Leadership under pressure requires putting your people first, even when it costs you personally. Captain Brett Crozier's 30-year Navy career culminated in a decision that ended his command but saved his sailors: fighting bureaucracy to get his COVID-infected crew proper medical care. His approach to leadership, building trust through accessibility, encouraging upward feedback, and making reversible decisions quickly, applies whether you're commanding an aircraft carrier or leading a small team.
Key Takeaways
- Take care of your people first, everything else follows. Crozier’s 30-year career was built on one principle: focus on your people and they’ll take care of the mission. Even when it cost him his command, he stood by this belief.
- Leadership happens in the quiet moments, not just the crisis. The espresso breaks with Italian colleagues and softball games with sailors built the trust that mattered when lives were on the line.
- Encourage feedback, especially when it stings. His “NKR” (Not Quite Right) approach deliberately created moments where subordinates could correct him publicly, building a culture where truth flows upward.
- Communication is a two-way street. You can’t over-communicate, and you have to listen as much as you speak. The captain who thinks everyone heard his announcement will be humbled when he finds sailors who missed it entirely.
- Not all decisions are irreversible. The 80% solution implemented quickly beats the perfect solution that arrives too late. Save the deep analysis for truly irreversible choices.
From Top Gun Dreams to Leadership Reality
Like many young men in the 1980s, Brett Crozier joined the Navy because of a movie. Top Gun made flying fighters look like the ultimate expression of rugged individualism (one man, one machine, conquering the sky). What Crozier discovered over 30 years of service was that the reality of military leadership is the exact opposite of that Hollywood fantasy.
“I joined the Navy to fly,” Crozier explains. “I would have skipped college and gone straight to flight school if they’d let me. But I stayed for the people.”
The turning point came when he realized what it actually took to get a single F-18 off the deck of an aircraft carrier. Not just the pilot’s skill (though that matters) but the coordinated effort of literally thousands of people. The 18-year-old sailor who gives you final clearance for takeoff. The reactor operators making steam. The cook who made sure the pilot had breakfast. The sailor driving the ship who doesn’t even have her driver’s license but is steering a floating city.
“It takes all of that. You wouldn’t even think about being able to take off by yourself. It’s a privilege to fly Navy aircraft, and it comes because of those thousands of people that are making that happen for you.”
This realization shaped how Crozier would lead for the next three decades, culminating in the decision that would end his naval career and define his legacy.
The Leadership Philosophy That Changed Everything
Most leadership books will give you frameworks and acronyms. Crozier’s approach was simpler: take care of your people, and they’ll take care of everything else.
“As a leader, you’re taking care of your people,” he says. “If you take care of your people, then they’re going to take care of everything else.”
But this wasn’t feel-good management speak. It was a practical philosophy that guided real decisions with real consequences. When faced with policy choices on his ship, Crozier would ask: “How will the sailors be impacted?” If two sailors out of 5,000 broke curfew, the easy response would be to punish everyone with an earlier curfew or cancel shore leave entirely. But why penalize thousands for the mistakes of two?
This thinking extended to how he structured command culture. Every ship had softball teams. Crozier always joined, and he insisted his sailors call him by his first name on the field, not “Captain” or “Sir.” The hierarchy dissolved between the baselines.
“The more you bleed on the field, the less you bleed in combat. You spend time on the field, you break down those barriers, you remove the hierarchy. You get to know each other. The next day at work, you trust each other.”
This philosophy of accessibility and people-first leadership connects to broader principles of building authentic confidence where real authority comes from genuine competence and care for others, not just positional power.
Never Skip Espresso: Building Trust in Small Moments
During a NATO assignment in Italy, Crozier learned one of the most important lessons of his career from an Italian colleague named Luigi Fazio. It came down to coffee.
As a “standard fighter pilot type A personality,” Crozier was laser-focused on checking every email, perfecting every PowerPoint, using the right fonts. Meanwhile, his Italian, German, and French colleagues kept inviting him for espresso breaks (multiple times per day). His American instinct was to decline. Too much work to do. Too busy for coffee socializing.
Luigi kept asking. Eventually Crozier said yes.
“When I finally slowed down a little bit and took the time to have espresso with these guys and get to learn to know them, what I realized I had been ignoring was the chance to get away from work, to talk about what’s life in Naples like, or what’s life in Paris like.”
Those short coffee breaks (standing up, drinking an espresso shot, talking about life) built the relationships that would prove crucial when operations in Libya kicked off. The team that Crozier initially worried wouldn’t be able to work hard stepped up completely. They worked seven days a week for months, and they still took their espresso breaks.
The lesson became his rule: never skip espresso. Not because the coffee matters, but because the relationship-building happens in the margins, not the meetings. This understanding of relationship investment mirrors what’s needed for having deeper conversations where small moments of genuine connection build the foundation for meaningful dialogue.
Creating a Culture Where Truth Flows Upward
Most leaders say they want feedback. Few create systems that actually generate it. Crozier developed what he called the “NKR” approach, and he did it deliberately.
When speaking to large groups of sailors, he would end by saying, “I need your feedback on things that are not quite right. NKR.” He would repeat this multiple times, always using the acronym “NKR.”
The problem? “Not quite right” should be abbreviated as “NQR,” not “NKR.”
The first few times, sailors noticed but said nothing. You don’t correct the captain of an aircraft carrier. But eventually, one sailor stood up: “Sir, NKR is not the right way to abbreviate ‘not quite right.’ It’s NQR.”
“I used the moment to compliment them and say, ‘Yep, that’s exactly what I want. You guys all have a valuable role on this team. I need your feedback. If I’m going the wrong direction, you got to let me know.'”
This created what every organization needs but few achieve: a culture where information flows up, not just down. Where junior people feel safe correcting senior leaders. Where the person closest to the problem can speak truth to power.
Even when the feedback was wrong, Crozier couldn’t discourage it. The willingness to give feedback was more valuable than whether any individual piece of feedback was correct.
Communication: The Two-Way Street Most Leaders Get Wrong
Crozier thought he was a great communicator. He used the ship’s speaker system daily to update all 5,000 sailors on the schedule, port calls, and operations. He repeated himself. He was thorough.
Then he’d walk the ship and ask a sailor, “Hey, you excited about pulling into Guam?”
Response: “I didn’t know we were pulling in, sir.”
Crozier had just announced it. Twice. To everyone. How did this sailor miss it?
“You really can’t over-communicate. There’s less risk in over-communicating than there is in under-communicating. You communicate, you get feedback, you communicate again, and you kind of build that message.”
Real communication isn’t broadcasting. It’s ensuring the message was received, understood, and internalized. It requires feedback loops. It requires walking around and checking. It requires humility about the gap between what you think you communicated and what actually landed.
Leading Across Cultures: What American Leaders Can Learn
The Navy operates globally, which means building trust across language barriers and cultural differences. Crozier’s approach was simple: assume everyone has something to teach you.
Early in his career, he was hesitant to reach out to foreign military colleagues because of language barriers. But once he got past that hesitation, he discovered something important: “We’re all the same. We just happen to speak a different language or grew up in a different country.”
The Japanese sake ceremonies, Italian espresso culture, and German precision weren’t obstacles to overcome (they were relationship-building opportunities to embrace).
“Most of the world speaks English pretty well. My foreign language skills are minimal at best. But once you get over that hesitation and learn how to communicate with or without words sometimes, you realize we’re all focused on family, career, profession, making a living.”
Practical steps for cross-cultural leadership:
- Participate in their customs. Don’t just tolerate the espresso breaks (join them).
- Ask questions about their culture. People love sharing what makes their country unique.
- Find the common ground. Focus on shared goals and values rather than differences.
- Be patient with communication. Clarity matters more than speed.
The COVID Decision: When Principles Meet Reality
In March 2020, Captain Brett Crozier faced the defining moment of his career. COVID-19 had reached his ship, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and was spreading rapidly through the crew. Social distancing on a naval vessel is impossible (sailors sleep in bunks stacked three high, 200 people to a compartment, everyone within arm’s reach).
Crozier knew exactly what needed to happen: get the sailors off the ship and into proper quarantine facilities. But the normal chain of command was moving too slowly. Foreign policy considerations, negotiations with Guam, bureaucratic processes (all creating delay while his sailors got sicker).
He had a choice. Follow the slow bureaucratic process and protect his career. Or push harder and risk everything.
“All I care about is we have to remove these barriers. I have to get these sailors off the ship. I have to get them off the base and I have to get them in proper quarters.”
Crozier sent a pointed email to his chain of command, asking for help and acceleration. The email worked (his sailors got the help they needed). But it also ended his naval career. The Acting Secretary of the Navy fired him from command.
Would he do it again? “Yeah. Knowing what I knew at the time, yeah, I’d like to think I’d do it again, because it was fundamental to me. It goes back to taking care of people.”
Decision-Making Under Pressure: The 80% Solution
Complex organizations create complex decisions. Aircraft carriers involve thousands of people, millions of dollars, life-and-death consequences. It’s easy to get paralyzed by analysis, trying to find the perfect solution.
Crozier learned a different approach: not all decisions are irreversible.
“We tend to want to make decisions as if they’re all irreversible. In general though, when you’re making decisions on where the ship’s going to go, they’re not irreversible.”
The framework breaks down like this:
Type 1 Decisions (Irreversible):
- Combat decisions (dropping bombs)
- Personnel decisions (firing someone)
- Major strategic commitments
Type 2 Decisions (Reversible):
- Operational changes
- Policy adjustments
- Resource allocation
For Type 2 decisions, the 80% solution implemented quickly beats the perfect solution that arrives too late. You can always adjust course. For Type 1 decisions, take the time to get it right. This decision framework aligns with what high-performance teams understand about executive presence where decisive action often matters more than perfect analysis.
“The enemy of good is great. If you’re always trying to get the perfect decision and solution, then you’ll miss all these other opportunities.”
Building Accessibility as a Senior Leader
The higher you climb in an organization, the more barriers appear between you and the people doing the actual work. Secretaries, schedules, protocols, hierarchies (all designed to protect your time but also to isolate you from reality).
Crozier fought this systematically. On aircraft carriers, he would walk the ship and have lunch with sailors in the galley. At his current nonprofit working with homeless veterans, he grabs a baseball glove twice a week and plays catch in the courtyard with clients.
“Sometimes as a leader, you have to force yourself to remove those barriers to become accessible. The veteran clients come up to me and talk about challenges they’re having or ways we can make the organization better. Those are valuable insights that you might not get if you’re stuck in your office.”
Tactical ways to build accessibility:
- Join the softball team. Sports break down hierarchical barriers naturally.
- Eat lunch with your team. Don’t always eat with other executives.
- Walk around regularly. Get out from behind your desk and computer.
- Use first names in informal settings. Reduce the power distance.
- Ask about their lives, not just work. Show genuine interest in people as individuals.
The X-Factor: Everyone Has Something to Teach You
When asked about his X-factor, what makes him unique as a leader, Crozier’s response reveals the core of his leadership philosophy:
“I approach every relationship like I’ve got something to learn more than I have something to give. That allows me to approach relationships, whether it’s espresso in Italy or sailors on the ship or veteran clients that I have in the shelter I work with now.”
It’s practical wisdom. The veteran living on the street has insights about resilience you don’t have. The 18-year-old sailor knows things about the ship you don’t know. The Italian colleague understands relationship-building in ways that might transform your organization.
Leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about asking better questions and creating environments where the answers can emerge from anywhere. This approach to learning from everyone creates the foundation for genuine likeability where people feel valued and heard rather than managed or directed.
Related Reading
- How to Build Confidence: The Complete Guide to Unshakeable Self-Belief: Learn how genuine confidence comes from competence and care for others, not just positional authority.
- Executive Presence: How to Command Respect and Influence: Master the leadership presence that makes people want to follow you through crisis and calm.
- How to Have Deeper Conversations: Beyond Small Talk: Build the relationship foundation that makes leadership possible in the first place.
- How to Be More Likeable: The Science of Instant Connection: Understand the interpersonal skills that make people want to work with you and support your vision.
Where People-First Leadership Fits Your Development
Captain Crozier’s approach to leadership through accessibility, feedback, and relationship-building represents core elements of social intelligence applied to leadership contexts. These aren’t just military principles, they work in any situation where you need to influence, motivate, and develop others.
Art of Charm helps you develop the social awareness and interpersonal skills that make this kind of leadership possible. Whether you’re leading a team, building a business, or navigating complex relationships, the foundation is the same: genuine interest in others, clear communication, and the confidence to make decisions while staying open to feedback.
Ready to assess your own leadership and social skills? Take the social skills assessment to discover where your strengths lie and which areas could benefit from the kind of intentional development that made Crozier an effective leader.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you lead when you don’t have all the answers?
Focus on creating systems for gathering information and feedback rather than trying to know everything yourself. Captain Crozier’s “NKR” approach ensured information flowed upward from people closest to problems. Leadership is about asking better questions, not having perfect answers.
What’s the best way to build trust with your team?
Invest in relationships during non-crisis moments. Join the softball team, take the espresso breaks, walk around and talk to people about their lives. Trust is built in small moments over time, not during high-pressure situations.
How do you encourage honest feedback as a leader?
Create specific systems and moments for feedback, not just open door policies. Make it safe to correct you publicly, recognize people who give difficult feedback, and never punish someone for speaking truth even if you disagree with their assessment.
When should you risk your career for your principles?
When your core leadership beliefs are at stake and you can live with the consequences. Captain Crozier knew that protecting his sailors was more important than protecting his career advancement. The key is knowing what your non-negotiable principles are before you face the test.
How do you make decisions quickly without being reckless?
Distinguish between reversible and irreversible decisions. For reversible choices, aim for 80% confidence and implement quickly (you can adjust course). Reserve deep analysis for truly irreversible decisions where you only get one chance to get it right.
Want to develop the social intelligence that makes effective leadership possible? Take the social skills assessment to see how your current abilities align with the relationship-building and communication skills that leaders like Captain Crozier use to inspire loyalty and trust.
