How To Manage Yourself and Communicate With Your Boss

I spent six years in the Navy and three years in the Naval Reserve. My rating was Fire Controlman (the Army or USMC might call it an MOS), and the system I worked on was the Mark 15 Phalanx Close In Weapon System. I was young, naive, spoiled, and I had a lot of lessons to learn. As with any other life experience, I sometimes wish I could repeat those years with the lessons that I've learned since. The Navy taught me electronics, it taught me a work ethic, and it taught me the meaning of the words of my all time favorite movie quote, said by Clint Eastwood in Heartbreak Ridge: "Improvise, adapt, overcome".

Although my rate and training involved electronics and weapons, most of the lessons the Navy taught me really can't be learned in school. I met some very interesting people, and I learned how to live and work alongside them in all kinds of conditions, both good and bad. We had our fights, we had our bad times, and we also had our drunken nights of bonding in strange places.

A post written by Michael Hyatt this morning brought back a lot of memories for me. Michael talked about bosses who won't stay off of your back, and steps you can take to make sure they won't be any more of a hassle than necessary. I learned several lessons during my final year on active duty about productivity and working with your boss. In 1997, my ship came out of the yards. During our six month yard period, we probably had a 50% crew changeover. The crew that came off the deployment the previous year, that was sharpened by months at sea, had changed. With that crew change went the other members of the six man work center I had belonged to. I was left with one man who had less than 90 days in the Navy. Because we came out of the yards, we were in a heavy workup cycle to make sure that the ship would be ready for action with the engineering, structural, and manpower changes made in the yards. This was a very intense time for us. I was in charge of a work center consisting of myself and one other person. I was mad after this experience when we finally got more people who were all senior to me and I was the "boot camp", or junior member, again.

One of the hardest lessons I learned during this period was that I am much more productive if I take a lunch. For a time, I tried to work straight through the day because I had a lot to do and only myself to do it. I found that I was more productive if I shut down for lunch. I would go for a run, take a shower, eat, spend some time "BS'ing", and then get back to work. I actually got more done this way than if I tried to work straight through lunch.

Another lesson I learned, which is the focus of this blog entry, had to do with planning and with involving my boss. At first, I would work all day, then if I wasn't on duty that night I would report to my chief (E-7) to ask if I could go home. He would bring up several other tasks that needed to be done, which I hadn't been told yet, and I would either need to do them or negotiate for time to do them another day. This got very frustrating, and I dreaded talking to my chief at the end of the day.

I had a Franklin Planner at the time. I was involved with one of those "network" or "multi-level" marketing organizations. Oh, yes, I was going to be rich and retire at 24. I decided to use my Franklin Planner for it's intended purpose: to plan a day. At this point, I really only carried it to functions and contacting with that organization I have long since discontinued affiliation with. I got in the habit of taking my planner to what we called Quarters. Quarters was the first meeting for each division at the beginning of the day. This is when the "word" was put out regarding anything we had a need to know about. Sometimes we would be told the ship's schedule. Sometimes we talked about inspections. Sometimes we were praised. Sometimes chief was just in a bad mood and chewed us out for a half hour. I would take my planner to Quarters and make sure to write down anything pertinent. After Quarters, I would go to my chief and tell him what I was planning to work on that day. I would then ask if he had any tasking or projects that he needed me to focus on. I would write that down in his presence. Then I would go to my shop and spend about 15 minutes reviewing the previous day and planning that day according to Franklin's methodology. As the day went on, I would check off the completed tasks, reschedule tasks that couldn't be done, and make notes on everything as I went along.

At the conclusion of the workday, I would find my chief, open my planner, and give him a rundown of my day. "I got this done. I couldn't get this done because... This repair part isn't available. I can't check out HAZMAT because the coordinator is on leave." I finally managed to reach the point that chief would see me coming with my planner and tell me "see you later". That was a good feeling.

I can't say I've always managed to keep that kind of level of self-management. I'm certainly not there now, considering the amount of devices and programs I have available to me. I did learn a lesson in those days, however; a good boss isn't at war with you. He or she is interested in your work that he or she is responsible for being completed. Keep your boss in the loop and you will be respected for it.