navy and (most importantly) I owed it to this family. They had given one of their own to secure what so many of us take for granted. When we commit from your heart it shows in every world that is said and every action that is taken.
Even with this mindset, my heart still raced as I knocked on the door, but I knew I was going to help this family through this trying time and I did. As I stated at the beginning, we all face times of trial. Those are the times we may feel like we don’t have the answers and that we don’t know if we can handle what we were just given. Even though this sounds crazy, those are the times we can be at our personal best. We just need to see the issue for what it is, have the right perspective, and commit to working from our heart. I came out of this experience stronger than I was before and, no matter what situation comes YOUR way, you will too.
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