OK, we are almost done this long lesson on the Marine Corps leadership characteristics or as we call them traits. By the time we are done you will be better prepared to lead in any capacity. This will also help you to develop more of a motivational leadership style. You will also be able to identify the good and bad in leadership speakers and bosses.
Unselfishness- This one seems simple but it is surprising how many leaders only care about themselves. Now of course we should care about the company, the institution, the production, our personal progression ect. BUT you must care about the welfare of your subordinates. If you don't show any compassion for their personal lives then they will give you the bare minimum. In the Marines the most junior guy eats first and the most senior Marine eats last. If there is a shortage of food the staff and officers will go with out. Troop welfare is something we practice on a regular basis with our hearts. Too many people think about what is good for themselves and nothing else. Remember to give your people a pat on the back, a break, a jacket if it's cold, the list goes on. They will completely have no respect for you if you don't do for them but always do for yourself. Of course they will die for you if you are of a motivational leadership style always staying firm but fair.
Courage- Most leaders lack in this dept of leadership characteristics. There are two kinds of courage. There is the type where a Marine, fire fighter or a police officer puts him self in danger for the benefit of others. More often though there is moral courage. The type to tell someone face to face they are wrong. The courage to stand up to your boss for the sake of those who work below you. The courage to correct one of your employees for wearing the wrong uniform or showing up late. The list goes on you get the point. Unfortunately most people set the rules but don't enforce them. I love hearing a leadership speaker preach about this. If you are a leadership speaker, talking about this will get heads rolling as managers will want to step it up.
Knowledge- Short and sweet, if you don't know your job how can you lead people in that field. If you don't know what you are doing then you need to have the courage to ask someone for help (even if they are junior to you). Focusing on leadership characteristics like this will make you more promotable and respectable. This is how you become the go to guy or gal. Reading technical manuals or standard operating procedures will help you gain knowledge ultimately improving your proficiency.
These should be enough to digest for a couple days as you incorporate them in to your motivational leadership. Good luck.
Showing posts with label marine corps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marine corps. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Leadership With The Marines by Max Garcia
As a leadership speaker I always make it a point to teach the powerful leadership characteristics I have learned in the Marine Corps. If you are of a motivational leadership style you will enjoy learning and teaching these 14 leadership characteristics to your managers and subordinates alike.
The Marines call these leadership characteristics the 14 leadership traits, also known as JJ DID TIE BUCKLE (we will get to that in a minute). I learned these traits very early in my career as a young lance corporal age 19 (E-3) trying to pick up the prestigious Corporal. At the rank of Corporal you become a Non-Commissioned Officer with new leadership responsibilities. The rank is not easy to obtain or maintain. The lesson has served me very well as I firmly believe in a lead by example, motivational leadership style.
The fourteen leadership traits are as follows:
1)Justice
2)Judgement
3)Decisiveness
4)Initiative
5)Dependability
6)Tact
7)Integrity
8)Endurance
9)Bearing
10)Unselfishness
11)Courage
12)Knowledge
13)Loyalty
14)Enthusiasm
Notice the JJ DID TIE BUCKLE to help you remember them. If you are already practicing or teaching a motivational leadership style these will help you put a more definite name on what you already know. If you are just starting your career you will clearly be able to notice these leadership characteristics or lack of them in your co workers and managers. Keeping these in mind on a daily basis will also help prepare you to be a manager and eventually a leadership speaker.
The 14 leadership traits are somewhat self explanatory, especially if you are already a leadership speaker. We will discuss them more in depth next. For now become familiar with them and establish for yourself what you think each characteristic means.
The Marines call these leadership characteristics the 14 leadership traits, also known as JJ DID TIE BUCKLE (we will get to that in a minute). I learned these traits very early in my career as a young lance corporal age 19 (E-3) trying to pick up the prestigious Corporal. At the rank of Corporal you become a Non-Commissioned Officer with new leadership responsibilities. The rank is not easy to obtain or maintain. The lesson has served me very well as I firmly believe in a lead by example, motivational leadership style.
The fourteen leadership traits are as follows:
1)Justice
2)Judgement
3)Decisiveness
4)Initiative
5)Dependability
6)Tact
7)Integrity
8)Endurance
9)Bearing
10)Unselfishness
11)Courage
12)Knowledge
13)Loyalty
14)Enthusiasm
Notice the JJ DID TIE BUCKLE to help you remember them. If you are already practicing or teaching a motivational leadership style these will help you put a more definite name on what you already know. If you are just starting your career you will clearly be able to notice these leadership characteristics or lack of them in your co workers and managers. Keeping these in mind on a daily basis will also help prepare you to be a manager and eventually a leadership speaker.
The 14 leadership traits are somewhat self explanatory, especially if you are already a leadership speaker. We will discuss them more in depth next. For now become familiar with them and establish for yourself what you think each characteristic means.
Friday, September 11, 2009
3 Rules for Confidence by Max Garcia
It doesn’t matter whom you work for or what your occupation is. I tell all my new people when they check in that I have three rules for building self confidence. These personal confidence rules I made up when I was a Drill Instructor at Parris Island, South Carolina. I told every platoon I graduated and now I tell every new member of my current companies. The three rules for building self confidence are: personal appearance, learn your role as quick as possible, and last but not least, always, no matter what happens, always be respectful. These rules of personal confidence I live by and train others to live by. I guess you could call these my tools to improve confidence because so many people feel inferior when starting a new job. I call them the three rules for success. The fact that I brief these rules to every new join has saved me time, frustration, paper work, and has made my Marines stronger. I believe this is fact only because of my three rules for success. To apply these when building self confidence in the corporate world some complimentary thinking will be needed. For now we will discuss the first rule.
The First Rule:
Improve confidence through a first impression. A first impression is a lasting impression. From the second you walk up to hand in your resume, to your first day on the job up until the day you leave, everybody is judging your personal appearance. Despite that it’s against what we are taught in school, not to judge a book by its cover, the fact remains people are judgmental creatures. You can have stellar performer, but if their personal appearance is lacking no one is going to promote them to a position where they have to deal with upper management. That’s just fact. If you are in a position of leadership then this rule should be gospel to you when it comes to personal confidence.
Everyone regardless of position or occupation is critical of those senior to them. The last thing you want is to be known by your subordinates as the sloppy or eccentric boss. It doesn’t matter how great you “know your job”, you lose prestige if you don’t look sharp in the eyes of those junior to you. Not only that, when you look good you feel good. When you feel good you will perform as such resulting in solid personal confidence. We will talk more next time about building self confidence using my other two rules. I want you to first improve confidence for your self by first assessing your own appearance. If you are in a leadership position, ask yourself if your people would work better if they simply dressed sharper?
The First Rule:
Improve confidence through a first impression. A first impression is a lasting impression. From the second you walk up to hand in your resume, to your first day on the job up until the day you leave, everybody is judging your personal appearance. Despite that it’s against what we are taught in school, not to judge a book by its cover, the fact remains people are judgmental creatures. You can have stellar performer, but if their personal appearance is lacking no one is going to promote them to a position where they have to deal with upper management. That’s just fact. If you are in a position of leadership then this rule should be gospel to you when it comes to personal confidence.
Everyone regardless of position or occupation is critical of those senior to them. The last thing you want is to be known by your subordinates as the sloppy or eccentric boss. It doesn’t matter how great you “know your job”, you lose prestige if you don’t look sharp in the eyes of those junior to you. Not only that, when you look good you feel good. When you feel good you will perform as such resulting in solid personal confidence. We will talk more next time about building self confidence using my other two rules. I want you to first improve confidence for your self by first assessing your own appearance. If you are in a leadership position, ask yourself if your people would work better if they simply dressed sharper?
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Motivation vs Brains in Sales by Max Garcia
Well, what would you rather have on your team, someone with knowledge or someone with lots of sales motivation but knows little about the sales business? In sales, we have several types of people, and each one of these people require different types of business speakers to unfold their potential through sales motivation seminars. I believe the ability or skill level lies within the sales motivation of that person. As always there are certain exceptions when it comes to level of education and learning ability. This is why a business speaker or trainer must know his or her audience ahead of time (we will talk more about that another time).
When it comes to selection for a billet in the sales department, some leaders select based on previous performance with total disregard for the sales motivation of that person. I used to work as a Drill Instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina. For a short period of time my job was to identify recruits that were not physically strong enough to start recruit training and identify the challenged ones that still had potential. We would send the rest packing to physical conditioning platoon. Physical conditioning platoon kept them for several extra months until they either passed the physical requirements or quit. I would talk to each kid separately, and the first thing I would do is ask them if they would rather go home at this point or go to physical conditioning platoon knowing they would be in boot camp longer. Some recruits would instantly state they want to go back home to Mommy, while others will violently yell “No Sir” stating that they will stay longer if needed. My psychological trick was that the ones who genuinely seemed like they wanted to be a Marine got to come to my platoon to train, while the ones that wanted to just quit got dropped to physical conditioning platoon because I did not want their lack of motivation. Many times once properly instructed the recruits who came to my platoon uncovered their talent and ended up becoming good Marines. At the same time some that came in physically fit were unsuccessful because they had no motivation.
The same goes when sales speakers try to improve a company through sales motivation. Professional athletes don’t become the top five percent of the sport they play naturally. They have to work extremely hard for years and they have to have the right people help them get recognized. Many of them took lessons or received coaching there whole lives. That sounds like learning to me. I could care less how much “brain power” someone has if they don’t have a strong work ethic and drive. Whatever and whoever it is, good sales speakers can teach them if they really want to learn. You may want to think twice before hiring someone just because the have a certain qualification.
When it comes to selection for a billet in the sales department, some leaders select based on previous performance with total disregard for the sales motivation of that person. I used to work as a Drill Instructor at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina. For a short period of time my job was to identify recruits that were not physically strong enough to start recruit training and identify the challenged ones that still had potential. We would send the rest packing to physical conditioning platoon. Physical conditioning platoon kept them for several extra months until they either passed the physical requirements or quit. I would talk to each kid separately, and the first thing I would do is ask them if they would rather go home at this point or go to physical conditioning platoon knowing they would be in boot camp longer. Some recruits would instantly state they want to go back home to Mommy, while others will violently yell “No Sir” stating that they will stay longer if needed. My psychological trick was that the ones who genuinely seemed like they wanted to be a Marine got to come to my platoon to train, while the ones that wanted to just quit got dropped to physical conditioning platoon because I did not want their lack of motivation. Many times once properly instructed the recruits who came to my platoon uncovered their talent and ended up becoming good Marines. At the same time some that came in physically fit were unsuccessful because they had no motivation.
The same goes when sales speakers try to improve a company through sales motivation. Professional athletes don’t become the top five percent of the sport they play naturally. They have to work extremely hard for years and they have to have the right people help them get recognized. Many of them took lessons or received coaching there whole lives. That sounds like learning to me. I could care less how much “brain power” someone has if they don’t have a strong work ethic and drive. Whatever and whoever it is, good sales speakers can teach them if they really want to learn. You may want to think twice before hiring someone just because the have a certain qualification.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Choosing the Right Leadership Characteristics by Max Garcia
When developing your leadership characteristics you want to pay close attention to the various styles of leadership. Your style of leadership can and will greatly affect the results of your employees. Those affects, negative or positive will be a direct reflection of your leadership characteristics. Most people are familiar with two forms of leadership, persuasive or athoritative. The truth is that there are as many styles of leadership as there are characteristics of leadership. Every leadership challenge is going to call for different styles. Some subordinates are very easy to work with, show up on time, take initatiave, work hard and never question orders. These employees allow you to display relaxed leadership characteristics and courtesy. Other subordinates wait for you to give them an inch so they can take a mile. These co workers tend to be more disrespectful, question directions and require more supervision. The characteristics of these employees may call for you to use more force and athority. The key, is finding balance between the two. My father Dan Garcia, who retired from the Marine Corps, called this firm but fair leadership.
Many leaders, particularly those in the military feel that you always have to be consistent and treat every one exactly the same. This is true to some degree however, if you treat your best guy like your worst guy he won't be your best guy for long. If you have someone who knows exactly what your intent is and follows it to the letter wheather you are there or not enjoy it. Don't micro manage that person like they are incompetent and they will most likely continue on that path. I'm not saying don't supervise, in fact you should always inspect what you expect. Just keep in mind those that micro managed you in the past when you were doing excellent. Did you resent them to a certain degree? Did you feel as if they didn't trust you despite your consistent results. I know I totally resent any micro management, especially when in a leadership role. Why give someone a promotion and then stand over their shoulder? You might as well lead for them.
The moral of the story is to deal with each leadership challenge according to the situation, not just a standard style of leadershp characteristics you read in a book. Some bosses have fun simply being mean to their employees. They run the show out of fear and laugh about it. Sure they will work because you say so or else! They may even move a little faster when you are around. But, let there be no doubt if your subordinates hate you it will adversely affect you in the long term. They will only do the bare minimum, they will not take initatiave and they will probably stab you in the back the first opportunity they get. You will have no loyalty what so ever. This style will not improve confidence as a leader, in fact it displays a lack of personal confidence in one self. I once was about to make a huge mistake, one that could have possibly gotten me fired. Fortunately for me I had plenty of loyalty in my unit. One of the subordinates quickly pointed out the mistake for me, saving my butt. I said thank you and let him know how much I appreciated him having my back. This warning came from a subordinate that I had to firmly counsel on more than one occasion. That is where the firm but fair part comes in. If someone needs corrected, correct them. If the situation calls for a little harshness, make it harsh. However, if someone deserves a pat on the back you should be just as fast to do that with much more enthusiasm. Leadership characteristics like these go a long way and will assist in building personal confidence while in a postition of authority. Stay tuned for more articles like these or visit my website at http://www.themaxgarcia.com/
Many leaders, particularly those in the military feel that you always have to be consistent and treat every one exactly the same. This is true to some degree however, if you treat your best guy like your worst guy he won't be your best guy for long. If you have someone who knows exactly what your intent is and follows it to the letter wheather you are there or not enjoy it. Don't micro manage that person like they are incompetent and they will most likely continue on that path. I'm not saying don't supervise, in fact you should always inspect what you expect. Just keep in mind those that micro managed you in the past when you were doing excellent. Did you resent them to a certain degree? Did you feel as if they didn't trust you despite your consistent results. I know I totally resent any micro management, especially when in a leadership role. Why give someone a promotion and then stand over their shoulder? You might as well lead for them.
The moral of the story is to deal with each leadership challenge according to the situation, not just a standard style of leadershp characteristics you read in a book. Some bosses have fun simply being mean to their employees. They run the show out of fear and laugh about it. Sure they will work because you say so or else! They may even move a little faster when you are around. But, let there be no doubt if your subordinates hate you it will adversely affect you in the long term. They will only do the bare minimum, they will not take initatiave and they will probably stab you in the back the first opportunity they get. You will have no loyalty what so ever. This style will not improve confidence as a leader, in fact it displays a lack of personal confidence in one self. I once was about to make a huge mistake, one that could have possibly gotten me fired. Fortunately for me I had plenty of loyalty in my unit. One of the subordinates quickly pointed out the mistake for me, saving my butt. I said thank you and let him know how much I appreciated him having my back. This warning came from a subordinate that I had to firmly counsel on more than one occasion. That is where the firm but fair part comes in. If someone needs corrected, correct them. If the situation calls for a little harshness, make it harsh. However, if someone deserves a pat on the back you should be just as fast to do that with much more enthusiasm. Leadership characteristics like these go a long way and will assist in building personal confidence while in a postition of authority. Stay tuned for more articles like these or visit my website at http://www.themaxgarcia.com/
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Leadership Characteristics by Max Garcia
What are the most important leadership characteristics? Leadership is defined in the english dictionary as a person who rules, guides, or inspires others. What qualities stand out most when observing someone who is a successful leader? For this article we will touch heavily on personal confidence, the characteristic that challenges most people. Despite their outward appearance most people question their own abilities and decisions all the time. Even top performers doubt themselves on a daily basis.
Confidence has to be one of the most important leadership characteristics there is. Now I didn't say cocky alpha males, I said confidence! With out confidence who ever you are leading will not follow you for long. If they're required to follow you due to your employment position they may have to do as you say but they surely don't have to respect you. You see, you must first be confident in yourself before you become confident in what ever area you are leading in. If you are comfortable in your own skin, it won't matter if you are the new boss that doesn't fully understand the policies in place yet. You will feel just fine kindly and confidently asking the advice of others instead of trying to fake it. In fact, your subordinates will respect the fact that you are humble enough to ask them. If you are comfortable with your own abilities in general, all the other leadership characteristics will come naturally. If you have challenges with this characteristic there is help.
Thats right, even if your fellow employees, subordinates, bosses, friends and family disrespect you on a daily basis there are some things you can do in your every day activity to help re establish your self. First and most importantly change the inner voice in your head. If you are the type that sees two people talking in the hallway and the little voice in your head tells you that they are talking bad about you change the voice inside your head. Now you have to trust me on this. The next time you catch yourself thinking something like, oh no my employees are laughing and looking at me, I want you to stop your self.
As soon as you stop yourself replace your thoughts with words that empower you instead. My employees love me, I have all the characteristics of a great leader. My family loves and respects me to no end. My friends think I'm cool no matter what I do. I am a confident and powerful individual. By the way, you need to say these statements even if you don't believe what your mouth is saying. If you have watched my DVD on confidence you will understand how this works. For now you just have to trust me. Do this just a few times and you will notice a change in the attitudes of the people around you ultimately helping you to become more confident in what ever area you are leading in. Build on the leadership characteristic of confidence and all other things will fall in to place. When you are looking to improve confidence and building self confidence in others stay tuned for more articles like these or visit my website at www.themaxgarcia.com
Confidence has to be one of the most important leadership characteristics there is. Now I didn't say cocky alpha males, I said confidence! With out confidence who ever you are leading will not follow you for long. If they're required to follow you due to your employment position they may have to do as you say but they surely don't have to respect you. You see, you must first be confident in yourself before you become confident in what ever area you are leading in. If you are comfortable in your own skin, it won't matter if you are the new boss that doesn't fully understand the policies in place yet. You will feel just fine kindly and confidently asking the advice of others instead of trying to fake it. In fact, your subordinates will respect the fact that you are humble enough to ask them. If you are comfortable with your own abilities in general, all the other leadership characteristics will come naturally. If you have challenges with this characteristic there is help.
Thats right, even if your fellow employees, subordinates, bosses, friends and family disrespect you on a daily basis there are some things you can do in your every day activity to help re establish your self. First and most importantly change the inner voice in your head. If you are the type that sees two people talking in the hallway and the little voice in your head tells you that they are talking bad about you change the voice inside your head. Now you have to trust me on this. The next time you catch yourself thinking something like, oh no my employees are laughing and looking at me, I want you to stop your self.
As soon as you stop yourself replace your thoughts with words that empower you instead. My employees love me, I have all the characteristics of a great leader. My family loves and respects me to no end. My friends think I'm cool no matter what I do. I am a confident and powerful individual. By the way, you need to say these statements even if you don't believe what your mouth is saying. If you have watched my DVD on confidence you will understand how this works. For now you just have to trust me. Do this just a few times and you will notice a change in the attitudes of the people around you ultimately helping you to become more confident in what ever area you are leading in. Build on the leadership characteristic of confidence and all other things will fall in to place. When you are looking to improve confidence and building self confidence in others stay tuned for more articles like these or visit my website at www.themaxgarcia.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)