Leadership Lessons from the Military

There are a lot of traits that make someone a great leader, but in EMS and every other field it’s important to remember that there is no one way to lead.

The military and leadership are often synonymous, but great military leaders aren’t interchangeable parts, says Garth Massey, a Lt. Colonel in the Marine Reserves and president of Military Leadership Methods. “I think it is situation dependent, in terms of what type of leadership position you’re in. Commonly we refer to ‘military leaders,’ but there are very different types of experiences in the military.”

Similarly, EMS providers bring their own unique strengths and experiences to their agency or system. Advancing through the ranks and taking on greater leadership roles will mean different things for different providers, and current managers should recognize that when evaluating providers as future leaders of their organizations.

Massey says there are lessons from the military that can be applied in corporate and civilian settings for developing good leaders. “I don’t think the traits of good leadership are just isolated to the military world, but the military has done a good job of defining what those traits are,” he states.

The U.S. Marine Corps identifies 14 traits that make a good leader, and use the mnemonic JJ DID TIE BUCKLE to remember them:

• Justice
• Judgment
• Dependability
• Initiative
• Decisiveness
• Tact
• Integrity
• Enthusiasm
• Bearing
• Unselfishness
• Courage
• Knowledge
• Loyalty
• Endurance

“The idea is we talk about the traits we believe in and those traits build up our character,” Massey explains. “By talking about what we think is important teams will see those traits embodied more often in the way people behave. If you understand your belief system, the way you approach problems and define the things that are important to you, then it’s easier to continue to believe in them. It’s not so much that military people are different, it’s that they talk about their belief system more often. Think about the standard company—you get a corporate ethics policy when you get hired as part of your onboarding process, and then rarely, if ever, do you see that stuff again. Studies show if you don't talk about it you are not likely to embody it.”

Massey points out while those traits are all ideal in a leader, each leader will have his or her own strengths and should be put into leadership situations where those strengths will allow them to excel.

“Your typical, if you were to stereotype, Navy and Air Force leaders are very good at process,” Massey says. “They’re very good at managing systems, because the ships and planes that support their service are all very process driven. To be a missileer you have to be able to go through checklists to accomplish things, so those veterans from that branch of service are very good at technical jobs that require process-driven steps. Now that’s not to say that they don’t have other jobs, too, but as a stereotype it’s common. The Marine Corps and Army operate on more of a mission-type orders. As a Marine that means we spend a lot of time setting commanders’ guidance—or commanders’ intent, as we call it—and then the "how" of solving that problem is kind of up to the individual unit leaders. I think we view people in the military as having all these great military leadership skills but it sort of depends which branch of service and what your job specialty and skill set was. Just like anywhere else, we need all kinds of leaders. We’ve got incredible staff planners who are very good at detail and process, and incredible commanders who are very good at motivating, driving and inspiring. Employers should be selective about what they want to accomplish before picking the person for a role.”

Massey says the Marine Corps is unique, even among the other branches of the armed services, because regardless of a Marine’s entry point into the service—whether they enlisted, went to a four-year university where they were in a ROTC program, went to an academy, like Annapolis, or didn’t do any ROTC—they can join the Marine Corps as an officer. That’s because regardless of where you’ve come from, every Marine officer spends six months doing the basic school training where everyone is trained to be a provisional rifle platoon commander and gets focused on the skills, traits and principles of managing and leading a rifle platoon.

“The other advantage we have is we’re small enough as a service that every Marine officer goes to the same basic school,” Massey says. “So I’ve been deployed overseas, in need of air or artillery support, and when I pick up the radio I know the officer on the other end of that line hiked the same ground and chewed the same dirt. You have that common ground with every officer in the Marine Corps. Companies should do that, too, through corporate training and development programs. If you give people that common bit of ‘blood, sweat and tears’ where they all have a unifying or identifying event, that’s what builds a sense of teamwork, that they’ve all shared time and energy together.”

Massey has built a career around leading others and teaching others how to lead, much of the foundation of which comes from principles he learned in the Marine Corps. But he acknowledges as comprehensive as the JJ DID TIE BUCKLE list is, there are two traits he thinks are missing, both of which are especially important in the EMS world—humility and compassion. “Those are great leadership traits for any profession, and they have to be applied to if you’re going to do a good job.”

For more information on the military-inspired leadership training offered by Military Leadership Methods, visit www.mlmethods.com.