Essay On Marines 14 Leadership Traits

The Marine Corps has identified fourteen different traits of being a good leader. While executing all 14 perfectly at the same time is a difficult task, a leader should strive to apply them effectively in order to reach the summit of the leadership mountain. Today’s battlefront is always changing, with new ideas and concepts arising to tackle the ages old problems of fighting wars. Irregular warfare requires critical and creative thinking to be able to achieve success. The Marine Corps’ 14 Leadership Traits are a tool to be used by Marines at all levels. Of the fourteen traits, five play an important part to success: Judgement, Decisiveness, Knowledge, Endurance, and Tact. Judgement and Decisiveness are the first two traits that are codependent upon each other. Judgement is being able to think clearly in order to come to rational, just, decisions, while Decisiveness is ability to decide in a timely manner and having the confidence to stick to that decision. War, …show more content…
Using the aforementioned traits over an extended period of time can be physically and mentally exhausting. Endurance is the ability to go for longer periods of time before becoming fatigued. Marines need to be able to perform better and think better than our foes for longer periods of time. Being able to outlast your enemy is critical, especially when both sides are coming to a stalemate. Someone has to get tired. The one, who can go the longest, wins.

Irregular threats are named so because the threat they pose is not normal. This creates a need for an irregular and creative way to squash those threats. We, as Marines, were given those tools for success as soon as we stood on the yellow foot prints. Only five traits were given, but the remaining 9 are necessary in order to support the main five used. The Leadership Traits taught to us in our early stages are exactly what we need in order to be victorious in today’s irregular