Midshipmen from the Yale University Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) hosted their inaugural "Leadership in Motion" weekend to discuss the dynamics of leadership and security in the context of a rapidly evolving military and world Feb. 12-13.

More than 150 students and faculty, as well as midshipmen and cadets from 26 ROTC units around the region took part in the two day conference. Guests had the opportunity to participate in panel discussions and simulation workshops on adaptive leadership in joint military operations, asymmetric security environments, geopolitical war-gaming, crisis response and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.

Experts leading the panels shared their experiences from both military and civilian organizations. Each discussion examined past, present and hypothetical future scenarios, which helped construct a toolkit of best practices for participants to develop their leadership skills.

Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Michelle J. Howard, the keynote speaker for the conference, stressed the increasing importance of cyber warfare and challenged midshipmen in the audience to embrace emerging technologies and explore new ways technology can help them lead in rapidly shifting environments.

"As leaders, we need to be worthy to lead the men and women who serve our country," said Howard. "That is what you are preparing for in the NROTC program. You can help us all become better warfighters by exploiting benefits of technology that already exists. I really am looking forward to when you join us in the fleet and bring with you fresh eyes and experiences."

Additional speakers included retired Vice Adm. Melvin Williams, associate provost for military and veterans affairs at George Washington University, who gave the opening remarks on the tenets of leadership: character, courage, commitment, caring, communication and community.

Retired Vice Adm. Mike LeFever, senior advisor at the McChrystal Group, spoke about the primacy of relationships as the cornerstone of effective leadership. He highlighted how the best leaders provide details about their decisions to build trust among the men and women they lead.

Providing perspectives from the civilian world, Rosalinde Torres, BCG senior consultant, presented on adaptive leadership in the 21st century and Emma Sky, director of Yale World Fellows and former political advisor to retired Army Gen. Raymond Odierno, gave an insider look at leadership lessons from Iraq.

Six members of the Naval War College faculty led simulation workshops, which presented real-world scenarios to small groups who then developed and briefed possible Navy responses to the rest of the conference. Examples of scenarios included international relationships in the South China Sea, potential threats to Suez Canal commerce and peacekeeping in the Middle East.

"Yale is one of the original six NROTC units and we wanted to continue in the tradition of leadership," said midshipman 3rd Class Christina Bartzokis, master of ceremonies for the conference. "To be able to engage with such experienced leaders is such a special opportunity. We learned a lot from our amazing panelists and their diverse experiences."

NROTC returned to Yale in 2012 and has served as a valuable resource for leadership development in the military. As the NROTC program at Yale continues to grow, staff and midshipmen hope to host more opportunities that will help bridge civil-military relations.

"Our midshipmen have demonstrated extraordinary initiative, one of the CNO's 'core attributes,' by challenging themselves to make this conference happen," said Capt. Vern Kemper, Yale University NROTC commanding officer. "They developed the idea to host a leadership weekend, planned and executed it all on their own, and I could not be more proud of them."

NROTC was established to develop midshipmen mentally, morally and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty, loyalty and Navy core values in order to commission college graduates as naval officers who possess a basic professional background, are motivated toward careers in the naval service and have a potential for future development in mind and character so as to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government.

Naval Service Training Command (NSTC) oversees 98 percent of initial officer and enlisted accessions training for the Navy, as well as the Navy's Citizenship Development program. NSTC also includes Recruit Training Command (RTC), the Navy's only boot camp also at Naval Station Great Lakes, the NROTC program at more than 160 colleges and universities, Officer Training Command (OTC) Newport, Rhode Island, and Navy Junior ROTC and Navy National Defense Cadet Corps (NDCC) citizenship development programs at more than 600 high schools worldwide.

For more information about NROTC, visit https://www.nrotc.navy.mil/ or for the Yale Leadership Conference, visit www.yalenrotcleadershipconference.org.
For more information about NSTC, visit http://www.netc.navy.mil/nstc/ or visit the NSTC Facebook pages at https://www.facebook.com/NavalServiceTraining/.