April 23, 2023 by Mike Manazir – (4-5 minutes)

Chapter 30 of my book Learn How to Lead to Win: 33 Powerful Stories and Leadership Lessons is titled Don’t Micromanage. I talk about how I taught my officers to drive the ship. Driving a large ship like the Nimitz in the San Diego harbor can be tricky. I knew it like the back of my hand, but 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.

The Conning Officer was normally a junior officer who is in training to be an Officer of the Deck (OOD). 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.

I had my own limits and I could be more precise because I could think out ahead of the ship based on my experience. I would establish limits for them and allow them to maneuver back and forth within those limits. If things start to get out of control a little, I would give them a recommendation.

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.

This applies in business, as well. If the leader makes a decision without consulting the team, or explaining the rationale, the team is left to guess the next decision. That can throw your company off course. I am not advocating leadership by committee, merely to ensure the team knows which way you want to go. You’ll also find that seeking their input may give you a better outcome.

An excellent time to train on Nimitz was when we were entering or leaving the San Diego harbor. I was familiar with those waters. I knew exactly where the ship needed to be, and I knew where the hazards were. We were assisted by harbor pilots who would come aboard to ensure a safe passage into or out of the port. They were the most familiar with the local waters.

I would encourage the pilots to allow the Conning Officer to drive without micromanaging. The best ones would guide the young officers, showing them little tricks that the pilots knew from experience.

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. You know that everyone on your bridge has intelligence and talent due to the screening process and training they went through to get there.

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?”

“The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.” – Ronald Reagan

Lead from your heart. Lead to Win.

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