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Supporting the Commander’s Leadership Philosophy Essay This thesis will cover the Support of the Commander’s Leadership Philosophy, command climate, strategies, and the role of the gunnery sergeant’s importance in the execution of the Commander’s leadership philosophy for Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 214, Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. We feel that the command climate at this unit is good. The three strategies that we will use to discuss this will be communication, training and leadership and how important they are in order to establish an effective and productive environment. We will also discuss how the gunnery sergeant’s important role is the key to ensuring that these strategies are well executed. The process used in analyzing this units’ command climate was through the assistance of the Commander’s Leadership Philosophy, blotter, and miscellaneous command photos. Command Climate The assessment of the unit is good within the Commander’s philosophy. The Commander’s policy will have more of a significant change in the command. The Commander stands by his policy by being a band of brothers. He has done a good job making it clear about upholding our traditions as Staff Non Commissioned Officers (SNCO) and Non Commissioned Officers (NCO). The Responsibilities, Leadership, and Core Values are what the Marine Corps is about. By following theses values and the Commanders’ philosophy the command should be able to carry on the mission and goals set before the Squadron. Commander’s Philosophy of Leadership The Commander’s expectations for the Squadron as a whole is Teamwork, Leadership, and Communication. According to base reports they have less than 10 percent of incidents within the Squadron. That’s what team work is about taking caring for each other. Taking time to get to know you’re Marines. One person is not stronger than a team. This plays a big part with every Marine in the unit pushing for success. The leadership is a key role, Honesty is the best policy, and a college degree does not make you a leader. Any Marine can be a leader; for the mission to be successful we need loyalty and core values. By the command climate survey showing that the unit takes care of each other, this is another step to success. Communication the most important part of the Commander’s philosophy. This is what holds all of the Commander’s three words together (Team work, Leadership, and Communication). Keeping lines open are very important. Knowing what’s being said in meetings, passing the word down to the Marines and making sure they understand what is going on. Our SNCO’s and NCO’s are essential to this action. Any delay with this action will create problems within the unit. The Commander has an open door policy, but the Marines will utilize the chain of command. With the command policy in place the unit should have no problems achieving their mission of success. Strategies to Create/Foster Positive Command Climate As part of ensuring the command climate stays positive and even further improve, the following are three strategies formulated in order to define and implement the commander’s vision and expectations from his squadron: Communication Leaders must be able to clearly express the commander’s vision and expectations to their Marines. They must dedicate the time necessary to ensure that their Marines have a full understanding of commander’s intent, mission, and how they are to contribute to the squadron’s success. The senior Leadership will facilitate the clear communication of such by means of more daily interactions with their subordinate Marines and get feedback to ensure that the vision and expectations of the commander are understood. The Noncommissioned officers (NCO), on the other hand, should provide the same to their junior Marines and ensure the same feedback is received. Training Senior leadership will ensure an NCO Professional Military Education (PME) is conducted once a month to discuss small-unit leadership, by means of guided discussions on core values and how they relate to their daily operations on and off-duty and to their surroundings. A junior PME is also to be conducted once a month and should be guided by an NCO, to discuss the same issues. Also, physical training (PT) will be held at the squadron level on Fridays and from Mondays through Thursdays on the smaller unit levels. This ensures consistency in PT, but at the same time allows Marines to take advantage of regular weekend liberty, vice conducting PT events on Saturdays. Leadership As part of leadership, the mentoring program must be implemented across the squadron as a great tool to counsel, coach, look after the welfare of, and ensure Marines accomplish the mission in support of commander’s vision and expectations of teamwork, leadership, and communication. Also, a Values-Based Leadership Integration (VBLI) program will be incorporated into small-unit leadership. The VBLI is a good tool in that it improves communication skills of each Marine during a guided discussion as well as builds and sustains trust and loyalty between subordinates and leaders. Overall, making ever Marine relate better to the commander’s vision and expectations. Gunnery Sergeant’s Importance As the Company Gunnery Sergeant for VMF 214, my main responsibility is, to ensure that the strategies developed to improved command climate aboard VMF 214 are planned and executed properly to ensure maximum success. Communication among the SNCOs will be crucial in order for these strategies to work. Before making any changes, as the Company Gunnery Sergeant, my initial task will be to hold a meeting for SNCOs. The purpose of this meeting will be to ensure that all SNCOs understand and can clearly articulate our Commander’s vision and expectations to our junior Marines. This will not only help us eliminate the â€Å"I assumed† factor out of the equation, but it will show our junior Marines that we know what we are talking about, that we have a plan to correct the situation, and that we will lead them to success. To improve communication in the command will be the first agenda, there will be a staff meeting once a week for all SNCOIC in the command conference room. We will use this opportunity to discuss the progress of our strategies and any other issues around the command. The NCOs will be required to sit down with their junior Marines once a week as well, before they sit down with their SNCOs. This will allow our young leaders the opportunity to develop their leadership skills by mentoring the junior Marines on the things accomplished in their sections and in the command on a weekly basis. All Squadron safety briefs will be reviewed by the Company Gunnery Sergeant for accuracy and relevance to the topics we want to focus on. Before the start of any holiday weekend, all SNCOICs will be required to submit a vehicle inspection checklist on all their Marines. I expect the NCOs to perform most of the vehicle inspections, but I also expect the SNCOs to be involved in this process. The goal is to ensure our Marines safety, so they can enjoy their liberty and comeback to work ready to accomplish bigger and better things for the command. The training is our Second agenda and the training section (S-3) will provide the Company Gunnery Sergeant with a list of Marines names that need to complete their resident PME. Those Marines will get that information passed down from the Company Gunnery Sergeant with school dates. In return, those Marines will be required to respond NLT close of business 3 April 2012, with the date of the course they choose to attend, or a valid response on why they are unable to attend during fiscal year 2012. Physical training (PT) will be conducted at the squadron level on Fridays and at the section level Monday through Thursday. We will add cross-training in all levels of the squadron to be done periodically, to improve proficiency of Marines, ensuring they are trained to handle their respective duties and those of others in case the latter are out of the office due to Temporary Active Duty, leave or liberty, and Personnel change of duty. Last but not the least, there will be a command field meet the last week in August. This can infuse Marines with camaraderie and teamwork and foster esprit de corps. We will be implementing the Professional Reading Program for all sections. SNCOs will be required to build a folder for all Marines in their section to include themselves; the No Later Than (NLT) date will be 3 April 2012. By this date, all NCOs will be counsel by their SNCOs and all NCOs will counsel the junior Marines on the commander’s vision and expectations for all Marines belonging to VMF 214. Furthermore, as part of the check in process, all Marines checking in to the command will be required to write a one page essay explaining what they understand about the commander’s philosophy. This can be submitted to their SNCOs NLT one week after checking in to the command. As part of the Professional Reading Program, every Marine will be required to submit at least one book report to the Sergeant Major or senior leadership. Finally, our leadership will show strong in these few ways, at the conclusion of weekly section PT, every other Thursday session a Valued-based Leadership Integration session will go. A SNCO will lead that section on a chosen VBLI that can cover work or life. The mentoring program will be fine tuned and we will ensure that every Marine has a folder with detail information in it. All Marines will have a mentor to help with life events or skills training and all safety documents for TAD or other wise to include holiday routines will be logged in this folder. It will be the SNCOs to assist the younger Marines that will be in the leadership position of a Mentor. The squadron will implement Hails and Farewells and will be conducted every month to introduce new Marines to the squadron and to recognize achievements and say farewell to departing Marines. Conclusion In conclusion, we discussed how important it is to have an effective command climate and that all strategies must be imposed for a command climate to have successful results. We talked about having effective communication and how important it is for a unit to understand the commander’s intent, how conducting adequate training will promote core values and how leadership is the glue that holds the trust and loyalty between subordinates and leaders. We also discussed how the gunnery sergeant’s importance is an additional key to success and in the end, the Support of the Commander’s Leadership Philosophy, positive command climate that was evident in Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 214, strategies, and the role of the gunnery sergeant’s importance is essential for the satisfaction and the development for the Squadron.