

Justice: Leaders must have a strong sense of justice. In my experience both as a Marine Officer and corporate executive here are what those principles mean to me:

After all, an organization is only as good as its people. The terms troops, Marines, and employees can be used interchangeably. Marine Corps leadership principles are relevant both in the Marine Corps and civilian society, especially in the corporate world. The concepts are more than just words, they must mean something to every leader in order that they truly be understood and carried in one’s heart and mind throughout life. JJDIDTIEBUCKLE (pronounced “JJ did tie buckle”), representing justice, judgement, dependability, integrity, decisiveness, tact, initiative, endurance, bearing, unselfishness, courage, knowledge, loyalty, and enthusiasm. As with most things we learn, concepts are easily remembered with acronyms. Another mistake a ‘leader’ will make is to put them into a position where they are weak and not have a plan to coach them through.Leadership is perhaps the most important concept Marines are taught during training.

That’s great, that person will do a fine job, but they won’t evolve or develop. A mistake ‘leaders’ make often is to put people in positions that only rely on their strengths. We put him in this position but also coach him through steps on how to improve on this.

His new role also puts him in a position where he has to learn a new skill or segment, but also make decisions in a timely manner or fail. This same employee lacks some in the Knowledge (in terms of a specific business segment) and Decisiveness department. He is now in a full time role where a large part of his responsibility is new hire training. He was fantastic in an area where he naturally had strengths. I noticed this early on and made sure he was part of new employees onboard training. I have an employee who has a high level of Understanding and Endurance. I use this to identify growing leaders and put them in positions to utilize their strengths or help train their weaknesses. I routinely think about this and reflect on where I do well, what I do poorly, and what I need to work on to develop better as a leader.Īnother way I use this is to assess those who work for me or one of my businesses. These are the ideal traits that all leaders should embody or strive for (so sayeth the Marine Corps). I will do a series digging into each of them but for now here is some context. Judgement, Justice, Decisiveness, Integrity, Dependability, Tact, Initiative, Endurance, Bearing, Understanding, Courage, Knowledge, Leadership, Enthusiasm. The Marine Corps taught me that there are 14 leadership traits and the way you remember them is JJ DID TIE BUCKLE:
