All enlisted Marines attend recruit training at one of two Marine Corps Recruit Depots: Parris Island, SC or San Diego, CA. This is where young men and women are transformed into Marines over the course of thirteen weeks. While these recruits undergo recruit training, they “learn leadership skills” and receive opportunities to practice them in combat scenarios. They lead their teammates through challenges on the obstacle and confidence courses, accomplish tasks with minimal direction as they progress in training, and take on leadership roles within their platoon. By the time they become Marines, every recruit is prepared to lead with confidence (www.marines.com). This verbiage used on the website really sticks out to me now because, based on the readings, the Marine Corps is acknowledging that leadership is a “skill” and not a “trait”.
Every single Marine learns “technical skills” at the very beginning of their career. Upon graduating from recruit training or Officer Candidate School, commissioned and enlisted Marines attend a variety of schools that teach Marines “knowledge about and proficiency in a specific type of work or activity” (Northouse, 2016, p. 44). Certain Marines learn how to operate tanks, fire artillery cannons, learn foreign languages, work on computers, or repair helicopters and planes. According to Katz, technical skills play an essential role in producing the actual products a company is designed to produce. The Marine Corps is designed to produce Marines that can win wars; therefore, Marines go an learn a myriad of jobs that allow us to work together and be a more effective fighting force.
However, learning technical skills isn’t sufficient on its own. The Marine Corps created the Marine Corps University in order to teach every single Marine leadership skills beyond those technical skills, regardless of rank. Both commissioned officers and enlisted Marines go through the Marine Corps University to learn different leadership skills. This is where Katz’s Three-Skill Model really sticks out to me. Commissioned officers attend the Marine Corps University to go through twelve-month schools like the Command and Staff College, School of Advanced Warfighting, and the War College. These schools teach “conceptual skills” where commissioned officers increase their “ability to work with ideas and concepts” (Northouse, 2016, p. 45). This makes commissioned officers more comfortable and confident talking about ideas that shape an organization and the intricacies involved. These ideas may focus on war campaigns and battle planning, but can also involve other realms such as broad policies concerning gender integration, sexual orientation, and uniform regulations.
Enlisted Marines aren’t nearly as concerned about these “ideas” and are more concerned with learning leadership skills that will increase their ability to “get the job done.” Therefore, the Marine Corps University instituted the Enlisted Professional Military Education branch to specifically tailor leadership training to enlisted Marines. The mission statement for Enlisted Professional Military Education is to “provide progressive educational opportunities in order to improve leadership, sharpen critical thinking skills, and depend student understanding of war fighting concepts in distributed and joint environments. Our goal is to create ethical and highly professional leaders capable of making sound decisions in complex operational situations” (MCU, 2016). This mission statement reminds me of how Mumford, Zaccaro, and Harding describe the skills approach as a model that contends “leadership outcomes are the direct result of a leader’s competencies in problem-solving skills, social judgment skills, and knowledge” (Northouse, 2016, p. 57).
Based on Katz’s Three-Skill Approach, the Enlisted Professional Military Education branch of the Marine Corps seeks to teach “human skills” to enlisted Marines through a myriad of courses that range from one week to eight weeks in length. The Lance Corporal Leadership Seminar, Corporals Course, Sergeants Course, Career Course, and Advanced Course seek to increase enlisted Marines’ “abilities that help a leader work effectively with followers, peers, and superiors to accomplish the organization’s goals” (Northouse, 2016, p. 45). Marines from a variety of different career paths come together during these courses and graduate not only being more aware of the their own perspective on issues, but at the same time, they are aware of the perspective of others as well. This helps enlisted Marines learn to work more cooperatively as a group to achieve common goals (Northouse, 2016, p. 45).
REFERENCES:
Katz, R.L. (1955). Skills of an effective administrator. Harvard Business Review, 33(1), 33-42.
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.