June 27, 2023 by Mike Manazir – (4-5 minutes)

I wanted my bridge team to be highly trained. If I was the one always giving the orders or always countermanding orders, then my team would not be learning critical lessons. I made a point to give them a lot of latitude. I wanted them to learn how to make decisions and feel the weight of responsibility. You see, the ship is not about the Captain, it’s about the team.

When driving the ship, you give conning orders to two people. The Helmsman turns the ship’s wheel, the “helm” to port or starboard. The Lee Helmsman adds or subtracts RPMs via the engine order telegraph, which sends a control signal to the personnel manning the nuclear reactor control rooms. Typical orders are a combination of specific actions to take and the intended result.

The Conning Officer was normally a junior officer who is in training to be an Officer of the Deck. Often, we would give the best ones high-impact training such as conning during special sea and anchor detail, conning into port in restricted waters (risk of grounding), or during underway replenishment operations with a supply ship (risk of collision).

That level of training for a young officer is hard to come by, and it is pointless to get the training if you don’t learn from the experience. If I was always giving the order to go left or right and never explaining why, those future commanding officers would never have the opportunity to see the effect of their mistakes and learn critical skills.

So I would let the OOD train their Conning Officer and then have the Conning Officer drive the ship under my watchful eye. I had precise standards for maneuvering the ship. When supervising the Conning Officer, I would establish my own boundaries left or right of an intended track and then I would apply boundaries for them within mine. Even though they couldn’t see their boundaries, I could. Their goal was to keep the ship on the intended track, as precisely as they could. It is exactly like teaching someone to drive a car.

Because the junior officers were not as familiar with ship handling as I was, their maneuvers were clunky and meandering. I would let them meander. If their deviation was a little much for me, I would often just advise “a little more rudder” or “you’re a little fast” and never take the conn away from them. They learned from seeing the deviations and watching the corrections take effect.

Don’t micro-manage. Seldom did I ever take the ship away from the Conning Officer and the OOD with a countermanding order. In this way, through delegated guidance, I could ensure that my officers were properly trained. There is a more insidious effect. If I gave an order to correct a situation, and then gave them back the ship, they will have lost their context and what to do next. This is dangerous. There were Captains who didn’t do this. They would micromanage their Conning Officers and were quick to take the ship back. I chose to take a different approach.

If you look at the track of the ship maneuvering in the channel under junior officer control, it was ugly. They would overshoot and undershoot—a lot. Not enough rudder. Too much rudder. Not enough power. Too much power. It’s not a pretty sight at the start, but they learn how the ship responds to their orders or their hesitation to put in an order.

I would coach, “Did you see what happened there? You didn’t put in enough rudder for the turn and found yourself wide and overshooting your mark.” It was that kind of learning that I thought was most important.

The metaphor of training leaders to drive a ship can be applied to business. It is a process that starts with a leadership development mindset. Your intent must always be to develop your leaders.

Identify key roles that reveal the leadership talents of your people. Set guidelines, put them in charge and see how they do. Don’t micromanage. Set limits. Give guidance. Allow your leaders, who you know are capable, to wander in between the limits you give them. Be intentional. Ask, “So what do you think happened here? What did you learn from that?”

Set targets for your team. Your target ring might be small because you have the experience and know what you’re doing. Make their target ring a little bigger. Give them a better chance for success.

If they get inside the target that you have given them, then they have met the challenge. If they are having trouble getting there, provide guidance. You don’t tell them how to do it; it is important for them to learn how to hit the target that you set for them. Over time, they will be better trained and the overall team results will get better and better.

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember.
Involve me, and I learn.

-Benjamin Franklin

Lead from your heart. Lead to Win.

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