This past July 22-28, Fargo celebrated Navy Week. Fargo Navy Week brings sailors from across the flee to the area to emphasize the importance of the navy to Fargo. The State of North Dakota, and the Nation. Luckily, that afforded us the opportunity to lean a little bit about leadership from these amazing individual.
Commander Trey Kennard
About Trey Kennard
Commander Kennard found his path to the Navy when he was studying mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech.
Advice On Leadership
“I think from a leadership perspective, you have to be honest with yourself and you have to be yourself. You can’t be pretending to be someone you are not. If you do that, people will catch on and it will just be exhaustive. I also believe having full transparency is very important. The more open and honest you can be with your people, the better. If you’re open and honest, they’re going to know why you’re doing things and not just think that you’re barking orders. I think that builds buy-in. It’s also important when leading a team to realize that it’s people-centric. If you don’t treat people as people and you treat them as numbers or units or resources, no one is going to want to follow you. They’re going to do just enough to get by and not lose their job—that’s not what you want.”
How To Be A Good Teammate
“I think the key to a good team is knowing your teammates. It’s about knowing what they’re good at and what they may struggle with. I also think another part of being a good teammate is communication. I think it’s important to communicate openly about the things you have going on in your life. Every few years, you’re going to be part of a new team in the Navy and I’ll credit my wife with this, but I think it’s important to treat every new group like you would a new marriage. You’re starting out fresh with new people and you have to get to know your new people and really learn what makes them tick, how they communicate, how they receive information, and how they process information so you can work together to be successful.”
Mike Rienzo
About Mike Rienzo
Mike Rienzo has been with the Navy for 24 years.
Rienzo’s path to the Navy began with him trying to create a better life for his family. He was married in December of 2000 and his son was born July of 2000. Prior to enlisting, Rienzo was being paid close to a minimum wage salary helping build hydraulic actuators on an assembly line. Once he joined the Navy, he began excelling in life and surpassed E4 within his first year.
Experience: 24 years
Advice On Leadership
“There are multiple types of leadership that are effective and correct. However, each person has a type of leadership that is the best for that person. And they deserve that type of leadership. So as leaders, we need to learn how to recognize what type of leadership our subordinates need. And if a subordinate needs a type of leadership that we don’t excel in or that we don’t feel we can comfortably do, it is good to use your peer group and find someone who can interact with that person in a way that will help that person grow and help that person be successful. And, you should not take it as a weakness but rather a strength to ask your peer leaders to help you.”
“The Navy also teaches you to become an intrusive leader, meaning understanding what’s going on in the lives of the people that work for you. If a person is late multiple times to work, it is easy to think that they’re a terrible worker and not to want them around, but instead you should try to understand that maybe they’re dealing with something. Maybe there are home issues and maybe they need something from you so that they can be the outstanding shipmate they could be. The Navy, in particular, is very good at that. The Navy has all sorts of systems to help support you. We have legal help. We have financial help. There are resources for physical health and dieticians. We think it’s important to take care of the whole sailer so that they can focus on the mission instead of being worried about all of the other things going on.”
Dave George
About Dave George
Dave George is currently an Electrician Mate Petty Officer second class. Prior to enlisting, George worked in Social Services until the age of 24.
Experience: 4 1/2 years
Advice On Leadership
“I think it’s important as a leader to know your people. It’s important to know their strengths and their weaknesses. Being able to take those attributes that your team members have and use them to accomplish the task and work together as a team is what makes a good leader.”
