Semper Fi: Business Leadership the Marine Corps Way by Dan CARRISON & Rod WALSH

Author:Dan CARRISON & Rod WALSH
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780814423707
Publisher: AMACOM
Published: 1998-10-19T14:00:00+00:00

Prepared by management so that the questions, always phrased in the positive, preclude personal, nonbusiness related judgments

Required, so that no one feels persecuted by voluntary “tattle-taleing”

Infrequent, so that no one imagines that the company is attempting to build a case against him.

If management is uncomfortable with the concept, peer evaluations can still be used as a great motivational tool. Presented as a leadership exercise, the employee-generated report cards can be filled out anonymously and mailed directly to each individual, unread by management. At least this way, everyone will have the benefit of knowing how he is perceived by his associates. And that can be an eye-opening experience.

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The American military at the end of the eighteenth century was modeled closely on the British example, which wasn’t a bad idea, considering that Britain at that time, despite its loss of its American colonies, ruled the world. Many British traditions were perpetuated in the American system until comparatively recently, including what amounted to a caste system that separated the officer corps from the rank and file. The phrase “an officer and a gentleman” had a literal significance; officers were gentlemen, in fact they had to be. A military commission was the prerogative of the aristocracy; and it was often awarded arbitrarily to those of blue blood, rather than earned. For some, the officer’s uniform was nothing more than a splendid, masculine costume to be worn at gala balls.

At the other end of the social spectrum was the common soldier, who was generally illiterate and without civil grace. Having no trade other than his expertise with the musket and the bayonet, he reentered society after his years of service hoping to exist on a meager pension. The relationship between the two classes was strictly an authoritarian one: the officer gave the orders, and the enlisted man followed. Even in the early Marine Corps—which had a much more robust, rough-and-ready officer corps—the enlisted man was generally not considered “leadership material” and, therefore, a worthwhile investment of the officer’s time.

The Marine who mandated a change of attitude in his officer Corps was General John Lejeune, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, who wrote in 1920:

The World War wrought a great change in the relations between officers and enlisted men in the military services. A spirit of comradeship and brotherhood in arms came into being in the training camps and on the battlefields. This spirit is too fine a thing to be allowed to die. It must be fostered and kept alive and made the moving force in all Marine Corps organizations. (Fleet Marine Force Manual 1–0)

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