Thursday, November 11, 2010

On Leadership

The Detroit Free Press has an article today about a Marine, previously deployed to Iraq, and now facing the prospect of deploying to Afghanistan as a Sargeant, responsible for leading the kind of men that he used to be when he first went to Iraq.

The article quotes Master Sgt. Brian Ivers, a 21-year veteran of the Marine Corps speaking on leadership.

"It's like an apprenticeship -- seeing and doing," [Ivers] said.

But Ivers said that non-commissioned officers aren't there for personal improvement or finding a better business model.

"You can't manage men in combat," Ivers said. "You have to lead them.... These kids that you are leading are on loan -- we don't own them."

Two conclusions:

  1. Leadership isn’t management.
  2. Leaders are created by seeing and doing.

2 comments:

Jim Peet said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jim Peet said...

Observing young adult men in my church: the ones who have served in the military are heads and shoulders above the maturity level of the men who have not.