High-Stakes Leadership On The High Seas

I often delve into and write about the intricacies of leadership, teamwork, and morale in various business settings. My insights are largely drawn from my experiences leading multiple technology companies. However, it's crucial to recognize that leadership is a multifaceted concept, crucial not just in traditional business settings but also in diverse operating environments, for example on a US Navy flagship. In such environments, the stakes and calculations literally involve life and death, a stark contrast to the financial profit and loss calculations in a typical business.

My association with the U.S. Navy has afforded me the opportunity to witness up close the grandeur and complexity of the modern aircraft carrier. These floating metropolises, often referred to as 'cities at sea,' house a crew of 5,000+ personnel during deployment. They operate round the clock, braving the seas for months at a time. Carriers go to sea equipped with a Carrier Air Wing, a diverse fleet of planes serving various purposes. The Commanding Officer (CO) of a U.S. aircraft Carrier holds the rank of Captain and is responsible for the entire conduct and good government of the ship, ensuring the mission is achieved, regulations are followed and safety is a constant priority.

I recently caught up with Captain Chris "Chowdah" Hill , the Commanding Officer of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) nuclear supercarrier. Captain Hill has been a Naval Officer for 27 years, during which time he commanded two ships and a squadron, was an instructor at Top Gun, and served in the Pentagon. He is known for his command philosophy of "The Way of the Warrior Sailor". I asked Captain Hill for his thoughts on the unique circumstances of mission-based deployment leadership, particularly maintaining and building morale with a hard-working crew away from their families for months at a time.

Here are his thoughts:

"The foundation to mission success -- or in our case, combat success -- starts with building morale early on. Morale is not necessarily happiness, it's deeper than that. It's motivation, pride, or what we call the give-a-damn factor. Leaders can literally create this in several ways, but chief among them is to demand that subordinate leaders overtly love and value Sailors and to give them concrete mission and purpose. It turns out that meaningful, hard work based on a worthy mission increases productivity."

Captain Hill adds, "One thing we have to be careful of though is over working people to physical and mental exhaustion. This is a challenge for us given the fact that we've been operating in a weapons engagement zone in the Red Sea and dealing with Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists for several months without a break. Therefore we try to schedule short breaks, fun activities, and even have a facility dog who goes around making people smile. When everything else fails, we have mental health counselors who work to get people back into the fight. You have to go big to overcome the stress of deployment and maintain morale."

He concludes, “As our namesake Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, 'Morale is the single greatest factor in successful war.’ Morale and leadership indeed go hand in hand.”

Leadership has commonalities across all types of situations (morale is always a critical factor for example), but clearly effective leadership is also very much shaped by the operating environment.

I want to thank Captain Hill for taking the time to share his thoughts and for his service to the United States. Go Navy!

You can follow The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower on their Official Twitter/X account here: @TheCVN69 .

Jason Foodman is an accomplished executive with a focus on SaaS, fintech and various types of technology. Jason has significant experience both operating companies globally as well as launching global companies in the US market. In addition to his business activities, Jason is a 14 year member of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary and presently holds a 100-Ton USCG Master Captain's License.