A group of 72 chief petty officers (CPOs) from across Naval Air Station Patuxent River gathered, Feb. 5, for Fleet CPO Training, a one-day seminar designed to re-energize individual Chiefs Messes to become more effective leaders.

Conducted by two facilitators from U.S. Fleet Forces Command, the training – which is interactive and geared toward group discussion – focused on leadership responsibilities, key Navy programs, team building, leader development and warfighting.

“The Fleet CPO Training Team was developed back in 2011 as a 'stopgap' for leadership,” said Command Master Chief Ronald Glass, Fleet CPO Training Team facilitator. “What we came to realize is that a person who makes CPO may go on to further their education through the Senior Enlisted Academy for what could be another five to eight years. This curriculum was created to fill that kind of gap, and it has morphed since then into a lot of character-based training.”

Training topics included attitude, culture, mantra, focus, ethics and trust; Navy Leadership Development Framework; communicating across generations; power bases and influence tactics; good order and discipline; leading up, down and across oneself; and maintaining maritime superiority, among others.

“The training we do isn’t really anything new,” Glass noted. “We’re just opening leadership’s eyes to tools they may not have in their toolbox, or to better ways of doing what they’re already doing.”

Chief Air Traffic Controller Ivan Sanchez attended the training, which he described as beneficial because allowed each group to learn attributes about one another and how to work together through adversity to accomplish the mission.

“The training was very valuable and much needed,” Sanchez added. “We, as leaders, need to step away from our desks, cubicles and shops sometimes and have this type of interaction. We can develop tunnel vision on day-to-day operations, and at times lose focus, and the fact that we are at war.”

The next day, Feb. 6, similar 8-hour training was given to 39 members of Patuxent River’s First Class Petty Officers Mess.

“We separate the two classes because the discussions are a bit different; ‘first class’ is the first line leadership,” Glass said. “We owe it to prepare them accordingly, so we give them the same leadership tools, we just deliver it from a different perspective.”

The training team, located out of Norfolk, conducts seminars for about 100-125 commands per year. For more information, or to schedule training, email usff_fltcpotra@navy.mil.

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