The Basics
Get Qualified!
Love the References
Write Stuff Down
Fake It ’til you Become It
Respect Deadlines
Boardsmanship
The Intro Letter
DIVO Management
Your First Division
Follow Through
The Check-In Interview
Writing Evals
Fight the Distant Fight
Trite but True
A Message to Garcia
You Get What You Inspect
Perception is Reality
It WILL get better… Maybe
Communication
E-Leadership
Using PowerPoint
How to Brief
Talk Like a Spartan
Communicate the Big Picture
Leadership
Four Powerful Gestures
If You’re Not Sure Who’s In Charge….
Expect Integrity
Every Sailor is a Lifer
Character > Career
Yield the Spotlight
To be Loved or Feared
Fix It
Yes, it’s Your Fault
Proceeding Deep
Stop Complaining
Skeptical ≠ Cynical
Manage Your Emotions
Develop a Thick Skin
Refine the Solution
The Warrior Philosophy
Boss Management
Bring Me a Rock
Keep Your Boss Informed
Make the Bad Ideas Good
Reflecting on the Damn Exec
Practical Tips
Talking to Ships
Classes for Nothing and Degrees for Free
Knowledge (That’s What I Want)
Transfer Your G.I. Bill
The Senior JO
Ask Why Five Times
Train Effectively
When You Shouldn’t Multitask
Crush Entitlement
Share Your Experiences
Give Great Checkouts
Resist Administrative Growth
The Vortex
Why Stay In?
Miscellany
Red Flags of Stupid
Bad Advice
Myth of the Kinder, Gentler Navy
Advice for the Female JOs
Success as a Flag Aide
Some Words For The Cadre
Learn How to Invest
The Prior Dilemma
JO Rules 
I didn’t see a thing about your best source of truth in the Division, your Division Leading Chief Petty Officer. Chapter 5 pg 5-1 under the paragraph entitled Career Information it says, “An important job of a chief petty officer is to provide junior personnel with accurate information about the advantages and the development
of a Navy career.” A good chief can on one hand train and correct a JO, while on the other hand carry out the JO’s orders. A JO who respects his Leading Chief Petty Officer can form very effective leadership team while a JO who doesn’t respect his LCPO can find the Chief dutifully carrying out the JO’s orders and getting reamed by the Dept. Head, XO or CO when they find the JO’s division doing something that they should not be doing. I had a JO who was on a tremendous head trip. The men spent a good deal of time studying the JO’s rear end as he showed his men how it was done. Consequently the JO ran about getting credit for every repair in the division while the division morale plummeted. Twice I observed the Electrician JO beat out the Electronic JO in evaluations and one evening I cornered my JO outside his stateroom and pointed out to him that if he wanted to beat the Electrician JO he would need to prove his leadership not his technical acumen. The men needed to repair the gear and be rewarded for their success which would reflect on the JO for being a good leader. That deployment we ensured the techs received every opportunity for training in their rate and insisted they not only have their gear up, but make it a point to render assitance to other ships in the ARG. At deployment’s end I had written every man up for either a Navy Commendation Letter, Navy Achievement Medal or Navy Commendation Medal, which the men had earned. We had more awards for our techs, per capita, than any division on the ship and the Electronics JO was ranked higher than the Electrical JO who was still showing everyone what a great Electrician he was.
Eric, I appreciate this comment and I think your anecdote amply demonstrates how NOT to interact with your division. That said, Ensigns don’t need me to remind them to “Ask the Chief,” as their accession sources have told them that thousands of times already, to the point that the Chief is built up into a mythical figure of inhuman capability, maturity, and work ethic. To assert that the Chief will be the “best source of truth in the division” is simply to promise too much. What if the Chief is a human being with realistic flaws and knowledge gaps? What if the Chief is just a weak Sailor and should never have made Chief– are you willing to promise that none of these have slipped through the cracks? There are, in fact, some non-zero number of bad Chiefs out there, and every one of them has a Divo who was promised a wise sage. I want the JOs out there to have the independence, willpower, and yes, the spine to make their own assessments as to whom is the best source of truth. Universal and automatic deference to the Chief is not the answer.
Sorry I left out the sentence just before that reference I made on pg 5-1 of the CPO Rate Training Manual which says, “It also discusses your responsibility in
training junior officers to conduct Navy business.” And again on page 5-22 under training where it says, “You, as a chief petty officer, will be responsible for planning and directing personnel training and training junior officers within your division.”
One thing I see more and more are brand new JO’s, particularly female ones, talking and flirting with enlisted men (who are usually somewhere in the E-3 to E-5 range). I see this a lot in the Nurse Corps and it is a running joke that they are fresh out of college and still in a party stage and. Fill in the rest as you see fit. This is extremely frustrating to see and I want to grab both the JO and the enlisted by the necks. So a word to JO’s- you might be junior and new to the Navy and naive but the time to act like an officer is now or else you will lose any and all respect by those around you. You’re not in college anymore.
Hello! My name is Akash Shetty and since the summer of 2016 after receiving my masters in family and child sciences I’ve been getting myself prepared to be a Navy Officer. At the start I was 217lbs, but since then I have dropped more than fifty pounds and have handed over all documents required which gives an insight into how determined I want this. I was living in El Paso, but a couple months ago I moved to McKinney, TX. I have been in contact with a Navy senior chief who has been giving me advice. For over a month I was studying for the OAR and my senior chief advised I study from Officer Candidate Tests for Dummies. I know that the subjects covered are math, reading and mechanical comprehension so I studied those sections specifically. When I took my practice test before the actual test I scored very favorably. However, on my first attempt at the real one I didn’t pass.
What I found out was that the actual exam was way different than what I was preparing for and what I was told would be on by my senior chief. For instance in the reading section it was all passages that asked what can be inferred from it. The math was alright, but the mechanical comprehension section really threw me off. When I was preparing for it both the senior chief and my textbook told me it would cover some light physics and mechanical terminology. In fact there was a whole chapter dedicated to the mechanical comprehension section. However, on the exam it asked questions dealing with electricity, electrical parts, water velocity, etc.
My second attempt will be after May 8th and I just want to know if someone can give me advice on how I can be better prepared for it until then. Are there any books or resources that helped more? Thank you.
I’ve referred to this site for years now, thank you for writing and maintaining it, it is very helpful. I share it with other managers and supervisors who use the lessons. THANKS.