Personal Narrative: Overcoming Challenges In The Military

In the military, addressing existing problems and anticipating threats within the organization is a constant requirement. However, the ability of a leader to overcome these challenges or become bogged down by them is determined by their ability to think creatively, solve problems, and innovate solutions. Each problem that I have ever encountered in the military was different and always evolving. These tough problems spanned from simple networking faults to more complex interpersonal problems such as sailor depression. No matter what the problem, I was always in an environment where I was being confronted with a diverse set of challenges. The challenging hurdles to get over in the military was how I would come up with solutions, while at the same time

One particular problem that was challenging and required me to think creatively was when I had to change our warship's tactical doctrine because our adversaries' tactics had changed. This process normally takes months of planning, but at the time we were traveling through the Strait of Hormuz where we were no more than 1-3 nautical miles from each other due to the waterway's narrow characteristics. As one of the senior lead combat system technicians, I was tasked with coming up with a plan in 24 hours before sailing into the strait. My creative critical thinking came into play. Having sailed through the Strait of Hormuz more than once, I was very familiar with every choke point and its geography. Knowing these elements and our adversaries previous tactics allowed me to develop a doctrine that used a contributed effort from the whole crew, as I was able to understand and bring everyone's strengths to the table. The leadership opportunities I had allowed me to discover my creative side which in turned improved my critical thinking