Command Philosophy:

Command Philosophy:

To my CG-5R Shipmates,

With our recent organizational change, I wanted to take this moment to clearly spell out my guiding philosophy as we stand up the new office of the Assistant Commandant for Response Policy. Many of you have seen the watch words on my email signature: Commitment, Courage, Character. These words remind me and guide me each day I serve you, our community, our Coast Guard, and our country. I offer them to each of you as we continually evolve and improve our response policies.
 
Commitment: We will be committed to our Coast Guard, each other and our assigned roles and responsibilities. We will develop, review and refresh policies through a collaborative approach within the Coast Guard and our interagency and military partners. I believe in a healthy dialogue and transparency to our CG operational commanders and their staffs to ensure that policy is clear, logical and executable. We must also know the realistic resource impacts of our policies. We will remain deeply committed to each other. Our coworkers' and families' welfare are key to keeping us functioning as a high-performing team. We will respect each other, create a cohesive workplace environment, and strive to improve professional development opportunities to continually grow our competencies.
 
Courage: We must exhibit courage in everything we do. As the Commandant stated in his Shipmates 19: Respect Our Shipmates - Duty Demands Courage; "there are no bystanders in the Coast Guard'. We must demonstrate the courage to create appropriate policy to guide our Coast Guard and then ensure compliance. Sometimes this will require hard work, rigorous coordination and prudent adjudication to reach final policy promulgation. We must not shy away from our responsibility to provide this clear policy to the field.
 
Character: As a very visible agency in the public's eye and a foundation within DHS, we must exhibit exemplary character in everything we do. As recent missteps by some of our federal workers have shown, there are great costs to an organization's reputation and effectiveness when a few demonstrate poor character in their official duties and personal lives. We must embrace integrity in our roles as mission program managers, resource stewards and interagency representatives. The Commandant has bestowed significant responsibility to our office. I expect each and every one of you to act with the utmost professional character in all your dealings. Trust within and outside the Coast Guard often hinges on how others perceive your character. Good trust leads to strong relationships, which leads to great results. More than anything, character is the embodiment of our core values.
 
While there are minor organizational adjustments within DCO, in essence, we are still the same inter-laced offices that must work together to advance the Commandant's and DCO's priorities. I expect close collaboration with CG-5P, CG-7, DCO-I, DCO-8 and DCMS directorates.