Leadership Reflection: The Marine Corps Planning Process

Improved Essays
At some point, every leader probably thinks about how they want to lead and what is important to him or her as a leader. During the CSC coursework, I wrote my command philosophy, which gave me an opportunity to reflect on past leaders I had encountered, and project how I wanted to lead in the future. The command philosophy was a statement, written to the members of the unit, about what I valued as a leader. As a foundation for how to approach this philosophy, the CSC coursework described USMC General Lejeune’s teacher/scholar leadership approach (USMC CDET, 2013a). This approach to leadership rests on a foundation of ethics, directly supporting an ethos of core values, mode of conduct, leadership principles, and leadership traits (USMC …show more content…
The Marine Corps Planning Process offered a methodology for understanding problems, and developing ways to solve them (Headquarters United States Marine Corps [HQ USMC], 2010. This process allows planners to help commanders fully understand the situation in order to make “sound and timely decisions” (HQ USMC, 2010, p. 1-2). The process allows planners to take a broad concept from a decision maker, and develop a detailed plan for execution. The steps of the planning process are problem framing, course of action development, course of action wargaming, course of action comparison and decision, orders development, and transition (HQ USMC, …show more content…
During my time as the Assistant Officer in Charge, I had the unique opportunity to observe two distinctly different leadership styles, and realize the effect each had on organizational culture and climate. The command climate changed abruptly with the new commander, and I was immediately able to relate the situation in my unit to the leadership theory I was studying at the time. In Edgar Schein’s book entitled Organizational Culture and Leadership (2010), he describes how members of an organization form a shared understanding of the way things are perceived. During my tour we struggled with the misconceptions of junior sailors about the decisions the leadership was making. There was a perception that their opinions did not matter, and there welfare was not being considered. At the time, we did not understand the friction between the junior and senior members of the detachment, but as we discovered some of the beliefs that were causing it, we were able to address

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    LTC Kunk Leadership Style

    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The leadership of Army units often sets the tone for the command climate and culture. Whether or not a leader, be it an officer or not, is engaging has the potential to create an environment where…

    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Dick Couch writes a thought-provoking book, A Tactical Ethic: Moral Conduct in the Insurgent Battlespace, which details a growing problem in the United States military, i.e. maintaining ethical and moral behavior on and off-duty. His supporting arguments are society emphasizes behavior not conducive to promoting positive ethical behavior, malignant personalities in the ranks spreading negative behavior, and the ambiguity of the asymmetric warfare fought today. He provides anecdotal evidence supporting the US military’s methodology to combat these trends. However, his true strength lies in the combat stories of ethical dilemmas related to him through soldiers serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and advice given for junior officers and…

    • 1639 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Throughout this semester our class has been gathering information about the modern American military conflicts, either through book review or class PowerPoints. This newly gained information of our nation history has helped me create an understanding what leadership actually is and how certain people are able to have it. What helped me gather my view of leadership the most was the five leadership analysis on House to House: An Epic Memoir of War, We were soldiers once… And Young, The Last Stand Of fox company, Company Commander and Four hours in My Lai.…

    • 1301 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fenlason Leadership Style

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Completing assigned tasks and set goals is always the priority to the overall success of a platoons intended mission as well as increasing longevity of the life and health of all soldiers in the squadron. “To accomplish given task, an organizations’ leader and or leaders must efficiently and effectively carry out the primary management functions of decision making, supervising, and making the most of an organization manpower and allocated resources (Mintzberg, 1979). “In doing so leaders can adopt and adjust specific styles of leadership to assist in mission completion. This book report will compare and contrast the leadership styles and characteristics of SFC Rob Gallagher and SFC Jeff Fenlason from authors Jim Fredericks’ “Black Hearts: One Platoon’s Descent into Madness in Iraq’s Triangle of Death”, explaining how their similar but different styles of leadership helped and or hindered their units’ mission failures and success.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Furthermore, in reading this text, leaders gain a sense of knowledge and facts on leadership styles and education to become a leader who puts their team before themselves. The Army Ethics…

    • 1432 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Being responsible is part of being a leader, but what makes a leader a leader? For one, others look up to leaders for guidance and for example. Since they are in charge, they will have eyes on them at all times. Leaders with exemplifying behavior will cause excellent behavior in the followers, because young cadets mirror the actions and methods of those before them. While drilling, a cadet is taught to do facing movements by being shown; no amount of verbal explanation is comparable to a demonstration of a right-face.…

    • 549 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Legacy Leader: CSM Harbin

    • 1955 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Legacy Leader: CSM Harbin SSG Chapman, Andre USAICoE NCOA SLC 18-507 Legacy Leader: CSM HARBIN The purpose of this paper is to discuss why CSM Don Harbin is my Legacy Leader. “Leadership is the process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation while operating to complete the mission.” (Headquarters, Department of the Army (HQDA), 2012) This example is the Army's definition of leadership. But what makes up a good leader?…

    • 1955 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The leadership vacuum behind the Marine Corps' massive nude-photo scandal In a recent article, The leadership vacuum behind the Marine Corps’ massive nude-photo scandal, appearing in the Business Insider the author, Paul Szoldra, accuses the United States Marine Corps of having a void at the top of the leadership chain. Leaders who have turned a blind eye to the harassment and humiliation of enlisted women under their command. This is not a case of boys being boys it is a colossal case of lack of leadership and the old don’t ask don’t tell mentality the military likes to employ when it doesn’t want to address an issue.…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Carl Von Clausewitz describes in his book On War, that war will always have some level of savage passion, and thus if we strive to maintain a level of civility in war, we must teach ourselves intelligent ways to manage force. We must maintain an ethical nature. This poses the question, with the ever-present savage passion in war, how do we maintain an ethical way of war? This is by no means easy to answer.…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Leadership Philosophy of Senior Chief Marine Science Technician Keith Naker To lead is to harness the motivations, hopes, and aspirations of others; to apply that energy to achieving a shared vision. CWO Harder exemplified this leadership model early in my career. He frequently adjusted to our crew, advocated for us to the command, and even in the most difficult moments, maintained his composure. Leadership must not fail to take into account the individualism that makes up the organization.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why Do Leaders Eat Last

    • 1222 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “Leaders Eat Last”: A Discussion of Army Leadership Qualities The Army invests a substantial amount of its time and resources into developing leaders. Due to their influence over their soldiers—and the world as a whole—leaders offer purpose and value to the Army profession. Because of their commitment to the development of leaders, the Army established a set of attributes and competencies that define an Army leader. Entitled the “Army Leadership Requirements Model,” these leadership standards dictate the core values, characteristics, and proficiencies that every emergent leader should strive for.…

    • 1222 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I choose to take a different outlook, I believe that true leadership is taking what the military gives you and making better people out of them. Resulting in better sailors and finally, the outcome is an elite fighting force that works as a team and can accomplish any task, including the ones that they themselves do not believe they can do. CMDCM Ronald Clark one of my mentors instilled this philosophy…

    • 1447 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions, what that means is that when you do something, make a decision, whatever it may be, take responsibility for them. Being a leader of any kind, at any level means someone either looks up to you, or they simply look to you for guidance. When you have people under you, or that you are in charge of, you have to be on top of things, know how to handle any situation, and if you do not know how to handle a situation, then know where you can find information on how to handle the situation. Marines past, present, and future all have had to and will have to take responsibilities for their actions. In some way, shape, or form we cannot just try and weasel our way out of a situation.…

    • 1008 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When I was assigned the Patrol Base Operations and PCC/PCI lab, I noticed first hand exactly how vital planning is to an entire operation. Everything had to be discussed at length, written down, revised, rehearsed, and timed. As my partner and I worked through our material we applied the fundamentals of the Operations Process to our assignment. We planned what facilities we would have and what equipment we would use; we prepared a power point presentation for the class and a short skit to perform; and we rehearsed for hours on end. Despite all our efforts, unforeseen circumstances still arose and adaptations had to be made.…

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    America’s Dilemma: U.S. Army Senior Leader Misconduct One of the most respected professions among any ethical society has shown a significant weakness among its leadership at an alarming rate in recent history. More specifically, in the United States (U.S.) the Armed Forces are in an ethical dilemma. Among all of the U.S. Armed Forces, the U.S. Army has seen a staggering spike in senior leader misconduct in the twenty-first century, by the likes of which has never been recorded (Tan). In reaction to this, the U.S. Army has committed to ethical transparency involving misconduct among all of its members, including the most senior, most respected leaders. The Army has attempted to use transparency to combat this dilemma.…

    • 1473 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics