Chapter 13: Leadership - The Backbone of Maneuver Warfare

Overview

More than anything else, Marines have fought and . . . won because of a commitment ”to a leader and to a small band of brotherhood where the ties that bind are mutual respect and confidence, shared privation, shared hazard , shared triumph, a willingness to obey, and determination to follow.

”Lt. Gen. Victor Krulak, USMC (Ret.) ^[1]

Our stated intent at the beginning of this book was to convince you that maneuver warfare has the potential to deliver breakthrough results in business as well as in armed conflict. We hope the examples and prescriptions presented support this assertion. But we would not consider our mission accomplished without a concluding discussion of the backbone of maneuver warfare ” leadership . Leadership fosters the intangibles that make maneuver warfare work.

Maneuver warfare is, by nature, decentralized, risk seeking, fast paced, and collaborative. Its successful implementation, therefore, requires the utmost trust , integrity , initiative , and unselfishness at all levels of an organization.

Trust. Seniors must trust that juniors will provide them with valuable insights and execute plans capably, in accordance with the organization s overall objectives. Juniors must trust that the directions they receive are well intended, competent, and legitimate . And peers must be able to trust each other s contributions when working together toward a common goal.

Integrity . A junior who is entrusted with making risk-reward trade-offs must have the integrity always to consider the good of the greater organization and always to admit mistakes when wrong. In other words, the junior must be willing to do the right thing in the absence of constant supervision. A senior who expects to engender the respect of juniors must exhibit the highest integrity. Similarly, the senior must be willing to do the right thing in the absence of supervision ”as if there were no one to sanction his or her behavior.

Initiative. Identifying an opportunity, weighing the associated risks and rewards, and pursuing its exploitation in a timely manner requires a willingness to decide and act on the spot, without explicit instructions. Such initiative cannot be imposed from the top down; detailed orders can never be a substitute for initiative.

Unselfishness. Working together toward a common objective sometimes requires the subordination of one s own interests to the interests of the greater organization. For juniors, unselfishness may entail executing a senior s order as if it were their own, even if they dissented during the decision-making process. For seniors, unselfishness may entail accepting blame when the organization stumbles or passing credit on to juniors when the organization succeeds. For peers, unselfishness may entail helping a buddy out, even if the payoff is neither immediate nor certain.

Unfortunately, these intangibles do not always occur naturally; they must be inspired and reinforced continually. Owing to an unparalleled emphasis on leadership, the Marine Corps has mastered the two-step art of inspiring and reinforcing these intangibles, and we believe that its leadership philosophy can serve as a useful guide to the aspiring practitioner of maneuver warfare. While a comprehensive treatment of this complex matter warrants its own book, we have, for the purposes of this discussion, distilled this leadership philosophy into three pillars: leadership by example , taking care of those in your charge , and leadership development .

In this chapter we will first provide an in-depth treatment of each of these three pillars. We will then profile two successful companies, FedEx and Southwest Airlines, whose respective leadership philosophies resemble that of the Marines Corps. And we will conclude by suggesting ways you can adopt and encourage in your organization leadership practices that will ensure the success of a maneuver warfare “based approach.

^[1] Krulak, Victor, Lt Gen, First to Fight: an Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps , 160 “61.