How the Marine Corps Trains Leaders

[thedrifter]

How the Marine Corps Trains Leaders

General Peter Pace U.S. Marine Corps, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (nomination pending for chairman)—Washington, D.C.

When I was a second lieutenant in Vietnam, my platoon was patrolling around Hue City, and we came to a fork in the road. I called back to my company commander, "Should I go left or right?" He said, "Go left." We went a little farther, and there was another fork. I called back again: Left or right? He said, "Go right." Then I called back a third time, and he chewed me out on the radio: "You're the lieutenant. You're up there to make decisions. Figure it out." That has stayed with me all my life. When you have the responsibility to make decisions, make them.

When you have to make a decision about someone's future, or what kind of weapons system to invest in, or any other kind of businesslike decision, you should not let anybody rush you. On a battlefield, you don't have time to gather a lot of opinions. You have to assess the environment and make a decision based on your experience and training. You react instinctively. What I have learned is that if you're collaborative when you can be, it builds trust, so that when you have to decide right now, folks are more likely to trust your decision. In the Marines everybody understands that there are times when you just have to decide.

One thing the Marine Corps teaches is that it's better to be doing something than doing nothing. If you stay where you are, you're in the position where your enemy wants you to be. If you start doing something, you are changing the rules of the game.

The most effective decision may be the least predictable one. We teach this at officer training in Quantico. There's a series of decision exercises where a team leader has to accomplish some task—crossing a river, moving a large object—using only the materials provided. You think, "How are we gonna do this?" As it turns out, there are multiple ways to solve the problem. If you work together quickly—and start talking about what the possibilities are—you can come up with a solution. Those kinds of scenarios raise your heartbeat and put pressure on you among your peers and subordinates in a way that builds confidence in your ability to make decisions under pressure.

The ideas of flexibility, authority, and responsibility—those leadership terms that apply from lance corporal all the way up to general—have remained very constant in the Marines. What has changed is how much time we spend talking about it, practicing it, and significantly, the way the more senior leaders in the Corps allow themselves to be open with subordinates about where they made mistakes themselves. That makes it easier for subordinates to learn from them and to admit their own mistakes so that the organization can be better.

Some things today—cellphones and e-mail—are not healthy for growing leaders. Before cellphones, if the boss was away, the next person in line had to make a decision. It was either right or it was wrong, but you had to accept responsibility. You learned and grew from that. Now it's too easy to call for advice. Senior leaders have to start saying, "Look, if it's not dying or burning, don't call me."

The biggest lesson from Somalia for me [Pace served there from December 1992 to February 1993 and again from October 1993 to March 1994] was that we should never send our armed forces to do something unless we expect them to do it—and are willing to accept the risks and give them the resources. So as I sit here today as an advisor, anytime a military solution is being considered, it is important to lay out all the things that could go right and wrong. Then, if some things do go wrong, and they will, you are well positioned mentally and physically to complete that mission.

In Iraq, we are learning things every day. Before we even started operations, our Joint Forces Command put together a "lessons learned" team. Since then, every facet of the operation has provided lessons—targeting and what type of weapon to use on a particular target; the best ways to track friendly forces on the battlefield; how to communicate. Some of these lessons reinforced what we believed going in; some disabused us of what we thought was a good idea, but wasn't. The learning has to be shared person to person, not left in a book on a shelf. It has to stay alive. Interviewed by Jerry Useem

Ellie

[Phantom Blooper]

Are leaders made or born? Semper-Fi! "Never Forget" Chuck Hall

[Namvet67]

Leadership abilities has a lot to do with your genes...you either have it or you don't. There are many people in leadership positions that don't have the skills to be a real leader. The Marines are experts at finding those with leadership abilites and refining it from there.

[Osotogary]

The Marines are also some of the best at recognizing and weeding out the bullsh*tters and cardboard leaders.

I believe it was 1958 when I along with a whole group of "disadvantaged" kids were ushered into the confines of Camp Pendelton for a Devil Pup cycle of activities. (great program by the way) Anyway, as is with any group, there is always the 10% bad azzes who talk smack, walk at a tilt and generally don't give a rats patoozie about anything. Their behavior was at once recognized as being quite contrary to the behavior that was demanded/expected of guests on Marine Corps property. What could be done about their behavior; after all they were civilians, minors and guests of Marine sponsored youth program. How was the Marine Corps going to handle these bad azz malcontents?We were soon to find out. The next day we were escorted to a woodsie area. We were told find a place to sit on the portable grand stand. Then the two Marines, that were in charge of us, asked for "volunteers". Oh, no, not just any volunteers but the biggest and the baddest volunteers that they could find. They said they chose them because they noticed how they were "leaders" and that's what the Marine Corps was looking for..."leaders". Being chosen as "leaders" they were asked to show an example of good leadership and help out by going over to a big oak tree and picking up a couple of boxes in front of that tree and bring them over to the grandstand area. Well, these four bad azzes, after having their egos massaged, slipped and slided, at their own agonizing pace, over to the front of the oak tree. As soon as they bent down to pick up the boxes a machine gun opened up on them point blank range! (the machine gun nest had, unbeknownst to us, been handily camouflaged by the base of the oak tree) I think they sh*t on the way up and sh*t on the way down. I had never see four humans jump that high in the air from a semi-squat position. After that episode, not another peep was heard out of them for awhile.

As far as leadership goes??? Some folks think they are leaders when they really aren't- they are just bullies. There are reluctant leaders and silent leaders. Sometimes it's not just the genes but also the happenstance, the situation that catapults an individual into a onetime only leadership position.

Who the heck is a leader? Often times it is others who determine for you wether you wear that monicker.

[Namvet67]

Great story Gary!

[Joseph P Carey]

Perhaps I have a unique prespective on this subject. I was in a line company in Vietnam, and sometimes leaders changed rather rapidly, but each of us knew who was the leader and who was not. At least we thought so.

I had the good fortune of being in a squad of men lead by one Corporal, later Sergeant Tom Brock (he now lives in Elizabeth City, NC), and we would follow the man wherever he went, becuse we had faith in him and his good judgement as a leader, but there were others, that, by the authority of rank, were not such good leaders we thought, and we could see when the Sergeant would defer to the lower ranked leaders for observations on a situation, and than use their observations to complete the mission.

I thought about this for a long time, and in retrospect, I have come up with a theory that not all good leaders are the ones you would follow into hell, but sometimes, they were the ones you thought the least of. The Platoon Sergeant was not a good leader of men (We made fun of him behind his back, and his nickname was 'Shaky Jake'), but he was a good leader of units, and he knew when he was out of his league. He was never afraid to ask for help, or observations from the lower ranks. It is the use of what you have to complete the mission that is most important. That is leadership in a nutshell!

Although, I have seen the others, Ranks of authority, that would not take the counsel of lesser ranks, or people of experience, and the results were usually a disaster, they were few, but we followed orders none the less. After all, we were Marines, and that was our job.

There are all different styles of leadship, it is only up to the men that follow as to whom the leadership shall fall upon. Corporal Brock was a good leader, but he also knew his place in the ranks, and he never bad-mouthed the leaders above him in front of his men, and he was always willing to give counsel where it was asked for or it was needed, and he knew how to follow orders in the true tradition of the United States Marines.

Leadership is a learned trait by men with the ability to understand what leadership means. Born leaders are few, and potential is just "What could be".

Rev Jim Jones was a leader (The People's Temple), but he never understood what leadership means. He killed all of his followers for his vanity.

President Bill Clinton is a leader by way of his charisma, but I would not want the man next to me in combat situation.

President Bush is a leader, by his management style and his tenacity of staying on track, but I do not think I would like him much as a person should I meet him. He is a good President though, because of his leadership qualities.

All of these men had to learn their different styles before they could lead, some were disasterous leaders, and some are not, but it was all a learned trait, and a little of the genes, but not as much as one would think.