Hello everyone,
From the book Thank You for Being Late by Thomas Friedman.
Mr. Friedman visited the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut and while he was there he asked LCDR Brooke Millard how did she manage to handle male crews when she had been a captain of a ship.
Thanks for asking. At the unit I worked at previous to my command tour, I was in charge of about 10 chiefs—guys with about 18+ years, all subject matter experts in their specialty field. I was a brand new LT with four years in [and] 26 years old. When I told them to jump, I was expecting a “how high?” response, but instead I got [a very hostile] attitude. The first 6 months there were tough. I had to come up with a different leadership tech-nique. I knew that children are often given two choices for food: “Do you want carrots or apples for a snack?”—both options of which mom approves of, but giving a child the option gives him/her a choice and [makes] them learn to own that decision. I tried a similar technique with my chiefs. I introduced a problem/issue, solicited their advice/ideas, and ultimately came up with two options for action; one was usually a better option than the other, and they naturally chose the option I liked best. But it appeared—to them, at least—that they had a choice— and, therefore, buy-in. It worked at the training command, so I applied the same technique with many decisions as a captain of a ship. At 29 years old, I led a crew of 17 men—and at least five of them were older than me.
What is a training command? Is it something like a training team or training camp, i.e. a place where soldiers/sailors are being taught/trained?
Thank you.