Balanced Leadership: The Forgotten Art

摘要

Leadership is more art than science. It is dynamic, painful, time consuming, and a priceless gift. The Marine Corps expends considerable time and effort to develop leaders. However, most USMC tenets of leadership support either mission accomplishment or troop welfare. The challenge of any leader is to balance these two objectives. Unfortunately, as an institution, the Marine Corps has failed to emphasize the operative word: balance. The consequence is a core group of leaders who struggle with balancing mission accomplishment and troop welfare. As current operational commitments continue to shift, Marine Corps leaders have lost their perspective on balanced leadership. If this is not corrected, it will degrade the Marine Corps' ability to sustain future operational commitments. The Marine Corps defines leadership as 'the sum of those qualities of intellect, human understanding, and moral character that enables a person to inspire and to control a group of people successfully.' To help leaders recognize leadership within a unit, the Marine Corps outlines four leadership indicators: morale, esprit de corps, discipline, and proficiency.