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SECOND CO-HONORABLE MENTION: VINCENT ASTOR MEMORIAL LEADERSHIP CONTEST
The solution to retention woes lies in the hands of commanding officers. Their charisma, authority, and power of persuasion can convince sailors and officers to stay Navy.
The Navy has been faced with a personnel crisis as officers and sailors alike have decided to leave, citing low pay, outside job opportunities, reduced benefits, and heavy in-port workloads. In an attempt to retain people, senior leaders have developed bonus plans and offered monetary incentives. They have organized working groups and symposiums for surface warfare officers to develop their own answers to the growing problem. They have evaluated homesteading and implemented shipboard e-mail to improve quality of life for sailors and their families. Although many of these initiatives have managed to keep more people in uniform, it is uncertain whether they have solved the problem or just masked the real issue.
Despite their attempts, Navy leaders largely have ignored the issue that has forced many to leave the ranks: poor leadership. The October 1998 Proceedings article "Listen to the JOs" cited lack of confidence in leadership as a primary reason junior officers elected to trade their khakis for suits and ties. That same year, in a nonscientific study conducted by Navy Times, 36% of enlisted respondents and 50% of commissioned respondents ranked loss of confidence in leadership as the number one or number two reason for getting out of the Navy.1 Leadership at the command level, or lack thereof, is a significant influence on a person's decision to stay in or leave the military. Consequently, the person who often has the most influence in a unit is the commanding officer.
Some commanding officers, however, fail to see eye-to-eye with this theory. Some believe the responsibility to influence subordinates toward a naval career should be left to department heads, division officers, and chiefs. Others feel powerless to sway the decision of a sailor or junior officer who, in their opinion, already has made the choice to leave. Still others feel policymakers at the Pentagon or on Capitol Hill are the only ones who can address the retention problem adequately. As a result, many fail to use their leadership skills to influence their troops to consider the Navy a...