It’s Thursday, isn’t it?
Yep. If it is, I’m late.
I try to get my emails out on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
But it’s been a helluva week with work, and well, here I sit on Thursday night realizing that it’s well, Thursday night.
I had great plans of a follow up email about deep leadership topics.
Plans. Right? Something to deviate from.
But here we go, a quick leadership lesson I learned early in my Navy days.
We’d go on deployment or a detachment and we always had a Chief in charge of the enlisted maintenance crew. We’d get to the operating spot, and the Chief would go meet another Chief from the base and magically we’d have duty vans and be on our way to the barracks.
Now, Chiefs are held in high regard in the Navy, the seniority would, as expected, offer great privilege. Head of the line, best accomodations, etc.
But no. The Chief would make sure everyone of us had a barracks room and he’s personally inspect it to make sure we were good. Then he’d herd us into the van and get us to the chow hall, galley or to a restaurant.
And in Navy dining facilities, Chiefs and Officers have head of the line privilege.
But never, ever did I see our Chiefs using it. The Chief always…always ate last.
There’s leadership mantra that says “leaders eat last”. And we do.
The high honor of leadership is not privilege or prestige.
It’s serving others selflessly.
It’s Leading From The Front.
Semper Fortis.
Chief Chuck