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MCPON Visits Great Lakes

11 May 2017
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (MCPON) Steven S. Giordano made his first stop to Naval Station Great Lakes (NSGL), the Navy's largest training installation, May 10, to speak with Sailors about current issues facing today's Navy.
Giordano met with hundreds of Sailors from NSGL and various tenant commands during his visit, including a speaking engagement at the Great Lakes First Class Petty Officer Association Leadership Symposium inside the Epicenter, where he stressed the importance of leadership, how crucial it is to learn something new each day, and why communicating with junior Sailors is so important in their overall development.

"Think about what listening really means," said Giordano. "I mean actively listening to somebody. I think all to often we try to become immediate problem solvers as leaders for our Sailors. When most of the time, they are mature enough to figure it for themselves. They just need to think through it, and they need somebody to help them think through it."

The visit also included an all-hands call for E-6 and below inside Ross Theater, where Giordano reenlisted multiple Sailors, then proceeded to have an open ended question and answer session with the Sailors in attendance. Sailors directly engaged with Giordano about certain topics such as staying motivated during stressful times, toughness within the Navy, and possible changes coming to the evaluation system.

"We are driving towards a system that effectively provides you with direct, accurate feedback with your performance on a regular basis," said Giordano. "Sometime next year we are going to come out with the new system. This system will evaluate you and only you. Currently we evaluate you against all of your other shipmates who have been onboard for three years, and you've only been onboard for a few months; we aren't going to do it that way anymore. When you show up to a command on day one, we will start evaluating you, and then a year later, you get your evaluation. It doesn't need to be a group of people getting evaluated."

Giordano's last leg of his visit included meetings with senior enlisted and command leadership, including Rear Adm. Stephen C. Evans, commander, Naval Service Training Command, before visiting the National Museum of the American Sailor, where he toured the exhibits, and received a brief from the staff about future plans for the museum.

For more news from Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, visit www.navy.mil/local/mcpon/ and www.Facebook.com/14MCPON/.

For more news from Commander, Navy Region Mid Atlantic, visit www.navy.mil/.

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