Tag Archives: Leadership

Mar 04 2013
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Marine Leadership

Marine Corps Leadership: 14 Traits pt. 1

Given that there are 14 different traits of leadership that the Marine Corp identifies, and Square One Leadership has a goal of a 350(ish) word limit, the 14 traits post will be split into two. Part two will post tomorrow.

Semper Fidelis

Semper Fidelis

“Leadership is intangible, hard to measure, and difficult to describe.  Its quality would seem to stem from many factors.  But certainly they must include a measure of inherent ability to control and direct, self-confidence based on expert knowledge, initiative, loyalty, pride and sense of responsibility.  Inherent ability cannot be instilled, but that which is latent or dormant can be developed.  Other ingredients can be acquired.  They are not easily learned.  But leaders can be and are made.” – General C. B. Cates

There will be times when your leadership ability, no matter how good, will not be the determining factor in an outcome. However, there will be plenty of circumstances when it will. This is where identifying different traits and principles, and working on those traits and principles becomes useful to us as leaders, or would-be leaders.

It is advantageous to digress for a moment, to encourage readers to research  the “Law of the Lid,” found in the book 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, by John Maxwell. So that you have a proper understanding of increased leadership ability.

Marine Corps. 14 Leadership Traits (1-7):

Justice – Justice allows leaders to praise and admonish equally, regardless of any external factors. Justice distills partiality.

Judgement – Judgement is another distiller of partiality and preferences. Judgement deals in the facts and their consequences as a whole, allowing a leader to make the best (not easiest) decision overall.

Dependability – Dependability necessitates  little oversight, or micro-managing, for a leader. Once a task or project has been assigned there is security in the knowledge that it will get done, and done well.

Initiative – Initiative sees a need, and then meets that need without waiting to be told. Initiative mingled with dependability will cause a leader to find favor quickly.

Decisiveness – Decisiveness quickly looks at what can be seen, contextualizes the information, formulates, and clearly communicates a plan. Divisiveness is sharpened by learning to gather the known facts and their implications more quickly.

Tact – Tact sets aside personal feelings in order to maintain clear and open communication, minimizing the chance of an offense.

Integrity – Integrity requires all aspects of life and business to be above reproach. Integrity realizes that the ends do not justify the means, because the means are just as important as the ends.

Which trait is your favorite so far? 

What else would you add? 

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Feb 28 2013
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Marine Leadership

Introducing Marine March

The Few, The Proud

The Few, The Proud

“Being ready is not what matters. What matters is winning after you get there. ” – Lt. Gen. Victor H. Krulak

I’ve never been in the armed forces, but I have always admired, and had the utmost respect for the men and women who serve our country. Not too long ago I had the honor of ministering to some men and women in the U.S. Army and Air Force, and I was able to see the sacrifices they make for our freedoms.

Now that the ABC’s of leadership are completed, Square One Leadership will be covering the United States Marine Corps leadership traits and principles. The first post, on March 4th, will briefly cover the 14 leadership traits of a United States Marine. Following the 14 traits, we will cover the 11 principles, two the first week, then three a week in the subsequent weeks.

This series is Square One Leadership’s way of saying thank you to all those who serve.

Semper Fi

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Feb 27 2013
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ABC's of Leadership

Leadership is: Zeal pt. 2

“In motivating people, you’ve got to engage their minds and their hearts. I motivate people, I hope, by example – and perhaps by excitement, by having productive ideas to make others feel involved.” – Rupert Murdoch

In Leadership is: Zeal pt. 1 we discussed helping others achieve their goals so that they would be excited and motivated to help us achieve ours. By the way, this is not meant to be a form of manipulation, this is just a good leadership practice!

In this post we will discuss how to maximize on other’s excitement for our goals.

5 ideas for maximizing other’s excitement for our goals:

1. Cast a Clear, Motivating Vision – Create a clear, compelling picture, one that inspires people beyond themselves, and beyond the organization. This requires us to look beyond how we are benefited, and to focus on how everyone benefits.

Simon Sinek explains motivation in his TEDx talk

2. Use Passions & Strengths – Capitalize on what excites people, and already exists within your organization. When people are able to operate within their areas of strengths, they feel empowered and successful. When people feel empowered and successful in their areas of passion they are excited to do what ever it is they will be doing.

3. Provide Accountability – Track progress, give feedback, and give direction when necessary. The old adage goes, people don’t do what you expect, they do what you inspect. Whenever you delegate authority it must be followed up with accountability; however this isn’t just about quality control, accountability helps others recognize winning.

Manager Tools has the best information on One-on-Ones

4. Display Internal Success – Catch people winning, then praise them for it. When people are recognized for their contributions encourages them to contribute more. Catch people winning by walking around and intentionally looking for it, once you find it, promote it!

5. Showcase External Success – Validate the vision by sharing examples of how it is being accomplished. When people are bought into the purpose of your organization, they want to see the fruition of their labors! A display of success encourages continued effort. Share testimonials, frame letters and put them on the walls, display what ever could be considered a trophy.

6. Share the Success – Don’t be greedy. It is true that everything rises and falls on leadership, but it is accomplished on the backs of the entire organization. When money or credit is given to those who helped accomplish the vision, they will be willing and ready for the next go around.

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Feb 26 2013
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ABC's of Leadership

Leadership is: Zeal pt. 1

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What are the goals of those around you?

“In motivating people, you’ve got to engage their minds and their hearts. I motivate people, I hope, by example – and perhaps by excitement, by having productive ideas to make others feel involved.” – Rupert Murdoch

It has been said that others will only be half as excited as we are, when it comes to our passions.

The benefit of our excitement is that we generally have more than enough to go around. The challenge is maximizing on that excitement, and instilling it into others.

In an earlier blog post, Leadership is: Buy-in, I write, “people must be bought into who you are before they are bought into what you are about.” In order to get people bought into who we are, we must be bought into what they are about. In other words, if we want people to help us achieve our goals, we must help them achieve theirs.

Starting points to help others achieve their goals:

1. Know their motivation – We must ask, “what motivates those around us?” Motivations vary, but once we understand what motivates the people around us, we can direct our efforts and incentives to help them win.

2. Know their passions – Henry Ford believed in separating work life from personal life. The problem with this is that the two directly affect each other. When we discover the passions of those around us we can support them emotionally, financially, and/or mentally.

3. Know their strengths – Everyone wants to know what they’re good at, and then be appreciated for what they do. When we know the strengths of those around us, we can help them accomplish more by making sure they are plugged into those ares.

– and finally –

4. Know their goals – It is difficult to help a person get to where they are going, if we don’t know where they want to go!

Once we are bought into helping others achieve their goals, they will be more motivated and excited to help us achieve ours. In part 2 of this leadership letter, we will discuss how to maximize on this motivated excitement.

How else would you help someone achieve their goal(s)?

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Feb 24 2013
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ABC's of Leadership

Leadership is: Xanthocyanopsia (-si″ah-nop´se-ah)

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“Rubix cubes are easy when you’re colorblind.” – Unknown

Xanthocyanopsia: ability to discern yellow and blue tints, but not red or green. [Dug deep for this one!]

I was talking with a leader of an organization recently, and they were in need of hiring a person who could creatively take them to the next level when it came to creating sold out followers. Their processes have been effective thus far, however they could not sustain the current growth factor the way they were structured. What’s more, aspect of the organization had been the “baby” of the leader, but he knew in order for the organization to grow he had to step away from what he enjoyed doing to do what only he could do for his organization.

Most leaders struggle with this concept. They have started a business, club, church, etc. and in the early stages they were able to execute the tasks which they enjoyed. As the organization increases however, the leader becomes responsible for the overall growth and health of the organization, and has need to step away from the specific nuances of tasks that can, and should, be delegated. If a leader can not give up that “baby,” it creates a lack of focus for them because they will constantly be taking time away from “leader specific tasks” to work on a task that should be delegated to a capable individual. 

When there is a lack of focus the natural result is a lack of productivity. When we try to be good at many things we end up being good at nothing. The task we once enjoyed becomes a frustration because we can’t give it the time to make it great, or we give too much time to the task, and in the process we leave undone the imperative tasks of our organization.

In Timothy Ferriss’ 4 Hour Work Week he discusses the Pareto Principle where 20% of your work produces 80% of your results. Good leaders not only recognize the tasks that only they can do, they recognize the tasks the that yield the best results. They become colorblind. They focus on what is pertinent to their organization’s success, and they ignore (aka: delegate) the rest.

Which tasks are you holding onto that you need to delegate?

Which tasks are yielding your best results? (don’t delegate those)

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