Page 226 - The extraordinary leader

A Case Study in Leadership Development–The U.S. Marine Corps • 203

More sophisticated programs in industry are moving toward higher levels
of involvement, including simulations, task forces dedicated to important
company issues, and action learning projects that are extremely engaging to
the participants.

Teaching Leadership with Personally Related Stories

The Marines have senior officers tell stories to aspiring second lieutenants of
how they personally handled a challenging situation. One officer related how
he was given the assignment to secure a merchant ship at sea, after the fall of
Saigon. The ship was full of refugees, and the assignment was to secure the
ship from the deserting South Vietnamese soldiers who were seizing ships and
killing the crews. The officer had never had such an assignment before, but
he applied the principles he had been taught about securing buildings. In
general, start at the top floor, so that you can drop down on opponents, and
move faster downward than they can climb upward to you. Further, hand
grenades do not bounce back down on to you.
This riveting story of a challenging assignment provided a powerful teach-
ing device to implant the principle of shifting decision making to the people
who are closest to the action.
And recounting “stories” of how they accomplished a challenging mission,
such as overtaking an enemy boat on the sea in stormy weather, provides
opportunity to explain the thought processes that went into planning the
mission as well as the details of its execution. At the Marines’ basic school,
nearly 300 hours over a six-month period are dedicated to having instructors
relate their stories to the aspiring leaders. It is their belief that by digesting this
extraordinary number of case examples, the young lieutenants begin to induc-
tively develop guiding principles of behavior regarding the best approach to
challenging assignments.
Leadership Development Requires Information and Knowledge about
Leadership. The Marines have approximately 100 books on a recommended
reading list. The aspiring leaders are required to read them, and these books
are discussed in more academic sessions. These texts are taken seriously, and
officer candidates are expected to have read and understood them. There is
also an official Marine Corps manual with which people are expected to be
highly conversant. It is the one book from which everyone must be able to
quote chapter and verse.
Leadership Versat tility Is Developed by Cross Training in Areas Outside
One’s Area of Expertise. Lawyers are assigned infantry units to command,