Introduction Joining the Navy is a very important decision not to be taken lightly. Whether you are joining early in life, after high school graduation, or later in life, there are several important factors that need to be considered. One of the most important factors to consider is the decision to join the Enlisted ranks or the Officer ranks. Once that is decided, there are many key differences in the two ranks. Understanding that not every Enlisted person will be promoted to the pay grade of Chief Petty Officer (CPO). For the purpose of this discussion, the comparison is drawn between a senior Enlisted member, a CPO, and an Officer. Three of the key factors to differentiate Chiefs and Officers are how they are compensated, how they are viewed …show more content…
How Chiefs and Officers are viewed and their specific roles can seemingly be easily blended together. However, the roles greatly differ between the two. Perhaps one of the most misunderstood phenomenons is that Chiefs are expected to train the Junior Officers. The Navy Chief is considered a technical expert in their field; a pillar of wisdom in the organization. They have gone to the required schools to learn a particular set of skills required for a particular job. They have trained on this job for the better part of thirteen and a half years, on average, and are now tasked with training Officers as well. This established paradigm is because while an Officer has been trained and schooled in a broad field at a university, they have not necessarily had the experience in leading people and team dynamics. While Officers went to school to learn how to be an Officer, handle large-level projects, and manage programs, they did not rise through the ranks. The benefit of this is that enlisted members were exposed to various types of leaders and leadership styles, allowing each one to take the pros and cons of each style and mold that information into their own. Enlisted members are promoted to CPO based on how they lead personnel and this system proves to leverage their leadership experience and guide junior …show more content…
As Millennials don’t remember a world without the Internet and have a dynamic in which they feel value in contributing to the team, the Chief plays a vital role in channeling that vision to the desired direction of the Navy team (Nevid, 2011). Chiefs deal day in and day out with our young people and have to have the ability to get on their level to see how they learn best. Chiefs have to deal with the daily issues and drama that arises in the ranks of both Enlisted and Officer members. Issues such as financial problems, family concerns, and work conflicts affect the team and the Chief is there to mentor, guide, and most importantly fix the problems. It is certainly not implied that Officers do not have the capability to understand these issues, it is simply not in their job scope or swim lane nor are they trained like the Chiefs of the