As Sailors enter Training Classroom Three, Senior Chief Logistics Specialist Damien Burke greets them to their first day of Fundamental Leader Development Course (FLDC). On the door, a sign reads, “Excellence Starts Here.” Burke tells the students that FLDC is not like the Navy’s past petty officer indoctrination (PO INDOC) courses for leaders.

FLDC is the first formalized training step in a Sailor’s career to becoming a leader. The Enlisted Leader Development (ELD) courses are a fairly new improvement which is revisited at various levels of training: fundamentals for petty officer third classes, intermediate for petty officer second classes and advanced for petty officer first classes.

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) became the first command to transition from the Navy’s PO INDOC course to ELD courses in January 2018.

A team of command master chiefs and captains joined with the Naval Leadership Method Center and the Naval War College as they planned the EDL.

“They realized in 2015 that they wanted leaders to begin developing before they attended the Senior Enlisted Academy as Chiefs,” said Command Master Chief Todd A. Mangin, who was one of the CMCs and course manager of the team during the infancy stages of planning.

At the time, there was no structure to help Sailors develop as leaders between boot camp and being selected as chiefs.

“Most of the problems with PO INDOC was reflected in feedback,” said Burke. “It didn’t teach Sailors any tools or skills they need to be leaders. It’s one thing to say ‘make sure you’re doing spot checks and wear your uniform correctly,’ but there were things students weren’t learning like counseling other Sailors. That’s something leaders need to think about. There are situations that facilitators have experienced and can share with you.”

As a solution, they chose to use the course to give Sailors the tools they need to grow. It focuses on sharing the Navy’s expectation of a good leader’s character and leadership skills with junior Sailors through discussions of self-awareness, decision making and ethics.

Chiefs were chosen as facilitators and trained specifically to offer the most beneficial and useful experiences to Sailors. Through their careers they have learned how to be leaders who reflect and enforce the Navy values.  

“Having chiefs go through the same exercises as the junior Sailors helped us get ready for certain answers that were coming,” said Chief Aviation Electronics Technician Anwar Williams, an FLDC facilitator. “There were parts of the course that were different in my mind and experiencing that opened my eyes.”

FLDC is not just a typical class with instructors and students. It’s set up to be an opportunity for the Navy’s most experienced enlisted leaders to share their experiences and lessons with junior Sailors through discussion-based and interactive exercises.

“It’s all about communication and interaction,” said Burke. “From the facilitator to the student and then back to the facilitator. So, it’s very specific too, about sharing and responding. That was the biggest change. The Navy wanted to get away from ‘this is what you need to know’ and move toward ‘these are the tools you need to be Navy leaders’.”

There are various exercises that require teamwork and discussions that analyze how people are perceived and react during communication.

“What, you’re not going to help me?” said a student during an exercise. She was sitting in the center of the classroom holding a paper ball in her hand. She was told to throw it in a box behind her but not where to aim and all of her classmates were told not to help her or acknowledge her at all. It was an exercise to show how people respond to different levels of encouragement or lack thereof. The class performed the exercise four times, each with a different level of encouragement.

Students learned about self-awareness and how to use that during intrapersonal communications. The exercise reflected that the things they say and the way they speak does have an impact on people. It’s important to be aware of that, especially around Sailors who look up to them as leaders.

“When you’re doing the exercise of throwing the ball over your head you can see how positive, negative or no feedback at all can affect you,” said Burke. “After it gets explained you have the tools you need to make sense of it. In today’s generation, I think that feedback is so vital because everything moves at such a fast pace. If something happened ten minutes ago, it’s not remembered.”

On the last day of a recent course, each student stood in front of the classroom and shared their feedback with the class.

“I really liked how the facilitators were so real with us,” said Aviation Ordnanceman Airman Logan Wilson. “It wasn’t just senior enlisted personnel giving instruction to junior personnel.”

Aviation Ordnanceman 3rd Class Brian Tyson agreed with Wilson and described the course as interactive.

“I learned how we all communicate with each other,” said Tyson. “We’re all individuals but part of an organization, and we’re all different but we can stick together.”

The class is meant to supplement Sailors’ individual growth and aid them on their path to becoming leaders. The facilitators are Sailors who have experienced paving their own way and were hand-picked by Mangin.

“The things I got from leaders in my past was how situations ended up and how they made me feel,” said Burke. “I want my Sailors to feel the same way I did when my senior chief made me feel like a sharp second class, but also when he humbled me and I realized I needed that. Even though it was uncomfortable, I learned from that lesson.”

During a field exercise when Burke was a petty officer second class, he set down a Sailor’s weapon while they completed a task and it was left behind. When he remembered it, he took credit for the mastable offense of losing a weapon, but instead of going to mast his senior chief had him apologize publicly to the department.

“That humbled me so much because I recognized that it was my fault and I let my shipmates down,” said Burke. “It really hit me hard and I’ll never forget it. It was a negative feeling with a positive outcome. There are times now when I use that same corrective method to help my Sailors learn that lesson.”

The intermediate and advanced ELD classes have similar curriculum, but they are more intense.

 “I like to see the how the course changes junior Sailors and how their leadership skills develop as time goes on,” said Mangin. “Every single day I can see around the ship how Sailors are progressing, and so far, I’m seeing a lot of return on investment.”

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