The Marshall School has a program, in which, in partnership with the Marine Corps, MBA students travel to Camp Pendleton to take classes on leadership from the Marines and participate in field leadership training exercises. I participated in October 2004. In our classroom activities, the Marines talked for a while about their tested and proven leadership doctrines; it was a very enlightening experience. Here's what I took away from speeches by two Marine Majors who are currently at Marshall and a Colonel who supervised the recruit training operations at Pendleton: Introduction to Marine Leadership

"The Marine Corps is all about leadership..." "You think about your mission, and think about your Marines."

Authority + responsibility + accountability = credibility. You must seek and take responsibility, and every leader must always be held responsible.

Everybody has leadership potential -- it's about training, it's not an inborn skill. Everybody also has leadership responsibility; even new privates. Even among two privates, somebody's always in charge and is obliged to show leadership (with two privates, it's whoever finished basic training first!). This philosophy of "everybody has leadership responsibility" extends to subordinates, because anybody may be obliged to take over for the leader of a unit at any time.

The Marines' core values are their consistent underpinning.

Good leadership is easy to see. The Marines ensure the quality of their leadership by sticking to consistent leadership principles and looking for specific leadership traits. Leaders must be conscious of quality of life. There are some common new leader mistakes, but those can be fixed with learning. Remember, when a leader makes an error, "praise in public, chew in private" -- never upbraid a leader in front of his or her subordinates unless you're planning to fire said leader forthwith, because you destroy that leader's authority. Take the time in private to let a good leader know what needs attention, because a good leader will take the initiative to fix themeselves.

Don't forget to practice! Even when in combat, you don't do everything every day. It's important to train everyday on the things you haven't done, so that you're ready when it comes time to do them!

All of this adds up to an organization that can make you proud. "Pride is a self-fulfilling prophecy" -- if you make people feel they're part of something special, they will act as if they're part of something special and do things others can't do. Maneuver Warfare

Maneuver Warfare is about:

• Avoiding the enemy's strength
• Exploiting the enemy's vulnerabilties
• Destroying the enemy's will to fight

Battles are a contest of wills. Move faster than the enemy, confuse them, break their will. Do this by getting inside their OODA Loop.

For more information on Maneuver Warfare, read the Marine Corps publication FMFM-1 Warfighting.