 Welcome everyone and thank you for joining me today for a conversation with a shipmate. I'm MC2 Lori Bentz. We are joined today by the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert and a Mass Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, Michael Stevens. Good morning gentlemen, thank you for joining me here today at the Pentagon in the heart of the nation's capital. Good morning. Good morning. It's good to be here with my shipmate. Our topic of discussion today is relevant to anyone who has served as well as those who will soon wear the uniform. That is something you both have a great deal of experience in leadership. From day one in the Navy we are exposed to principles of leadership from the oath of office, enlistment, or Navy Corps values, Navy Ethos to the Sailors Creed. So today I would like to talk to you a little bit more about your expectations and your initiatives that will essentially help shape our Navy audience. Sano we'll start with you. What exactly do you think sets the expectation for leadership in the Navy? I know we are exposed to different leadership throughout our Navy careers but what sets that bar for leadership? Well it's defined really by our Constitution. As you mentioned earlier we take the oath of office and we say we will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, bear allegiance to it and we will obey the orders. To do all of those you have to have proper leadership. I am responsible, I am the sole person responsible in our Navy for establishing that leadership, establishing those standards and make sure that we educate and train our leaders including all of our petty officers in leadership. I know McPon you are out there beating the drum on leadership and you have released your zeroing in on excellence initiative that has developing leaders as your number one focus area. Why is that so important to you? Well Pettios, you and I were talking earlier and you've been in a couple of different commands. We've all been in those organizations where one seems to be struggling, where another one can seem to be doing very well, very successful. Both these commands have the same number of sailors, same platform, same geographic location and essentially their missions are the same. So why is one struggling and one is successful? What we find typically is it has something to do with leadership, not just leadership at the top, but leadership at all levels from the division through the departments up to the command level. So we believe that we owe it to our sailors to do the very best that we can every day to develop leaders within the organization to allow the organization and the sailors of that command or organization to be successful. That's why leadership is so important to me. OK, so so we're all clear. What exactly is your definition of a leader? Well, I got to be honest. I've stole this. It's not just my definition, but it's the best definition that I've read so far. Leadership is really about one's ability to influence others. Nothing more, nothing less. The thing you got to be careful of is you can be a good leader and influence people, but you could also be a bad leader and influence people. But it's really about influence. And we just have to make sure that we are applying the right influence to our people. Influence, that is a very good word to describe a leader. And, you know, I know I've only been in the Navy for seven years. You've been in the Navy for many years. How many years exactly have you been in? Thirty-eight years. OK, so in your thirty-eight years of experience in the Navy, has there been someone that you can credit for where you are today? Well, that would be difficult to say one individual. I've been the recipient of good leaders. And I, from the time I was a junior officer, and my experience, I hope, replicates our people today. And what I mean by that is I had a department head that gave me a second chance. I had my first commanding officer who had the courage to stand up for us, some of our junior officers, who were going to be given some administrative action. And he said, this is not right and stood up for us. And that really affected me. I had a commanding officer who took a chance on me and gave me a position which would not normally be given. I had a commanding officer as a department head who taught me what it meant, what real excellence is, preparation, and the importance of family. And so, as the McPawn said, I had people who enabled me and influenced me in a good way. And they define, leaders define your reality. And if they do it properly and then enable you and challenge you to carry on, then people can, as we like to say, accelerate their lives and become better leaders. So as a junior officer, you're essentially learning to become a leader and leading. Because you are leading the unlisted, essentially. And that's a very good point. We are all leaders in this journey that we take, really from E1 to O10. And what I mean by that is the expectations of leadership will be slightly different. But you are, as the McPawn said, influencing people. And you have to understand, and it's incumbent upon us to educate and train our people, but folks need to understand that we are all in that capacity of leadership. It's particularly important, as those of us who are in a sea service, we get on a ship and go to sea. And there aren't as many outside entities to, if you will, step in and correct. So leadership is that much more important, especially when we're a team that goes to sea. Flies, airplanes, submerges under the ocean. You know, we're our own entity. So integrity is that much more important. Teamwork and the humility and understanding of service as a leader. So, you know, you bring up a good point. Oftentimes people ask us, you know, who was the one person that had influenced you the most? And when you really step back and think about it, as you have 38 years in and I have a little over 30 and now, it really is never about any one person. It's about all the people and all the experiences that we have that hopefully one day make you the leader that you hope to be. It is very important for junior sailors to have that influence, as you both talked about. And to have that leader who understands their role. What are some of the initiatives that we have in place to help guide those sailors in the leadership positions? Well, we have several initiatives in place and I'll just mention a few of them right now. Number one, and I recently just released the new guidance. It's called CPO 365. CPO 365 is first and foremost about helping our first-class petty officers be the best work center supervisors and LPO's that they can be. Secondly, it's about preparing them if they are selected to become chief petty officers. This is training conducted by chiefs for first classes, but it's also for first classes to work with chief petty officers to share with them the things that they've learned as well because we should never think or believe that because we're more senior that we have a monopoly on leadership. Because our juniors or our subordinates in many cases can teach us just as much as our seniors can teach our subordinates. So even as an E6, do you still have an influence on your E7 and your E5 and below? Absolutely. As a chief petty officer, one of my mentors, somebody I looked up to a lot was a first-class petty officer. I happened to be more junior in time and service than he was. He was more senior so he had more experience, more wisdom if you will, but for one reason or another hadn't made chief petty officer yet. But I learned a great deal from this individual. You know, second thing I'd like to mention is the Senior Enlisted Academy up at Newport Road Island. Right now it's a course that's optional if you will. If you want to go, you go. We put about 500 students through a year. We believe that we owe our chief petty officers an opportunity to increase their ability to lead. So to do that, we're going to make the Senior Enlisted Academy a requirement for our senior chiefs to be eligible for Master Chief Petty Officer. So with the help of the CNO, the Chief of Naval Personnel, the President of the War College, we've got the funding in place and we're working on the infrastructure and hopefully around November timeframe, we can start rolling out this new course where every senior chief in the Navy before they're eligible for E-9 will have attended the Senior Enlisted Academy. Okay, I'm going to shift just a little bit and talk about what is happening in the Navy today. I'm going to talk about a little about what we hear in the Navy times we hear on the news about COs being relieved for misconduct. And unfortunately, now we're hearing more about CMCs who are being relieved for misconduct. Are you concerned about any of this that's going on right now? Sure, any misconduct, especially when it comes to senior leaders, is disturbing. And it bothers me a great deal. I recognize, I have to recognize that it happens. But more importantly, I have to work with leadership to figure out how we're going to prevent these types of incidents from occurring in the future. So we track these very, very carefully. We take the lessons learned. We talk to leadership across the fleet about it. We take this information up to the CLS, excuse me, up to CLS, the Command Leadership School. We have the Chief of the Boat, the Command Master Chief course up there. And we find out ways to insert these into case studies and talk about them so that those new leaders don't make those same mistakes. So it's very important to us. But I'd also think it's important to recognize that over the last five years, we've gotten better. We reduced our misconduct from 2012 to 2013 by 50%. These things don't happen overnight. It requires hard work from all of us all the time. And we just hope to get better and better. And do you think that attacking the problem at that level has a direct impact on the lowering listed? Certainly, absolutely. We've, speaking for commanding officers, similarly, we've gotten a little better. But the bottom line is, as the MCPON said, we have to enable our leaders to, we have to teach them and train, educate them and train them to be good leaders, to understand that you're entering into a position that is unique. You have the charge of command. You are in charge. You have authority and you have responsibility. And we owe it to the American taxpayer, to all of our sailors to hold these individuals to very high standards. But they need to understand those standards. And they need to understand there are pitfalls out there that can come from ego, can come from your inability to deal with stress. So we're working very hard on that, as the MCPON said, through the continuum of leadership. When someone becomes a petty officer, a chief petty officer, a junior officer who a department had, as you transition through this period of time, your challenges and the challenges of leadership transition, are you ready for that? That's part of, that's on me and our continuum of leadership. And these are your expectations for leaders? They are. When we go to command leadership school and as we bring commanding officers to take command, each of them actually signs a statement that says, I understand the charge of command. I understand the regulations that I will be held to, that I'm responsible for a unit and an entity and I am solely accountable for that. It's that last signature to your senior, to your boss saying, you and I have a covenant and I'm ready to take this covenant to my unit. I am solely responsible and accountable for that unit. I want to talk a little bit more about your expectations for a good leader and how these expectations fit into developing leaders. Can you expand a little bit more? Well, the foundation is integrity. You have to believe in me and I have to believe in you. That's, again, a little bit of the covenant that we have as sailors. You and I are sailors, we go to sea, we fly, we go in submarines, we go to units on land, whatever that is. So that's the very foundation. Humility. You are charged, those of you that are in leadership positions, you are charged with ensuring that the reality that you define, again as I use that term again, and the enabling that you are charged to provide to your folks is something that you are dedicated to. You're responsible to them, you have authority, but you're accountable. Those are my expectations and I talk to my senior leaders and I say I need you to be bold to lead this Navy into the future. You should be confident. You are ready to do what you are doing because you have a heritage and a legacy that has prepared you and if we're doing this right, then we know. But you need to be accountable. Be accountable to your people. They expect it and they deserve it. I know being accountable for an entire ship is completely different from just being accountable for a department or a division, but there's still that level of leadership. I remember when I was a junior sailor, I was looking to my E6 and my E7s for guidance and I know McPon, do you have any thoughts and ideas on how a sailor can increase their level of leadership to be able to guide a junior sailor in the right direction? Certainly. I can share some things that I do personally, but let me be clear about something first. I don't have the market on leadership. It's, I think, inappropriate for someone to think that they're a good leader or a great leader because really all of your people will be the ones that make that decision, but we have to try as leaders. We have to try to improve ourselves and some things that I do, a number one, what's important to me is my spiritual fitness, my faith. That's the number one thing in my life. Number two is my relationship with my family, specifically because I'm a little older, my kid's out of the house. It's the relationship that I have with my wife. Number three is something that I've done my entire career. It's my physical fitness. I try to take care of myself physically because there will be times when you're going to have to overcome challenges, physical challenges. You may get sick or you may be injured or ill. The better shape you're in, the better chance you have of recovering from that when it occurs. Plus it's probably better for my mind now than it is for my body. The fourth thing, something I started about 12 years ago, almost on accident, my sister-in-law bought me a book when I was stationed in Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico as the maintenance master chief. The book was called The Medal of Honor. She got it for me for my birthday. I started reading this book about 15 minutes in the morning before I would go to work. It opened up my mind. It got me thinking about things that I otherwise wouldn't have typically thought about. I really enjoyed it, so I bought another book and another book. And 12 years later, a few hundred books later, I could say that I have a professional reading program. It's made a big difference in me and I would encourage all of our sailors out there to have a book open all the time. I typically have two books going, one at the office and one at home. I'm reading a great book right now by John Maxwell called Sometimes You Lose, Sometimes You Learn. Actually, it's Sometimes You Learn, Sometimes You Lose. It's a great book. So those are the four things that I try to do on a regular basis. And of course, there's others and other leaders have things that they could share with their folks. But that's what I do. Santa, what are you reading right now? Well, I'm reading a book from our reading list called 1812. And it's about the War of 1812 and how our Navy performed and some of our heroes. That, as you know, we just celebrated the 200th, commemorated the 200th anniversary, if you will, of the War of 1812. And when I get troubled, if you will, by challenges around here, I go back and say, how did they do it? How did this, you know, nascent Navy get started and do the things they did? I'm also reading a book called No Lost Cause. And it's the story of Columbia, the country, and President Eribe, who when he took office, as you may recall, about a decade ago, Columbia was in dire straits. They had a failing economy. They had a tremendous drug problem. The drug cartel was really running a lot of the country. And how he brought that country to focus and how a country of people could turn themselves around economically and with security. And it's quite inspiring. It's a great book. So being a leader just doesn't happen overnight. It takes time and learning and developing and learning from those who were before us because they were facing different challenges from what we're facing today. And if they can overcome those challenges based on their leadership values, why can't we learn from them? You're absolutely right. When I tell sailors, they say, golly, how do you do this? You say, listen, we all are anxious. We all have doubts about ourselves. And we're reading these books, and I know the McPawn says the same. You say, oh, they were great heroes. They just did it. And they said, no, they had doubts. I read a book recently, The Admirals. It's about World War II, Admiral Nimitz. They were arguing over aircraft carriers and how many we had and where would we put them. The same arguments that we have today with the combat commanders and where should we put our fleet. Some things don't change, but the principles are still there. That humility and integrity and making sure you take care of your people, and they'll take care of you. And taking care of your people is essentially what leadership is all about. When you travel to different commands, talk to different sailors, is there anything that you tell them to make them understand what leadership really is and how important it is? That's a great question. But before we get to that question, I'd like to make one more comment about reading. You know, C&O and I talk a lot about the challenges that our Navy is faced with and what we're going through. But just a book that I recently read by Dale Carnegie, Lincoln the Unknown. You know, it was about Lincoln's time as the president. And there's many books out there about him. But if you want to talk about a challenge, you know, look at that period of time where our nation was divided, president was fairly inexperienced. He had a cabinet, they call it the team of rivals where not everybody got along very well. And you know, we were just kind of a young inexperienced nation. And we were able to overcome that obstacle and stay united as a country and continue to be or become one of the greatest nations in the world. So reading helps you put perspective on things that you may be faced with yourself. So I just wanted to make that point. So what do I share with sailors? Is that the question? Okay. I say this all the time. And I hope people aren't getting tired of it because I believe it and I'm not going to stop saying it. What I share with sailors is three things. They're very simple, but I believe it builds a foundation to success. It's work hard every single day, no matter what the job is, right? Pedestrian Bent, I'm sure you worked deck division and you know, you had to work in the scullery and probably had to clean the heads and those sorts of things, right? But no matter what the job is, we owe it to ourselves, to our Navy and to our shipmates to do the very best we can because every job matters and every job's important. So work hard every single day, right? Next is stay out of trouble. You know, we work hard, you work hard. Why throw it all out the window by doing something that you shouldn't do? It's not good for you and it's not good for your shipmates and it's not good for your family. So stay out of trouble. So work hard, stay out of trouble, but most importantly, and I think if we can all remember to do this, that a lot of the troubles that we face, the trials, the tribulations, they just kind of go away and that's be a good and decent person. Be a good and decent person to yourself, to your shipmates, to your friends and your family. And if we can remember to do that, and oh by the way, you can be a good and decent person and still be a warfighter. Be a good and decent person and much of what ails us stops ailing us. So that's what I recommend to our sailors. Work hard, stay out of trouble, be a good and decent person. That's what I tell my flag officers and I'm not kidding. I think those are pearls of wisdom that he's brought. Pretty simple, pretty straightforward and applicable. Is there anything else that you tell your charge? I do. I'll repeat what I said before and that is I need you all to be bold. These are some changing times. Our country has fiscal challenges. It's an unstable world. We're entering sort of into a new era, you know, the post kind of mid-East land conflict. Our Navy is needed. We have to be where it matters, when it matters. We are bringing in new classes of ships, new aircraft. Listen, you know what we need to do. Be bold. Be confident. You are trained. You know what to do. So don't hesitate. Time is short, you know, and you owe it to your Navy. And then be accountable. People like it when you're accountable. Say, this is on me. I'm responsible and give that to me, sir. I'll do that and I love that. And so be bold, be confident, but be accountable. Be bold, be confident, be accountable. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. When you say be bold, being bold just doesn't apply to the officer. As a junior sailor, you can be bold and be respectful and be accountable for your actions. And that's pretty much learning to be a leader from day one. You know, doing the right thing, showing up, being accountable for your actions. And your other peers, your sailors, will follow suit. And not just as an E6, but also E1, E4, E5, you know, people will really actually follow suit if you do the right thing. So we're on the Truman. We're on Thanksgiving. My wife and I, the McPon, I'm having dinner, Thanksgiving dinner with Pay Officer Johnson. Pay Officer Johnson, this is his real name. He said to me, hey, CNO, I have a question. Why is it that we don't use for our indoctrination division before we send people out here and everywhere? Why don't we have, say, iPads or applications set up with the different courses that we need our people to take for general military training so that we can get this done before they come out here? And we're trying to pull all those, you know, using the limited bandwidth that we have. And I'm like, I'm having a V8 moment, as they say here. I don't know. That was bold of that guy to come. And I'm saying, that was brilliant. Save time, get the kids charged as they're getting ready to go. Take the burden off of the division and the ship that is deployed. That's the kind of sailor I'm talking about. And they're out there. They're all over our Navy. Make fun of these people all the time. No, you don't have to be an officer. You don't have to be an abalone to do any of this. It's something that we have throughout the Navy. Folks just need to step up. I want to thank you, gentlemen, for sitting down and talking to me about essentially what makes us sailors today, being leaders, being able to guide and to understand our responsibilities. Is there anything else you would like to tell our audience before we close out? I would. And actually, from the mic, Pond and I, you know, we have to, in addition to leading and describing, as I said, the reality, we also have to provide for our folks. And a piece of that is safety. And so recently we took a look at what are people wearing at sea? And is it as safe as it could be? You know, is it fire resistant? And so I just thought I'd bring today fuller display, you know, the fire-resistant uniform that we've talked about. And Admiral Gortney got a lot of his people, had some working groups and said, charge industry, I need something quickly. And we are moving these out to the fleet. We'll have them throughout the fleet by the end of this year. The baton amphibious ready group and the bush strike group, they have them now. And so this is what we'll put on when we go to sea. Everybody. You said fire-retardant. No, fire-resistant. Fire-resistant. Okay. So, and I've seen the video, it is fire-resistant. But we won't do a demo today if you're okay with that. No problem. No problem. Thank you so much for joining me. I will definitely take what I've learned from you today back to my command and share with my sailors there. Thank you for tuning in. We look forward to our next opportunities to sit down with you during our next conversation with a shipmate in Little Creek, where we'll discuss one of the CNO's focus areas, the integration of the Navy Marine Corps. Thanks again. I'm MC2 Laura Bent from the National Capital Region. Thank you for joining us.