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By Nancy Benecki DLA Public Affairs
The senior enlisted leader at U.S. Strategic Command has three elements critical for warfighter success: being brilliant at the basics, having discipline and taking care of oneself.
Everyone’s job is different, but being good at that job is critical no matter what it is, said USSTRATCOM Senior Enlisted Leader Army Command Sgt. Maj. JoAnn Naumann during a Warfighter Talk at the Defense Logistics Agency’s headquarters June 11.
“The most important thing you can do is be really good at what you do now,” Naumann said. “Because you know who I want to hire for anything that has more responsibility? Somebody who’s already really good at what they do, who’s proven that they work hard where they are.”
The next element is discipline, which she said is different from obedience.
“Discipline isn’t doing what I tell you to do,” she said. “It’s doing the right thing because you know it’s the right thing, and you do it whether or not anybody will ever know you did it.”
If leadership can’t explain to their team why they’re doing something, it’s a problem, she said.
“I will tell you if someone asks you why, and your answer is, ‘I don’t know,’ or, ‘Because I said so,’ maybe you need to rethink it,” Naumann said.
Taking care of oneself is the final element. Doing everything for everyone at the expense of personal well-being isn’t productive and can be dangerous, she said.
“In the military, we like to talk a lot about leaders eat last. Garbage. I disagree,” she said.
Leaders give themselves to others, and if that leader is tired, hungry or physically and emotionally exhausted, there isn’t anything left to give to others, she said.
“Is there anyone who makes good decisions when they’re tired? When they’ve been going on three hours of sleep for weeks? No,” Naumann said.
Naumann was speaking from personal experience on this topic. Believing that she wouldn’t get promoted if she slowed down, she said she pushed herself so hard that she would stay awake for days, and she’d shake from high adrenaline and cortisol levels.
“The best part is, one, I thought I was fooling everybody,” she said. “Two, I wasn’t fooling anybody, and nobody said anything to me.”
In 2013 as a master sergeant, she got sick. After realizing she was ruining her health, she got medical help and started taking better care of herself.
“From the time that I started taking care of myself, I got promoted to sergeant major, and I made it all the way from being a staff sergeant major to serving at the combatant command level,” she said. “And I sleep, and I eat, and I do (physical training), and I meditate pretty much every day.”
Everyone has to figure out what taking care of themselves looks like, she said.
“The No. 1 secret to having a really successful career is to last long enough to have a really successful career,” she said. “You can’t do that if you’re running yourself out, so take care of yourself.”
Beyond her three critical elements, Naumann, who has been in the Army for 30 years, said that supply chains today are under a constant threat.
“We’re facing increasing distances. We’re facing adversaries who are our peers. And from a STRATCOM perspective, we’re facing two adversaries who are our nuclear peers,” she said.
Cybersecurity is another threat, she said.
“I will tell you there’s no sanctuary,” Naumann said. “Right now, today here in the United States, we are not safe from cyber threats, whether that’s your personal computer, your personal finances, our logistics, gas and oil pipelines, electricity — everything is on the network. We’re vulnerable.”
Despite these challenges and changing technology, Naumann said that warfare is still human.
“It is still people who are going to bring the fight to the enemy if that day comes, which means the basics haven’t changed,” she said. “We are still counting on everyone who enables warfighters to do their job to get them what they need, ideally to anticipate it and get it to them before they even know they need it.”
She said warfighters are also counting on being able to trust that they will have what they need.
“That trust is absolutely critical when you're out there on that front line, trusting that the people behind you are doing what they need to do to get you what you need to fight the war,” Naumann said.
Morale is part of trust, too, she added.
“Part of it is knowing you get an ice cream on Friday,” she said. “We can talk about all the really big, important things that you all do, but sometimes the most important thing that you do is get ice cream to the front line. It matters. That need to understand people will never change.”
A recording of the event is available to DLA employees on the Campaign of Learning page (a DLA Common Access Card is required).