LEADERSHIP FOR THE BATTLEFIELD OF BUSINE
During a Marine field exercise 20 years ago at Officer Candidate School at the U.S. Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia, I learned some very valuable leadership training elements when a fellow soldier collapsed with a heat stroke.
What was the status? How bad was it? The answer to this question would drive our next steps. It was important, critical even, to know his temperature. How far was it from normal? We needed a measurement.
“Gentlemen, if it is important, it must be measured,” Captain Melvin Spiese told us later during our debriefing. The quicker and more accurately you can measure what is important, the better and more precisely you can take corrective action. He told us to remember this measurement lesson because it applies everywhere.
I learned a second important lesson from Spiese during my training that summer—in the Marines, developing leaders is the number one priority. “We (the U.S. Marine Corps) are in the business of developing leaders, not winning battles. If we do the first properly, the second will follow.” This proved to be an epiphany for me.
Clearly it works. Just look at the Marine leaders that grace the squad bays, firing ranges, squadron spaces, and parade decks. It also works in the corporate world. A company’s commitment to workforce development affects succession planning, workplace effectiveness, employee retention, and worker morale and loyalty.
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