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My teaching and life learning philosophies.

Attention: Success lessons from the Marines

Some people are born leaders and or followers; they just know what needs to be done and have the motivation to do it. However, if you don't fall in that category, I have good news for you: Success can be learned!

A phenomenal lesson comes from our brave military, specifically the Marines, where good leadership can mean the difference between life and death. These 11 principles of leadership are found in the "Guidebook for Marines," published by the United States Marine Corps. The first sentence—listed in bold—is from the guide, and I've added my thoughts to each. Feel free to substitute students,employees,spouses, etc.. for Marines to make it suit your situation. Study them, and hone your leadership skills.

Know yourself and seek improvement. Be honest when you evaluate yourself. Seek the honest opinions of your friends or superiors to learn how to improve. Have a definite goal and a specific plan to achieve it. In this case,our plan is to tackle the painting in four inch increments. If the painting or photo is very detailed, make it 1 inch at a time and for portraits, turn both your canvas and your reference photo upside down.

Be technically and tactically proficient. Know your job, and work to broaden your knowledge.

Know your students and look out for their welfare. Know their problems, and make sure that they receive all appropriate help that they need. Encourage their individual development.

Keep your students informed. Make sure that people know that they can always look to you for the truth. Provide information so that subordinates feel like part of the team and could carry on without your personal supervision .

Set the example. How you conduct yourself says more than any instructions you may give. Set high personal standards and expect the same from your students.

Ensure the task is understood, supervised and accomplished. Students must understand what is expected of them in order to complete a job or assignment. Follow through to make sure the job gets done. I make myself available untill each student completes the painting even including going to their home to help them.

Train your students as a team. Students are encouraged to walk around the room and check out everyone's progress. Students should understand that the contribution that each one makes is critical to the entire effort.

Make sound and timely decisions. Learn to think on your feet, to evaluate a situation and decide on a course of action in a reasonable amount of time. If you realize you have made a bad decision, correct it as quickly as possible.

Develop a sense of responsibility among your subordinates. Delegate authority to give your subordinates the opportunity for professional development.

Employ your command in accordance with its capabilities. Set goals that are achievable and make sure you are realistic about the tasks at hand. At the same time, don't underestimate your staff either.

Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions. If you wish to lead, you must be willing to assume responsibility for your actions as well as those of the people who report to you. If your subordinates fail, determine if the fault lies with you.

That set of lessons is a mini-MBA in management. Making it work demands that you are brutally honest with yourself about your abilities and strengths as well as your weaknesses.

To help you evaluate yourself, here's the list of the 14 basic leadership traits identified by the Marines to help leaders earn the respect, confidence and cooperation of other Marines: justice, judgment, dependability, initiative, decisiveness, tact, integrity, enthusiasm, bearing, unselfishness, courage, knowledge, loyalty and endurance. Each of these traits is so important that the Marine Corps has developed an acronym to help remember them all: J. J. DID TIE BUCKLE (taken from the first letter of each trait.)

Consider these lessons one more reason to be grateful for our brave men and women in uniform. Not only are they protecting our right to do business, they are setting a fine example of how to get the job done.Pray for our troops.

Dee Rundel