QUICK TIPS | USNA Women

Seek out the “helpers” in your life and at your commands.
Trust your instincts about people.
Accept that you don’t know everything, and will need help and instruction, often from your subordinates.
Avoid the command rumor mill. Do not engage or allow yourself to be involved in command gossip.
Get over your shyness. Be bold. Help others get over their shyness.
Believe in yourself. Think of all you have experienced, especially at USNA. If you can make it through the Academy, you can figure out this problem too.
Seek the guidance or advice of others you trust.
Find a mentor with the same values as yourself, and whose actions and career you concur with.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help or instruction and don’t be intimidated or too prideful to ask for assistance. When someone says to me incredulously, “You don’t know that?” I respond with “Well, in fact, no, I don’t know that. Can you teach me?” Asking for help is not a weakness, it is a strength.
Know your limitations—what you know and what you don’t, and get help when you need it.
In training, the only dumb question is the one not asked. There are probably other people who have the same question without the courage to ask it.
Knowledge is empowering, but sharing knowledge with others is how to earn respect.
If you need to relearn weather or the ocean environment, seek out an Aerographer’s Mate (AG) or a METOC officer.
If you need to relearn celestial navigation, seek help from a Quartermaster (QM).
If you need to relearn Maneuvering Boards, seek help from an Operational Specialist (OS).
It is nice to be liked by your subordinates and peers, but it is more important to be respected. It is also better to be respected than feared. You want people to follow you because they respect you, not because they fear you.
To gain respect, you first have to extend respect to those around you.
Talking and listening to your sailors can give you a good way to gauge the atmosphere in your command from their perspective.
There are gangs onboard carriers and other ships, bringing all the crime and trouble associated with them. Get to know your Command Security Officer and MAAs. They can alert you if your sailors are being recruited, extorted or blackmailed.
Don’t tolerate bad behavior from anyone. Call out bad behavior, language or jokes as being inappropriate for the workplace or as unbecoming of a decent human being.
Eventually you become like the people you hang around with. Choose your friends wisely.
Find a good friend you trust on your ship, squadron, or in your command to be your liberty buddy on deployment.
If you are unfairly chewed out by your boss or a senior officer who didn’t have all or the correct information, take a deep breath, wait a day, the go back to speak privately to that person with the facts. Stand up for yourself.
You were commissioned to lead and solve problems. Make your command better than you found it.
Offer advice, help and solutions to those asking for it, but recognize that there are some people who will want to shift their personal problems to you and expect you to solve their problems for them.
Remember: Red, right, returning, F=ma, and you can’t push a rope.
Don’t bring problems to your seniors, without possible solutions. Don’t propose solutions looking for problems.