Leadership Development in the U.S. Marine Corps

Is being an excellent leader something you are born with or can leadership be developed?  If an organization could be found that has a proven track record of successfully transforming “regular” people into effective leaders, that question could be put to rest.  And, if we could understand the processes that that organization uses to build leadership capability we can transfer that knowledge to other organizations.  That was the quest of John H. Zenger & Joseph Folkman, authors of The Extraordinary Leader, Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders.  In a study conducted by McKinsey & Company and The Conference Board, Zenger and Folkman found that, “the best leadership development process in the world is at the U.S. Marine Corps.”  Having served as a Marine in a past life this caught my attention but brought about no surprise.  I fully believe that the Corps was a huge factor in my leadership development.  So what follows are some insights into how the Marine Corps goes about developing leadership skills

The Talent Base

There are two distinct groups of Marine leaders – officers and enlisted, non-commissioned officers known as “NCO’s”.  NCO’s generally come from the rank and file of those young men and women the Marines recruit.  Nine out of ten applicants are rejected; no high school drop outs need apply.  However, seldom is the recruit the student body president.  Many have had minor convictions; a large percentage comes from troubled homes.  Female recruits have often been subject to some form of abuse.  The authors note that all the usual predictors of success are generally not present in this group of recruits and yet many are transformed into effective leaders in two to three years time.  It can be done.  Leaders can be made.

Officers tend to be college graduates and attend Officer Candidate School at Quantico, Virginia.  Their training roughly parallels that of the enlisted recruits with additional emphasis on leadership skills.  Their training is equally demanding physically and they have to qualify with a rifle just like any other Marine.  The percentage of successful candidates and the short time frame required to develop them far eclipses any private sector organization.

What do the Marine Corps teach its leaders?

Core Values

From the moment recruits place their feet on those yellow footprints painted on the ground that teach them how to stand perfectly at attention they become dipped in the Corps values.  These emphasize a strict code of character, honor, honesty and faithfulness.  Semper Fidelis, or Semper Fi, means Always Faithful in Latin and guides the actions of every Marine.  Leaders ask nothing of others that they are not willing to do themselves.  The entire training process emphasizes tenacity and persistence in the face of obstacles.

Personal Capability

The development process builds overall organizational knowledge as well as technical knowledge.  It teaches a rigor in problem-solving and analyzing thorny issues.  Through planning multiple missions in a short time span, leaders learn to sharpen their problem solving skills.  A feedback rich environment provides leaders the information they need to improve.  Innovation is encouraged through a culture that does not punish failure or tell people exactly how to do things.

Focus on Results

Marines learn a proven process for accomplishing strategic objectives.  It begins with defining the mission and the desired end state, creating alternatives, selecting one to pursue, analyzing strengths and weaknesses of the team that will execute the mission, identifying what must not occur, preparing a detailed implementation plan and executing it.

Interpersonal skills

As mentioned earlier the Marines emphasize courageous and frank dialogue.  This can only be accomplished through an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect.  Honest but civil dialogue is encouraged.  There is a strong emphasis on teamwork and extensive communication within the team.

How Does the Marine Corps Develop Leaders?

Leadership is a Team Effort

The Marines pair a highly seasoned NCO with a newly appointed lieutenant for several months.  The new officer has a sounding board which leads to fewer mistakes.  Tom Clancy in his book, Marine, writes “As a Staff Sergeant you will probably be assigned that most dreaded of duties, a new 2^nd Lieutenant to watch over and hopefully make into a useful officer.”  Officers learn to rely heavily on their NCO’s.

In the Marine culture officers are taught that they do not have to be the only one who devises strategy and makes decisions.  Enlisted and officers alike are expected to express ideas, alternatives and concerns about questionable decision or orders. 

The Marines also practice what we call “shared leadership”.  Leadership is a verb, not a noun.  It is function or set of behaviors that often gets passed around in a team.  Part of Marine training involves planning a complex mission and then shortly before executing it everyone switches roles.  The patrol leader becomes the medic and a new patrol leader comes into the group.    

People Development Requires Significant Commitment of Time

The Marines invest enormous amounts of time and organizational resources in their leadership development effort.  In contrast in private-sector companies there is a trend towards reducing the amount of time people are away from the “real work”.  Organizations are striving to cut weeks and hours devoted to development to hours and even to 20-minute snippets of learning.  Many organizations provide no formal development to newly appointed supervisors and managers.  In contrast, the Marines send officer candidates through a 10-week stint of development.

Leaders Find Their Natural Strengths

The Marines understand that there are many effective leadership patterns and do not try to force fit all leaders into a similar style or process.  Some leaders are powerful team builders.  Some excel in organizational skills.  Still others are extraordinary in seeing the potential in people and bringing it out.  Those responsible for leadership development observe the natural strengths and encourage the leader to amplify that quality.  Their emphasis is on helping potential officers find their own voice and magnify their natural tendencies.

Leadership Is Developed with Engaging Learning Methods

Nearly everything the Marines do in leadership development is highly involving and experiential, not merely academic.  For instance, aspiring leaders are given the challenge of getting a wounded comrade across a small river, reported to be mined, with only a few boards and some rope.  This exercise may sound somewhat familiar to past participants in our programs.

Other assignments are more cerebral.  A challenging mission is defined and leaders must come up with three detailed courses of action and choose the best option in six hours.  At the conclusion the group engages in an “after action review” that focuses on what went well and how it could have been improved.  In this process, everyone involved comes together and psychologically takes off their stripes, and conducts a totally open, candid conversation.  These detailed reviews provide an extremely valuable learning process and emphasize the democratic nature of the organization.

Teaching Leadership with Personal Stories

The Marines have senior officers tell stories of how they personally handled a challenging situation.  One officer related how he was given the assignment to secure a merchant ship at sea from deserting South Vietnamese soldiers who were seizing ships and killing the crews after the fall of Saigon.  This riveting story provided a powerful opportunity to explain the thought process that went into planning the mission and its execution.  Nearly 300 hours over a six month period are dedicated to having instructors relate their personal stories to aspiring leaders.

Leadership Versatility Is Developed by Cross Training

Lawyers are assigned infantry units to command, while infantry commanders are transferred to head up a supply unit.  While there is clearly some sacrifice of short-term productivity, there is an enormous long-term gain in having a cadre of leaders exposed to other areas, and who can move from one venue to another with no serious lapse in performance.

Leadership Development Includes Everyone

In contrast to most businesses, which allocate the bulk of their developmental resources to a limited number of “high potentials”, the Marines train everyone to lead.  They don’t build a gulf between followers and leaders, but assume instead that everyone should be trained to lead.  This practice goes a long way towards building commitment and loyalty to the organization.

Who Is Responsible for Leadership Development?

Everyone Assumes Responsibility

Non-commissioned officers are responsible for developing new lieutenants.  Gunnery sergeants take on the development of the sergeants that report to them.  This is not an afterthought.  Marines believe everyone must be taught to lead, because one never knows when the appointed leader may be killed or wounded, and the mission must go on.

Senior Members of Management Make the Best Trainers

In most corporations trainers are junior people, hired specifically for that role, with little line experience.  Some organizations enlist line managers to serve as trainers, and research shows that such trainers produce superior results to those whose role is just training.  The Marines choose their drill instructors from the top 25% of non-commissioned officers and it takes eight to twelve years of line duty to become an NCO.  When recruits first arrive at the Marines infamous boot camp they meet the three drill instructors that will, in a very short time span, transform them from a raw civilian into a Marine.  In the beginning you hate that trio with all your heart.  But on graduation day, the first day you are allowed to call yourself a Marine, you realize that the impact they have had on your development is incalculable.  Thank you, Sergeant Barefoot.

What are the benefits of broad-scale leadership development?

Employee commitment soars when everyone realizes that the organization really cares about them and is willing to invest in their development.

• Retention rates increase because people recognize they have opportunities to grow and advance.
• Bench strength increases.  The organization can now reach everywhere and find people to fill important leadership roles.  If a leader wins the lottery and retires to Maui the organization doesn’t miss a beat.
• Overlooked talent is discovered.  Some extremely successful leaders have been overlooked in the typical leadership selection processes found in many organizations.
• The culture is reinforced through exposure to senior officers of the organization.
• The organization can be flatter.  The Marines have 9 enlisted personnel per officer, in contrast to the Air Force’s 4 per officer and the Army’s 5 to each officer. 

The Marine Corps’ success in developing leaders serves as an extremely valuable model for corporations to study.  While it may not be advisable to adopt their ways “lock, stock, and barrel,’ it appears that any organization that is serious about developing people can learn a great deal from the U.S. Marines.  They prove leaders can be developed.