Marine Corps Leadership Analysis

Since 1775, the United States Marine Corps has continuously dealt with irregular warfare in many conflicts around the globe. This irregular warfare has been fought via many activities, all of which involved our 14 leadership traits. The most prominent leadership traits used to combat irregular warfare are knowledge, judgement, and decisiveness, all of which are necessary for mission accomplishment.

From the time I was a little boy I was always taught to never lie and to always do my best. I learned at a very young age that you possess virtues and personal attributes that make you who you are. Fast forward 15 years and now I am a Sergeant of Marines in the United States Marine Corps. Leading and mentoring young men in their earlier adulthood. My influence on these Marines can change them for the rest of their life. As a sergeant you must possess integrity, dependability and courage to be a successful leader of Marines. Tell the truth all the time no one bats an eye, tell one lie and your reputation is in question for a lifetime.

I believe a leader has many things to describe them. They have many characteristics, for example the 14 leadership traits. J.J.D.I.D.T.I.E.B.U.C.K.L.E. I’ll write them in my own words and what they mean to me. I believe the LT judgment is the ability to weigh the starting, midway, and outcome of any decision and decide which would be best for his junior marines, which way would be able to incorporate the strength of his marines, be open for other suggestions too because there are so many angles that a situation can be looked at and you might miss something when someone might see it, and most of all be able to carry out the mission the most successful way possible. Next is justice, I believe that justice is a good thing to have when it’s

Leadership development in the military is critical to its mission and objectives. Understanding and embracing leadership will foster an agile culture and facilitate attainment of strategic goals. People desire quality leadership to assist with achieving their goals, albeit personal or professional development. Having a clear vision and the motivation to perform at high-levels influences others to work synergistically together to achieve organizational goals. Insomuch, employees value being treated respectfully, fairly, and ethically. Leaders serve people best when they help them develop their own initiative and good judgment, enable them to grow, and help them become better contributors.

Leadership can be viewed in many different ways and possess many different qualities. There are courageous leaders, respectful leaders, terrible leaders, and seemingly insignificant leaders but leaders nonetheless. But what is it that differentiates between a strong leader and a weak leader, or a powerful leader and an insignificant one? Is it the qualities in the leader or the decisions they make in key situations that define good leadership qualities? Some would define a good leader by their ability to do the right thing even if it is not the easiest choice. Others might define a good leader as one that possesses great integrity and leads by example. The military possesses many great leaders through a process of development and molding individuals to meet expected leadership qualities like honor, courage, commitment and integrity to accomplish any mission or goal. However, this process doesn’t always create the desired effect. So, let’s examine some good and bad examples of leadership qualities and break down what and how we can emulate them.

As discussed by Military Times (2013), the constantly assess the following traits by continually knowing myself and seeking self-improvement every chance I get, along with being technically proficient in my duties while seeking responsibility and taking responsibility for my actions. I diligently work to make sound and timely decisions while setting the example for others to emulate. I closely monitor my personnel and look out for their well-being, while keeping them informed at all times. I always develop a sense a responsibility in my followers, ensuring each task is understood, supervised, and accomplished. I regularly find new and improved ways to build teams while employing them in accordance with their capabilities.

Summary: In this article the authors are addressing future leaders, and they immediately inform the reader that because there is more complexity considerably more complex issues and technologies than a century ago in the operational military environment, there is a great need for military leaders to achieve autonomy in terms of adapting to and learning about the evolving environment. In short, leaders must be smarter and better prepared for a changing world.

Many do not take the time to sit and reflect on ourselves. However, understanding yourself and identifying personal strengths and weaknesses will help you to develop as a leader. Often times it is easier to point out other’s strengths than to point out your own. Chapter four of Exploring Leadership by Komives describes tools to discover your traits and how to use them. The most important points discussed was mindfulness, managing your nonstrengths, and values.

With this competency of our understanding of leadership, there has derived endless traits that can define a leader and what one can grasp as asking their selves “am I a leader” or a “follower”. With the plethora of attempted definitions of word leader in diverse cultures around the world, and have stood the test of time across the millennia, Kouzes et al, identifies four traits that emerge as what is possessed by an individual as, being a leader, regardless of what country, culture or walk of life, you individually reflect and identify yourself too. If you are considered a leader, you are most likely to have these skills or traits embedded into your fabric, influencing of fundamental relationships, and interaction between groups or organizational communication. One is said to have leadership ability, skill or trait if the person is of honesty, forward- looking, competent, and inspiring in perception of those whom the leader is influencing.

that extends far beyond the combat elements or even the individual marine. Even though the rich

According to Sullivan and Decker (2009), leadership is influencing others into working toward accomplishing a common goal. Some people are born with an innate leadership quality within them. Others require learning leadership and management skills. It takes a certain personality trait that makes them a natural leader. Intelligence, personality, and abilities are three categories of the trait theory that is a part of the profile of successful leaders (Sullivan & Decker, 2009). I will discuss my personal views of leadership. It will

Beginning in boot camp and continuing throughout my career, I’ve seen the Coast Guard promote the leadership model to be: “You” influencing “Others” to achieve a “Goal”. With all the different ways leadership can be defined, this simplistic model which has been permanently engrained in my thinking definition still rings true for me. As such, when defining my own personal definition of leadership, I align it to this same model. More specifically, while I support the fact that leadership involves influencing others to achieve a common end I propose that is not the whole story. Leaders must not be stagnant in their vision and must lend themselves to the possibility they may have to adjust their leadership styles depending on the goal. The best leaders are the ones that understand their own personality traits as well as those traits of the people they are trying to lead.

The first trait of a quality leader, is being able to acknowledge his or her weaknesses. When a leader is able to do so, they can alter their

R. Bolden et al (2003) discussed that the trait approach stemmed from the great man approach and that trait approach was common within the military and is still used as a set criteria today to commission candidates. It’s clear from the case study that Peter Ridge has quite a military style of leadership of command and control style. Bass (1981) stated that leadership is still classified as a critical factor in military success and has been continually recorded. Trait theories are qualities that are within a human being which constitutes a leader. Stogdill (1974) spoke about there being a list of leadership traits and related skills, he sees leaders as adaptable to situations, ambitious and achievement orientated, assertive, energetic,

The first measure of becoming an outstanding leader is becoming more conscious of self by identifying your weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and threats. The following will outline my current and future leadership style. To analyze my leadership I will use the Seven Habits Profile as well as the leadership theory to evaluate my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and recommendations using the smart goals.