The Marine Corps can be described as 186,000 Type-A personalities all struggling with how to be the best in an overly competitive environment. The high level of competition can produce motivated individuals but also can make people miserable. Marines need to understand the difference between perfection and excellence to prevent hindered initiative, poor command climate, mental/physical exhaustion, misaligned life/family balance, or mental paralysis. These important lessons are cemented in the publication of Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 7 Learning, which is the service’s attempt to establish an organization of professional, lifelong learners. Vince Lombardi, an American football player, coach, and executive in the National Football League, said, “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.” Leaders and individuals should strive for excellence by putting the team first, supporting the development of professional warriors, and becoming lifelong learners while avoiding common pitfalls of perfectionism, such as being a toxic leader or suffering as an individual in the process.
The Pitfalls of Perfection
Perfectionists can be identified using three criteria: having such high standards that nothing will ever be good enough, obsessing over and mentally berating themselves for every mistake, and magnifying any deficiency, no matter the size. In short, perfectionism is an inward focus on doing the thing right, how things appear, and if others think something is done right. Excellence, on the other hand, is an outward focus on doing the right thing, the reason for the task, and successful results. Perfectionism steals time as it is always out of reach, and whatever one achieves will never be good enough. The pursuit of excellence keeps individuals focused on what matters while allowing them to remain positive and innovative because fear of failure is minimal.
Regardless of how much you learn and prepare, you will never arrive at a point where you know it all. The message that “you will never be perfect” is instilled in Marines at the commencement of their training designed to stigmatize mediocracy. In fact, General David Berger, the 38th Commandant of the Marine Corps, included in his planning guidance:
Demanding superior performance and enforcing high standards should not be viewed as draconian, but rather, should be expected by professionals. We will not accept mediocrity within the force and, above all, must seek to remove those from within our ranks who are adversely impacting the overall readiness of our force.
The desire for the Marine Corps to be comprised only of professionals is commendable; however, unless properly executed can demoralize Marines and lead to underachieving results. Leaders willing to set realistic expectations and provide honest, specific feedback are the most successful at building winning teams and developing professional subordinates.
Winning Teams
Experience shows that Marines need things repeated until the message is understood. Similar to how marketers adhere to an old adage called “The Rule of Seven,” meaning a customer will not buy a product until they have heard about it seven or more times, Marines must routinely be reminded of the necessity of being a professional and how it strengthens the Marine Corps. However, these continual reminders can imply perfection is required. Therein lies the problem, because without a thorough explanation of what is expected from leaders, it is easy for the majority of Type-A personalities within the military to misinterpret professional characteristics with perfectionist behavior. This can have profound, negative side effects on units and individuals alike.
Leaders must thoroughly explain to their expectations to troops upfront, and cultivate an environment in which trust and initiative thrive. It is critical for leaders to be optimistic and believe their people show up to work desiring to do the best they can. Distrust in subordinates to complete tasks can lead to micromanagement creating a toxic command climate. Retired Army General Stanley McChrystal provides the analogy of leaders being similar to humble gardeners:
Leaders need to understand that competitive success cannot depend on chess-like control. It requires consistent nurturing of the structure, process, and culture of one’s organization in order to enable subordinate components to function with smart autonomy and shared consciousness.
Trust within a unit is paramount for subordinates to develop themselves as leaders, and for leaders to ensure there is a common operating picture and create a team that designs simple solutions for complex problems.
As a leader, if you are intolerant of other’s mistakes you may inadvertently communicate it is not okay to make mistakes. This is the antithesis of how to train a unit to be successful at mission orders where initiative, speed, and tempo are gained through exercises full of mistakes and lessons learned. A leader seeking perfection either in themselves or their unit will be a tough, demanding leader who hinders learning from mistakes, resulting in limited creativity. These quests for perfection build a fear of failure, yet failure is required for Marines to grow and understand themselves, their subordinates, and their seniors. Ultimately, mistakes are not the problem. The problem is leaders not taking the time to articulate the specifics of the mistake, the cause of the mistake, and the potential solutions, so Marines can avoid repeating the same mistake. Thus, Marines do not learn from making a mistake but from the consequence (or lack thereof) of making a mistake.
Professional Warriors
Know thyself and seek self-improvement. To seek excellence, individual Marines must first know where they succeed and where they fall short. A good place to start is identifying where you lay on the spectrum of behavioral attributes: narcissistic–arrogant–confident–humble–ashamed. You should strive to be in the center as a confident professional who embodies success through their roles and responsibilities. Receiving feedback from leaders and peers is critical in developing yourself and helping with egotistical or self-esteem issues. Brené Brown, a research professor who has spent 20 years studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy, said the top three things she has learned are: 1) the level of collective courage in an organization is the best predictor of its ability to be successful; 2) the greatest challenge in developing brave leaders is helping them acknowledge and answer their personal call to courage; and 3) we fail once we allow someone else to define success for us. It is imperative you know your strengths and weaknesses so you know where to focus your efforts, and then conduct spot checks as you develop into a courageous, brave leader.
Malcolm Gladwell theorizes in Outliers that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert at something. Deliberate practice refers to practice that is purposeful and systematic. While regular practice might include mindless repetitions, deliberate practice requires focused attention and is conducted with the specific goal of improving performance. The greatest difference between them is receiving continual feedback on performance through measurement or coaching. Coaches are essential for sustaining deliberate practice as they can track progress, discover areas to improve, and hold individuals accountable. This process is already in place laid out within the Marine Leader Development program which consists of a scheduled training and counseling process. Gladwell further explains his point, stating natural ability requires a huge investment of time in order to be made manifest; seeing as 10,000 hours equates to approximately an hour and a half a day for 18 years of studying ones profession.
Ultimately, the critical component of how best to spend your time practicing your profession comes down to one’s ability to focus. Intense focus requires a substantial amount of mental energy in a distraction-free workspace. Deliberate practice is still the best method for mastering a skill to the extent of one’s personal ability and the quality of focus is more important than the number of hours logged. This is why numerous Marine generals and civilian leaders are quoted affirming the importance of reading and studying one’s craft. Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis often has been quoted as never being “caught flatfooted by any situation” because of reading, and he argues “our leaders going into battle do their troops a disservice by not studying–studying, vice just reading–the men who have gone before them.”
Lifelong Learning
Professionals must learn to study efficiently to optimize their time. One such method is obtaining mental flow. Flow is often described as a mental state in which people experience complete immersion and involvement in an activity. Josh Waitzkin, the child chess prodigy in Searching for Bobby Fisher who went on to become an international martial arts champion, asks readers in his book, The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance, what their goal is and what they are willing to do to achieve that goal. He explains that to maximize potential one must incrementally improve performance psychology by establishing a routine that triggers mental flow. For Marines, this routine could involve meditation, stretching, physical exercise, or an activity known to enhance creative thought. As a military professional, the honed ability to intensely focus could then be applied to studying battles, reading, conducting tactical decision games, training, etc. Waitzkin explains it is important to understand your strengths and to focus on them while studying your profession to sharpen them.
Your personal strengths are the most important asset you can bring to the team when solving complex problems. Leaders must learn the strengths of their subordinates–using tools such as the Marine Corps University Marine Leader Development website, the Myers-Briggs personality test, and Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead website to combine the core values of those they work with and build a cohesive team. This mind-set redirects a person from focusing on their weaknesses to their strengths. By having people focus intensely on their strengths, they have more to bring to the team, whereas if they focus on their weaknesses, they only are becoming mediocre as an individual. These tactics fall within the leadership principles of knowing your Marines and employing them inside their capability.
In the end, a critical skill for leaders and Marines to learn is when to accept something as good enough. This skill requires experience and judgment to determine when minimal effort is both acceptable and more beneficial than striving for a perfect solution. A 70 percent solution executed aggressively often is attributed to tactical orders; however, it also applies to other processes such as planning, counseling, and some administrative requirements like the Force Preservation Council (FPC). The FPC is a great tool for keeping leadership aware of at-risk Marines and sailors but it quickly can turn into an administration experiment. Senior leaders can use their experience and judgement to reduce this requirement and simply converse over the issues providing more time for the small unit leaders to counsel the at-risk individuals. Lombardi said, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.” If more Type-A leaders and Marines learn to accept the 70 percent solution and not stigmatize it with mediocracy, then the Marine Corps will succeed at being excellent.
The idea of pursuing excellence is expertly summarized in Secretary Mattis’ Call Sign CHAOS:
Everyone needs a mentor or to be a mentor–and no one needs a tyrant. At the same time, there is no substitute for constant study to master one’s craft. Living in history builds your own shock absorber because you will learn that there are lots of old solutions to new problems. If you have not read hundreds of books, learning from others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate–you cannot coach and you cannot lead. History lights the often-dark path ahead; even if it is a dim light, it is better than none.
Leaders seeking excellence within their units explain what is expected, remain optimistic, foster an environment that builds trust, allow honest mistakes, and provide feedback so everyone can learn from, and not repeat, mistakes. Marines should understand their strengths and weaknesses, commit to improving themselves through deliberate practice, and know how they can specifically contribute to the team. The people who master the art of deliberate practice are committed to being lifelong learners–always exploring, experimenting, and refining. All of this is combined to develop a professional leader, subordinate, and team. Gen. Berger stated in MCDP-7 Learning, “We must make the most of every learning opportunity, fostering our subordinates’ learning while continuing our own.” Together all of these practices will ensure the Marine Corps’ success.
Military personnel are in an incredible predicament where they find themselves constantly balancing between an extraordinary job and the realities of the world. Improper preparation can lead to mental paralysis and a lack of decision-making which will get Marines killed. We must do our homework, know we are worthy of the position the Marine Corps has assigned us, and show up every day ready to work and teach/coach/mentor the Marines under our charge. In the end, we are successful when we have cultivated an environment where trust flourished and the mission was accomplished. All Marines should aim for perfection but strive for excellence.
