The U.S. Navy is all abuzz. The reason? The Captain of the The US Navy Ticonderoga Class guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens was relieved of command for “cruelty and maltreatment” according to the Navy Times.
USS Cowpens
Captain Holly Graf was brought before an Admiral’s mast, which is a nonjudicial hearing– in this case Rear Admiral Kevin Donegan presided. Rear Admiral Donegan must see some potential in Graf because she has been allowed to continue her career, she will serve in an assignment at the Pentagon. This is unusual for the Navy as most Commanding Officers who are relieved are nudged into retirement or otherwise have their careers effectively concluded. The investigation into Graf’s situation found that her “temperament and demeaner” toward her crew were inappropriate and that she was guilty of “conduct unbecoming of an officer.” (Navy Times, Stars and Stripes)
The Navy has not elaborated except to say that the problems have been occurring over some length of time. Comments left on blogs authored by Naval personnel (the Anchor Watch blog is an exception) indicate Graf has a history of what I would call serious self control problems.
Your Life:
This story was brought to my attention on a blog I follow called Anchor Watch authored by a Christian Naval Officer. Go there for his take on how you and I should respond to a situation in which someone we know makes a calamitous mistake and takes a fall.
While I’m not intimately familiar with the former Captain Graf’s situation, what I do know is that regarding “temperament and demeanor” leaders need to love and care about their people. In order to develop enthusiastic followers, followers must believe that their leader cares about them and is committed to them. This is true at any level, whether you’re a Mom, a Dad, a CEO, or the Captain of a ship in the U.S. Navy. An hour before this writing a reader asked if the Captain’s leadership situation was any different because she is a woman. My answer was yes, it is — I think a Captain who’s a woman begins at a considerable disadvantage. I believe that, all else being equal, both the men and women on the ship have a greater level of confidence in a male Captain than a female Captain. This makes it that much more important for a female Captain to communicate her commitment to her crew.
Consider the following excerpt from Traveler and the Chaplain:
“When I was studying to lead my unit in the war we were required to read an ancient story about a Chinese general named Wu Chi,” the Chaplain said. “One of Wu Chi’s soldiers was suffering from an abscess – Wu Chi himself cared for the wound even sucking out the infection. The soldier’s mother, hearing this, wailed and lamented. Somebody asked her, ‘Why do you cry? Your son is only a common soldier, and yet the commander-in-chief himself has sucked the poison from his sore.’ The woman responded, ‘Many years ago Lord Wu performed a similar service for my husband, who never left him afterwards… And now that he has done the same for my son, he too will follow Wu I know not where.’” (Sun Tzu, Art of War)
“The greater your ability to convince your people that you genuinely care about them; that you are committed to them; that you love them; the higher you can set your expectations for those same people.”
…the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13
Really awesome post! Truely!
[...] that she was relieved of command for “cruelty and maltreatment” of her crew. (see previous post Female Naval Captain Relieved of Command for Cruelty) The issue of racing her Ticonderoga Class guided missile cruiser against the USS John McCain has [...]
It’s obvious that Capt Graf is a boy stuck in a girls body. She is tormented by this, driven to prove herself and further pained by the fact that the more masculine she thinks she becomes, it changes nothing.
That, coupled with the fact that hlaf of her relatives are also high ranking Navy officers, has led to a lofty sense of entitlement. perversely deluded soul.
As for the three instances in which a woman can lead. you’re a fool. let’s go with your last example “when a man does not step up”
this is abviously the case accross the world now. men are not stepping up on a mass scale. Why, because the religions are bunk. Women are stepping up. this flies in the face of the religions. the bible says that they cannot do this. Ha! Those women are perfectly capable and ARE doing it. what says your man-made hoax of a religion now?!
no more than a set of rules layed out by nomadic herders. that might work for 100 people wandering the desert, but for our interconnected global WORLD; this crap has to go.
this recent push for action, this evangelical movement are the death throes of an obsolete and irrelevant construct.
Cheers!
db
So then you think women can be in leadership positions, biblically?
Vacation-in-want: I think that the bible presents three circumstances in which women are positioned in leadership by God:
When they lead over other women. Ruth Chapter 1
Over children.
Over men and women when a man fails to step up. Judges 4:9
So Mr Bennett, I am curious. Do you think the leadership problem is due to …
Woman Leader in a “male role”
Poor Leading regardless of sex
None of the above
Thanks
Vacation-in-want: Poor leadership regardless of gender. A leader must follow the command of Christ to love, (John 13:34) that has to come first.