Abstract
Good leadership is always easy to recognize, but difficult to quantify. It is often characterized as more art than science, although recent scholarship has attempted to apply the science of it more explicitly, stressing the importance to modern leaders of mastering the science of concepts such as motivation, social influence tactics, and group dynamics. In the end, leadership must be practiced, developed, and honed through experience, but insight and advice gleaned from the experience of others, particularly from successful leaders, is invaluable to any leader committed to excellence in his or her field. It is in this spirit that the U.S. Naval Institute publishes its ‘Wheel Book’ series, intended as valuable tools for the practical study of the naval profession. Perhaps not surprisingly, the editors chose as one of their first topics the subject of leadership. The U.S. Naval Institute on Naval Command, edited by Thomas J. Cutler, attempts to tackle the vast topic of leadership by narrowing the focus to the particular leadership demands of those in command. The absolute authority of command at sea forms the core of the ethos of not only the U.S. Navy, but of the naval and maritime profession worldwide, dating back to the age of sail and beyond, even to the voyages of Odysseus, so an edited volume devoted to this unique experience is undoubtedly a worthy undertaking.
Students of modern naval history and the naval profession will recognize immediately the names of the authors of several of the collected articles; Stavridis, Winnefeld, Holland, King, Mack. Their collective professional success and experience has the potential to offer a treasure trove of advice and practical knowledge for aspiring leaders in any field, not just in the naval profession. While Cutler takes pains to distinguish between ‘command’ and ‘leadership’ more generally in his introduction, in truth most of the lessons and wisdom captured in the writings of these officers is applicable to leaders at every level. For junior officers, a number of these articles should be considered foundational readings and incorporated into leadership courses or their early professional libraries. The accumulated wisdom on desirable (and undesirable) leadership traits, and on the importance of accountability, empowering subordinates, managing relationships up and down the chain of command, attention to detail, tactical and professional competency, and the autonomy of command offers young leaders invaluable advice on developing their own leadership style. Less-recognizable officers offer equally compelling advice on everything from the big-picture functions of command to checklists of important items for young officers. Perspective commanding officers who have had success in successive leadership billets will not encounter anything particularly new to them in these discussions, but they offer an excellent medium through which to reflect on the personal successes and failures which have gotten the officer to this point, and on the personal and professional goals, challenges, and opportunities which lie ahead. The timelessness of many of these insights makes them relevant far beyond naval leaders, to leaders in business, government, civil society, and other branches of the military.
Given Cutler’s disclaimer that the vast corpus of existing articles and excerpts precludes the inclusion of many deserving works, several of the other choices are less obvious. Little of the organization described in the 1952 essay by Admiral King exists today, and command relationships between the Chief of Naval Operations, the Pentagon, and the theater commanders are completely different. Additionally, the sympathetic portrait of King is in stark contrast to his reputation as an acerbic and even toxic leader who chewed up his staff and subordinates in a way that most would deem unsustainable in today’s Navy. While he was inarguably the right man for the job under the circumstances and ‘one of the ablest commanders in the Navy’s history’, the volume would have been better served by a contrast between the command leadership styles of King and Admiral Chester Nimitz. Another chapter aspires to be a maritime staff ride of sorts, in the army tradition of extracting lessons from the leadership decisions of commanders in battle, but is more history than lessons in command leadership. Two chapters are devoted to a late-1970s debate over excessive inspections, micromanagement, and infringement on command autonomy by upper-echelon commands, but while similar debates continue today, many of the specifics in these articles are out of date, and a more current discussion would have been more relevant to today’s naval professionals. Cutler closes the volume with an essay derived from extensive interviews with flag officers on the importance of their wives to their professional success. The stories are interesting and moving, some even powerful, but perhaps limited in their usefulness to younger officers, who will certainly divine for themselves very quickly the value and importance – both personally and professionally – of a strong marriage. These chapters are likely to be of more interest to maritime historians who have not experienced naval service than to experienced naval officers.
The U.S. Naval Institute on Naval Command offers a unique blend of reflections on leadership which transcend time and brief depictions of leadership at particular points in history. For both aspiring and experienced leaders, naval or otherwise, it is a worthwhile addition to a professional library, even if only for those essays most directly related to command leadership. And while the history presented is understandably brief considering the length and intended purpose of the book, maritime historians with an interest in the dynamics of naval command, past, present, and future, will also find something to pique their interest.