Veterans Day speaker emphasizes the power of empathy in leadership

Among his many impressive achievements during a 32-year military career, retired Navy Captain J.J. Cummings also rubbed shoulders with Hollywood directors and screenwriters.

Cummings, a former fighter pilot and commanding officer of the USS Gerald R. Ford, shared his experiences and leadership advice as the keynote speaker for GVSU’s Veterans Day Celebration on November 11 at the DeVos Center on the City Campus.

The Office of the President and the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies hosted the event.

As a fighter pilot, Cummings logged 3,900 flight hours, completed 740 aircraft carrier landings and flew 137 combat missions over Iraq and Afghanistan.

In addition to serving as a flight instructor, Cummings graduated from the Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program, better known as TOPGUN. He also served as a technical adviser for the 2022 film “Top Gun: Maverick.”

Cummings was among the first wave of strikes against the Taliban in the weeks following September 11. On October 21, 2001, Cummings dropped a pair of laser-guided bombs on targets in northern Afghanistan.

After his six-hour mission, Cummings said he was overcome with a wave of relief, fatigue, exhaustion and reflection.

“It was the mission of my career,” Cummings said. “It opened my eyes to who and what I'm really serving — my family, those who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, the American people and our way of life.

“That moment transformed my life as a leader to recognize the power of thinking of others, not the other way around,” he added. “It transformed me as a naval officer to focus on treating people like human beings, not just as managed resources.”

Once Cummings became captain of his own ship, one of his biggest leadership lessons involved a 45-minute walk throughout the vessel. He said the walks helped him engage with his sailors on a more personal level.

At one point, Cummings said he even grabbed a tray in the sailors’ mess deck and joined the enlisted service members for a meal.

“I found a seat, sat down and freaked everybody out,” Cummings said. “But I was there to learn and to listen to what they had to say.

“It was also an opportunity to share the humanity of being at sea for long stretches, being away from family and loved ones.”

Cummings said the importance of empathy in leadership became even more apparent during another pivotal period aboard the Ford: the COVID-19 pandemic.

Communicating with loved ones can be difficult aboard ships, but Cummings made an unconventional decision to support his crew while they were off the coast of North Carolina conducting trial flight operations.

During one of his walks, Cummings said, a shipyard worker approached him, expressing concern about his wife and children. To ease the worries of his crew, Cummings ordered the ship closer to shore so sailors could access a cellular network.

“There is a Navy policy that prohibits the use of cell phones in the hangar bay, so we blew that up,” Cummings said. “I said, ‘Everyone, come to the hangar bay right now and break out your cell phones because we’re within cell phone range.’

“I had the burden of authority and the command of a 100,000-ton vessel. But just having that authority was not enough to be an impactful leader. I had to show empathy and caring through actions, not words.”