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Leaders as mentors

I still have the chevrons I was given for my promotion to lance corporal by Lance Cpl. Bobby Alley. Those chevrons are special, not because they were the first, but because they were Bobby’s.

I had been assigned to follow him around; he was assigned to make sure I didn’t screw up or get lost. In the months I tailed him, I learned a lot. He did not coddle, he was not nice and he was not my friend. He was my fire team leader, and he ensured that I learned what I needed to know to function as a Marine Corps rifleman. More than that, he was truly a leader and a mentor.

I still have those chevrons because he thought I deserved them, not because I hit my time-in-grade requirement. We became friends later.

All Marines are expected to become leaders. There seems to be a natural inclination and initiative among those who aspire to be Marines to be leaders; otherwise, they would have stayed home or joined the Army.

The Marine Corps puts great emphasis on mentorship. “This appointee will therefore carefully and diligently discharge the duties of the grade appointed by doing and performing all manner of things thereunto pertaining” — Marines know this line from countless promotion formations.

Re-read your warrant and think about what that line actually requires of you. Are you a leader who only gives and follows orders? Or are you a leader who is genuinely interested in the welfare and development of your Marines, not simply in following the leadership traits and principles because it’s what is expected?

Mentorship is not “feel-good, touchy-feely.” It is not lax discipline or weak leadership. It is an absolute requisite of true leadership.

The concept begins at the recruit depots — the entire recruit training curriculum, all the way to the Crucible, is based on mentorship. There is no lax discipline within the depots.

And what about the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program? One of MCMAP’s basic tenets is mentorship. There is lots of “touchy-feely” in MCMAP, but none of it is gentle.

In June, the Corps introduced MCI 0037: Leading Marines, in a Corps-wide message, MarAdmin 370/07. It puts a particular emphasis on mentoring Marines, meaning that mentoring is not a “feel-good” activity, but mission accomplishment.

Why the sudden emphasis?

I wondered why there was a sudden emphasis on mentorship. I thought I was more than a basically trained Marine when I graduated recruit training. I thought I was aggressive after Linear Infighting Neural Override Engagement training and the School of Infantry. I thought I was fully qualified to become a noncommissioned officer when I was meritoriously promoted to corporal.

And I was, to all of the above, but I finally realized that it was the result of my mentors’ work. My senior drill instructor was a veteran of Grenada and Beirut and mentored us in recruit training before it was cool. My unit leader at SOI spoke TO us as Marines and WITH us as men. Ninety percent of my first unit was made up of Operation Desert Storm veterans, and the company gunny and first sergeant were Vietnam veterans. Even if they didn’t consciously know it, they mentored me and all the other Marines.

Now, it is felt that leathernecks must officially be mentored to become basically trained Marines, to become aggressive hand-to-hand fighters, to become NCOs.

If you are an NCO, this should stop you in your tracks and make you re-examine exactly what kind of a Marine leader you are.

Commandant Lt. Gen. John Lejeune introduced Marine Corps Order No. 29 in 1920, which states, “Young Marines respond quickly and readily to the exhibition of qualities of leadership on the part of their officers. … The relation between officers and enlisted men should in no sense be that of superior and inferior nor that of master and servant, but rather that of teacher and scholar. In fact, it should partake of the nature of the relation between father and son. … The provisions of the above apply generally to the relationships of non-commissioned officers with their subordinates and apply specifically to non-commissioned officers who may be exercising command authority.”

If Lejeune saw the need to write a Marine Corps order in 1920, and the modern Marine Corps is so strongly emphasizing this aspect of leadership now, there must be a reason.

Re-read Marine Corps Order No. 29. Look back and see how you benefited from unofficial and official mentorship in your early days as a devil dog, and how you benefit now. Determine if you are truly a leader and mentor.

Make sure that you are not the reason the Marine Corps is having to make mentorship “official” again.