The Naval Leadership and Ethics Center (NLEC), Newport, Rhode Island held its first character development and ethics training workshop, Ethics and Self-Awareness Working Group, recently.

The focus of the two-day workshop was to provide a consistent foundational concept to the understanding of ethics and ethics decision-making, according to Cmdr. David Todd, a Navy chaplain and instructor at NLEC.

"This effort will eventually offer clarity and understanding to the fleet on character development," said Todd.

Attendees for this inaugural event included approximately two dozen key stakeholders from the U.S. Naval Academy, Recruit Training Command, Senior Enlisted Academy, Naval Postgraduate School, Naval Reserve Officer Training Command, Officer Training Command Newport, and the Center of Strategic Leadership at U.S. Naval War College (NWC), NLEC's parent command.

The aggressive agenda for the workshop was designed to build a "One Navy Ethic" approach.

"Character development happens in the fleet," said Todd. "The character strand of leader development is a continual process out in the fleet within the crucible of operational constraints and the focus on mission accomplishment, which tends to focus on technical competence. This workshop provided an opportunity to align the ethics, self-awareness, and character discussion across the continuum of leader development that is organic to our professional identity and establish a shared foundation for broader fleet-centric, leader-development efforts."

Todd said Sailors are confronted daily with ethical dilemmas, and are entrusted by their commands and the public to make the right ethical choices. It is important all training commands are speaking the same language so Navy members can articulate why they make the decisions they do. This will help ensure the Navy maintains the public trust, and Sailors maintain trust from and within their commands.

A critical part in developing individual character is a keen sense of self-awareness, according to Lt. Tara Smallidge, NLEC research psychologist.

"Discussing the importance of self-awareness and how it relates to ethical decision making is a major component to effective leader development," said Smallidge. "One way to become more self-aware is through the use of assessments. These serve as additional data points to create greater self-awareness. The right assessment at the right stage of leader development is important to facilitate reflective thoughts which lead to appropriate behavioral change."

There are many self-awareness tools available in the Navy, according to NLEC.

"For instance, if a Sailor receives a Myers-Briggs personality assessment in the Senior Enlisted Academy, it may not be worthwhile for them to receive another Myers-Briggs assessment five years later if they attend the Command Leadership Course at NLEC," said David Plouffe, curriculum director at NLEC. "With so many tools available today, it is important not to focus on the validity and reliability of the tools, but to ensure that Sailors get the chance to reflect on results in the different areas of the assessments. That is hopefully one of the outcomes of this workshop -- to ensure that we are providing the right areas of reflection for our Sailors."

This workshop directly supported two lines of effort in the chief of naval operations' recent document "A Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority."

It supports one line of effort to build and support high velocity learning at every level throughout the enlisted and officer ranks.

"We hope to implement and share best practices that each of these stakeholders has experienced, and also implement fleet feedback that has been provided to various schoolhouses," said Plouffe.

It also supports a second line of effort to develop a self-awareness and ethics framework which can be implemented and taught throughout the enlisted and officer ranks.

"This collaborative effort was a quick step back from complexity -- a pause point -- and provided a cohesive approach, offering collective impact to how we view character across the fleet," said Capt. Peter Mantz, NLEC commanding officer. "This backbone to the leader development framework must be flexible and agile, yet consistent and sustainable. To this end, success is highly contextual and ownership in the fleet is critical. It is really much more about a mindset than a process."

"This engagement better defined the 'why' and 'what' of character development, and served to take a new look at the leadership roadmap while highlighting tools and compass headings to better align and further a One Navy Ethic," he added.

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