Are Marine Corps Leaders Servant Leaders?

Servant leadership is a counterintuitive name for a style of leadership. Most people think of leadership as only leading and when they hear “servant” they do not believe that the two can go together (PSU WC, 2022, L. 11,  p. 1). This is especially true when most people think of the world’s most elite fighting force, the United States Marine Corps. Most people see the military as a strong, hardened fighting force that bows down to nobody. This is exactly true however, they do not see how the leadership internal to the marine corps works and why there is a constant flow of great leadership within it. This is where servant leadership plays a vital role in the marine corps.

Marine Corps leaders play a huge role in the success of the entire fighting force of America. They not only have to come up with strategic planning to accomplish missions, but they also have to develop and train marines to become the excellent warfighters that are needed in the ranks. In the Marine Corps, there is a saying that all marines are leaders regardless of rank. This can refer to officers or non-commissioned officers (NCOs). This is where servant leadership starts to kick in and play a role. The largest part of servant leadership is described by a set of behaviors called servant leader behaviors (Northouse, 2021, p. 261-264). These include the behaviors of “conceptualizing”, “emotional healing”, “putting followers first”, “helping followers grow and succeed”, “behaving ethically”, “empowering”, and “creating value for the community” (Northouse, 2021, p. 261-264). Each and every one of those is utilized by military leaders to lead and serve their followers, especially in the Marine Corps.

As a leader in the Marine Corps, it is essential to know the inner and outer workings of the entire organization. To get put into a leadership position, you must first go in front of a board and answer a series of questions that deal with a variety of high stress problems and how you would deal with it to both achieve the organizations goal but also keep your men and women under you happy, healthy, and safe. This directly relates to the servant leader behavior of “conceptualizing”. Conceptualizing refers to the servant leaders’ understanding of the organization, it’s purposes, complexities and mission. Having this ability allows the leader to think and work through multifaceted problems, to know when things are wrong and to address it creatively to align with the organizations goals (Northouse, 2021, p. 261). The marine corps demonstrates their acknowledgement of this and it’s importance by creating that situation upon figuring out who they want to promote and make a leader. They directly show that this is an implemented strategy to see if this future leader has the behavioral quality of conceptualizing.

While their is a stigma in the military about “feelings” and “mental health”, marines do take care of their own. What I mean by this is marines do care for the concerns and well-being of others within their teams. Most marines can notice if one of their team members is out of it and will directly address it and try to help. They will show their team member compassion and support them in what they need. Team leaders in the marine corps are especially known for reading and understanding their men and being able to help them in times of emotional distress. In servant leadership, this is known as the servant leader behavior of emotional healing (Northouse, 2021, p. 261). Emotional healing involves being sensitive to the personal concerns and well-being of others (Northouse, 2021, p. 261). Marine Corps leadership truly demonstrates their understanding and implementation of this behavior across all ranks of their branch.

Another behavior that relates to the topic of marines take care of their own is “putting followers first”. This is most evident in the marine corps when it comes to chow time. When out in the field either training or deployed, when marines are served chow, it is done in rank order. The first marine to get food is always the lowest ranks whereas the last is always the highest rank. This is a very important structure and unwritten rule within the Marine Corps. It demonstrates that the needs of the followers is by far the most important thing and that they come before the needs of the leaders. The behavior of putting others first is by far the defining characteristic of servant leadership. It means using actions and words that clearly demonstrate to followers that their concerns are a priority, including placing followers’ interests and success ahead of those of the leader (Northouse, 2021, p. 262). This is clearly evident in the marine corps culture of they how they feed and take care of marines. Whether it is for chow, or anything else, the lowest rank always comes first and highest rank always comes last. This is an exemplary way that the marines demonstrate servant leadership.

A very interesting thought process in the Marine Corps is train the guy below you to do their job and the two jobs above them. What this means is make sure to train your marines to be successful and able to grow. Teach them to be able to replace your position and even positions above you so when the tie comes they can be promoted and can continue in their career advancement. This is such an important and emphasized part of being a leader in the Marine Corps. As a servant leader, this behavior of helping followers grow and succeed is at the forefront of what you should do. This behavior specifically refers to knowing followers’ professional and personal goals and helping them to accomplish them (Northouse, 2021, p. 262). Servant leaders make followers’ career development a priority, which includes mentoring them and supporting them (Northouse, 2021, p. 262). The marine corps places a huge emphasis on all leaders to do this for the marines serving under them. It is one of the many instilled rules within the organization. It is also why it is very evident that the marines corps implements every aspect of servant leadership into their leaders lives.

The Marine Corps thrives off of three words, “Honor, Courage, Commitment”. They expect every marine of every rank to live by those words. When broken down and explained what they mean, the terms morals and ethics always comes up. One of the biggest proponents that these words bring up is that marines should always behave ethically. This means always doing the right thing even when you do not want too or it isn’t easy. It also means always being honest and fair. These words and actions that are instilled in every single marine also describe the servant leader behavior of “behave ethically” (Northouse, 2021, p. 262). As you can see, from the time recruits start bootcamp, all the way to retirement, marines are held to this standard and are expected to behave ethically which is why they make excellent servant leaders during their time serving and even after the separate from the Marine Corps.

To me one of the most important servant leader behaviors is that of empowering your followers. Empowering refers to allowing followers the freedom to be independent, make decisions on their own, and be self-sufficient (Northouse, 2021, p. 263). While this may not seem like something the military allows, it is actually something they encourage. As a marine, you are expected to be able to make decisions in a moments notice. Leaders will encourage their teams to come up with plans, ideas and strategies for different positions within the team. While it is not fully free of the leaders input, it does allow team members to provide their independent thoughts and influence situations. Since they allow this, marine leaders empower their team members to make proper decisions and allow them to be directly involved with the decision making process.

Lastly, and probably the most visible to the public, is the behavior of  “creating value for the community” (Northouse, 2021, p. 263). Every neighborhood has seen marines volunteering at their local sporting events or at local schools. When their is a charity event you will see marines helping in some manner. Marines are expected to give back to their community but on top of that love to volunteer and help out the locals. This comes from the top down. Marines are encouraged by their leaders to get involved and they even allow time off training for these events to occur. This not only creates value for the community around where the marines are stationed but it creates value in the community of marines themselves. this is a perfect example of how this servant leader behavior is instilled into marines and their culture.

So, to answer the question in the title. Are marine Corps leaders servant leaders? I say absolutely! They exhibit and demonstrate every single servant leader behavior described in “Leadership” by Peter Northouse (2021) and show how it is not only done but instilled in their entire culture.

 

 

 

 

References

Northouse, P.G. (2021).  Leadership: Theory and Practice. 9th Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2022). PSYCH 485 Lesson 11: Servant Leadership. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2177519/modules/items/33991684