Guardians,
In my meeting with CAPT Hung Nguyen of Sector Ohio Valley, our Hamilton Award winning command, he discussed their reading program and his XO CDR Dennis Evans offered these thoughts.
ADM A
What’s Your Book?
CDR Dennis C. Evans, Logistics Department Head, Sector Ohio Valley
"Everybody’s got a book." This quote is from Mr. Kerry Patterson, the keynote speaker at the 2009 Innovation Expo in reference to the myriad of leadership and management books available, including ones he authored. Even for those of us not blessed with the gift of prose, we all have “our books” – books that we’ve found particularly meaningful in the growth of our own personal leadership skills. Leaders share “our books” with others, often in the form of reading lists, in the hopes of fostering leadership development in them as well. This is a great approach. Others value the lists of leaders they admire, wanting to similarly learn and grow. In addition to offering our own books however, it’s also important that leaders ask “What’s your book?”
Why are leadership books even important? The Coast Guard strives to be a learning organization. We recognize that leadership is a skill, one we can continually hone and improve. As Coast Guard leaders, it is our duty to strive to continuously improve our own leadership abilities, as well as develop the leadership of those around us. For centuries, books have been recognized as a great source of knowledge from those that have “been there and done that”. Leadership books are a great tool to promote leadership growth at all levels.
In Sector Ohio Valley, we’ve found it helpful to ask “What’s your book?” A bottom-up approach has proved particularly useful in obtaining buy-in and stimulating sustained leadership discussions, as the source material is selected by member consensus as “our book”. It’s one thing for a command to pick a book and ask members to read it – it’s quite another for members to pick themselves. Utilizing discussion tabs available on CG Portal, Sector Ohio Valley started a “Brown Bag Leadership Book Club” as a forum for unit wide leadership discussions. It’s public place, check it out by searching “Sector Ohio Valley” on CG Portal. Michael Abrashoff’s “It’s Your Ship” was selected by group consensus as the inaugural book for discussion. To date, over 40 posts have been made across sub-units throughout the Sector discussing the leadership lessons of that book, voicing both consenting and dissenting opinions. It’s been an excellent vehicle to foster meaningful unit leadership discussions of the exact sort needed to promote leadership growth.
What’s your book?
