Chief Petty Officer Academy Experience

I have not been wasting Uncle Sam’s time the past five months. The Chief Petty Officer Academy has proven to be a useful course that should make me a better Chief. I’ve learned many valuable skills and had several enlightening experiences at the academy, although there are three things that I will take back to the ship and try to display and implement immediately. The first is a commitment to physical fitness, secondly the lessons I learned from the LPI 360 survey, and lastly coaching. There were many other lessons in the course but so far these are the ones the most forward in my thoughts.
The past four years of my career I’ve let my diet and physical activity go. I’ve blamed it on being on cutters the entire time, and while that certainly makes it harder it is not an adequate excuse. Before the course started I got the results of my blood work and I was alarmed by my cholesterol level. I weighed more at

All of us want to help solve our members problems. But I think I never coach, I just mentor, give advice and problem solve. When the instructor said coaching is about people solving their own problems, that has sort of resonated with me. I can think of a few instances in just the past couple months where I helped a member and served up a solution on a silver platter, but it would have benefitted them much more if I stepped back and just asked the right questions. I’m going to try harder in the future to keep some ideas to myself and let the member come to conclusions on their own. The past five weeks of the Chief Petty Officer Academy has been a valuable experience. I’ve learned many helpful things and I thing I can make an impact of the crew with a commitment to physical fitness, changing some behaviors that were described in the LPI 360 survey, and by coaching our crew members who need assistance. I know missing half a patrol is a burden on my supervisors, subordinates and peers, but I’m certain if will be worth