I opened a large package that arrived in the mail last week, and out fell an encyclopedia-sized book on leadership. On the cover, larger than life, was Mike Ettore, with whom I served in the Marines 20 years ago. He was staring off in the distance with a sense of purpose and the moral rectitude that one associates with famous men like Vince Lombardi. I was elated; my friend Mike Ettore must have become a renowned football coach because who the hell will read 549 pages on trust-based leadership if there was no insight into how to approach a third and long with just seconds to go in some game? I stopped watching the NFL over a decade ago, long before it was cool, so he could have been dominating there for all I knew.
I held it up to my wife and said, “Hey, I know this guy. He must have gotten into football coaching or something and become famous.”
My wife held out her hand. She has a Ph.D. in organizational leadership and is an educator who knows the industry. She starts scanning the chapters and looks at me.
“You know Mike Ettore”?
“Of course, he sent me the book, but I didn’t know he was a pro football coach”.
“He’s not. He runs executive leadership training, and I’ve heard of his Fidelis Group; they’re out of Tampa,” she adds, just in case I thought she was joking.
I never saw the book again. Off it went to her office, and a week or so later, I’m sitting at my computer doing writer stuff, and up pops this notification from LinkedIn, a platform I rarely visit. It’s a note from Mike Ettore asking if I got the book. I had to move a yellow sticky note on my screen that said “send Ettore a thank you for the book” to read the notification.
I wrote to Mike immediately explaining the book had been highjacked (as if that meant anything) and then apologized for being a scumbag. I added that I’d write a review on Amazon and retrieved my copy, but realized the book needed a blog post. Mike took the time to write what I consider the definitive book on leadership, and it’s entertaining. I want to be entertaining back with the review.
Mike wrote this book as a text to be used for developing leaders in every human endeavor where there is a hierarchy. His biggest, dare I say controversial, contention is that leaders are made, not born. Coming from Mike Ettore, that is hard to believe, at first, as is the idea that Marine Corps leadership doctrine can be injected, in any meaningful way, into a civilian business environment. I could easily see Mike as a successful, innovative football coach because Mike was an exceptionally gifted infantry leader. But coaching executives on the importance of eating last? That seemed to be a bridge too far.
Mike Ettore, at age 20, after just two years in the Marine Corps, was a drill instructor at Parris Island. First term enlisted drill instructors are as rare as finding a diamond in a goat’s butt. Ettore left the Marines after his first enlistment to complete college and returned as an infantry officer. As a rifle platoon commander, he saw action in Grenada and Beirut, making him one of the rare combat vets in the ’80s and ’90s when we served together. As a Captain, he won the Leftwich Trophy, an annual award for the best infantry company commander in the Fleet Marine Forces. An award that means little to most people but everything to an infantry officer.
When I met Mike, he was heading up the tactics department at The Basic School (TBS), a six-month course every newly commissioned Marine officer must attend after commissioning. TBS is designed to train new lieutenants to lead Marines by teaching them how to be infantry platoon commanders. The Marine Corps takes the “every man a rifleman” thing seriously, so every Marine, regardless of gender or military occupational specialty (MOS), is trained to fight as dismounted infantry.
I was an instructor at the Infantry Officer Course (IOC), and for reasons that need not be explained here, friction existed between the tactics department and IOC. That ended soon after Mike’s arrival. He understood the difference between entry and advanced-level fire and maneuver. He also understood our need to start at the squad level in an aggressive 10-week course with over twenty increasingly complex live fire events.
Drill Instructor at 20, rare combat leadership experience as a Lieutenant, winner of the Leftwich as a Captain; one would think Ettore is one of those hard asses who insists on blind obedience to regulations and strict attention to orders. He’s not, and that’s the first of many family jewels in the Marine Corps leadership doctrine revealed to readers who did not enjoy the opportunity to experience them firsthand. Despite what you have seen in movies or read in books a successful Marine infantry leader can only be successful if his troops respect and love him.
Not every man who passes through the Marine Corps leadership training pipeline masters the nuances of infantry leadership. As in every large organization, there are bad leaders and units in the Marine Corps. I’ve always thought bad leaders were missing an ingredient that the successful leader enjoyed. In other words, I felt good leaders were born to the task.
Readers unfamiliar with the military in general or the Marine Corps specifically will be overwhelmed by the exacting standards of Marine Corps Leadership. You will be dubious about the contention that the Marine Corps instills these traits and principles in young men and women who have just completed high school.
I have a shortcut to understanding the dynamic, but it’s a little long. Listen to this 4-hour, 15-minute Jocko Willink podcast about an incident involving a young Marine Corporal named Jason Dunham in less than 10 seconds, 15 years ago. Jocko is joined by four Marines who were with Jason that day. They explain who Jason was, how he became a squad leader at such a young age, his training for Iraq, and the events leading up to the day he was mortally wounded. During the discussion, all four of the Marines and Jocko lose their composure several times. It is fascinating to listen to; it is a truly inspiring tale about an iconic Marine Corps small-unit leader.
Executives in the civilian business world do not lead men in mortal combat, so what does the leadership system designed to do just that have to do with running a for-profit enterprise? Everything. The Marine Corps trains to fight, but combat is not where any Marine spends most of his career. Unlike Mike, I am not a combat veteran. However, I have seen infantry battalions fold in the field after 96 hours of cold, wet, wind-driven rain in the usually sunny Southern California winter.
Good units with solid leadership thrive in nasty weather. They consider it a challenge and answer it with solid sleep, foot hygiene, and active, aggressive tactical measures (patrolling, digging, fire support planning, etc.) while ignoring the cold and wet. Good units with solid leadership cannot be beaten by terrain or weather. Units without it fold every time they are exposed to a good dose of adverse weather.
Every leader faces diversity, and effective leadership is demonstrated through navigating that diversity. This seems to be a self-evident truth often absent in today’s business and social environment. I suspect that is because leadership training is confused with leadership techniques and procedures. Good leaders work by developing and implementing effective techniques and procedures; poor leaders mimic the techniques but never achieve the same results. Tactics and techniques cannot be substituted for leadership if you are in a dynamic environment where rote routine and detailed instructions are counterproductive.
I take that back; Amazon fulfillment centers have got to run on rote routine, I would think, and if the management of those centers adopted Mike’s approach to the tasks at hand, I doubt the media would be full of stories about dismal employee morale.
If you are in the military and aspire to a leadership role at any level, buy this book, read it, highlight it, and then reread it, and again, and you will accelerate through the ranks at a blistering pace. If you are a Marine Corps Officer or SNCO and have not ordered this book yet, you’re wrong, so fix that quickly. For everyone else, I am telling you that this book will make you a more productive leader and a better human being if you accept the challenge Mike has laid out for you.
When you read and understand this textbook, you will know precisely how to develop and manage human capital. Mike Ettore has distilled 244 years of Marine Corps Leadership guidance and doctrine into one book designed to be used throughout a career of ever-increasing responsibilities. Suppose you desire to excel in any leadership role. In that case, this book will grow your talent stack exponentially if you work to master the material and try to mentor and develop your subordinates.
As I said in the beginning, not everybody who is exposed to Marine Corps Leadership doctrine gets it. Those who do become legends. Everybody likes being associated with a good, solid leader. Now, there is a book to tell you how to become one if you have the drive and desire to work at it. Nothing worth having comes easy in life.
