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Business
schools place an increasing emphasis on developing students' leadership
skills. Leadership, however, is a difficult subject to teach and
innovative schools are adopting more hands-on teaching methods.
At Wharton
Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, students learn
leadership the hard way: at a military boot camp.
In early
April, 80 MBA students travelled to the US Marine Officer Corps Candidate
School in Quantico, Virginia, to participate in a two-day event entitled
"Learning leadership and decision-making under uncertainty and
complexity".
It is at
Quantico that newly enlisted Marine officers receive their initial 10-week
training, a programme designed to evaluate and enhance their potential for
leadership in combat situations. The FBI also conducts its training there.
Vincent
Martino, an MBA student who was a captain in the Marines before attending
Wharton, helped initiate the event.
As a
Wharton MBA, I was invited to attend the event, which started
inauspiciously. On our arrival at the military base, two drill sergeants
stormed our coach and started barking orders. In a state of shock, we
quickly formed orderly lines on the parade ground and obeyed them as best
we could.
We were
then marched into the barracks where the MBAs stood to attention in front
of their bunk beds. Any student foolish enough to make eye contact with a
drill instructor soon had two or three of them screaming in his face.
Adopting a
British interpretation of the business casual dress code, I was the only
student dressed in a blazer, which gave the drill instructors plenty to
shout at me about. Another student wore his uncle's belt from the Russian
navy. He soon regretted this as the drill sergeants set upon him. It
became apparent that the international cultural differences that are
celebrated on the Wharton campus became a liability in the barracks, as
everyone sought to relinquish their individuality and conform to the group
norm.
My usually
assured classmates did not know what had hit them and were soon shouting
"Sir, yes, sir" at any given order. Our first task was to make
our beds with razor-sharp, 45ý folds and no creases. Those who finished
early were ordered to help others. One such classmate came to my rescue.
Unfortunately, a drill sergeant saw the creases in my bed and barked at
him: "Is this your bed?" My friend replied, "Sir, no,
sir" while I hid shamelessly - but the drill sergeant continued to
berate him. We were later told that this was to teach us to take
collective responsibility. My friend joked that he learnt, rather, never
to trust a journalist.
We were
then issued our Kevlar helmets and canteens before being ordered into the
icy cold communal showers. Lights out gave us only five hour's respite
before we were woken at dawn by a drill sergeant banging a waste-paper
basket.
After
breakfast we were sorted into five-member "fire teams" to
complete the combat course, which was used to prepare the Marines for
service in Vietnam. Together, my team successfully negotiated an 18ft
wall, several rope bridges and the combat crawl. The most notorious
obstacle on the combat course is a swamp known as the Quigley. We moved
silently through the freezing, filthy water, pausing only to take breath
before ducking under floating obstacles. Following the Quigley, one of our
team members' legs gave out. The other team members rallied round to
support him.
After we
had waded through a second swamp, the course culminated in the storming of
a machinegun nest. During the debriefing, our marine commander told us
that in a real combat situation we would all have been shot.
In the
afternoon, we tackled the Leadership Reaction Course, a series of 20
problem-solving exercises designed to simulate battlefield conditions. Our
fire team completed three such scenarios, one of which was to cross a
river using only a couple of 55-gallon fuel drums, two short planks and a
rope.
We spent
20 minutes unsuccessfully grappling with the problem, after which our
Marine commander gave feedback on each team member's strengths and
weaknesses. As a team we were too cerebral and took too long to make
decisions. Marine candidates are trained to take informed decisions on the
basis of less-than-perfect information and to implement them quickly.
What
lessons in leadership did the business school students learn from the
event? There are obvious differences between military and corporate
leadership. Modern managers could never adopt the drill sergeant's
approach to instilling discipline, nor do they expect employees to
subjugate their individuality to that of the team. However, my classmates
felt that they had learnt some valuable lessons.
Daniela
Matson, a Wharton student who wants to work in marketing management after
she graduates, said, "What the Marines are looking for is a leader
who trusts the team and who earns the team's trust. Once that bond is
formed, leaders can take decisive decisions that are implemented quickly.
This is incredibly important in corporate America."
Josý
Tamer, a first-year student who wants to work in multinational management,
said he was impressed by the way the Marines emphasised training
colleagues who would become their future leaders. The drill sergeants are
from the enlisted ranks and consider it a great honour to train the
incoming officer class. "The challenge in the business world is to
get experienced employees to share their knowledge with younger
high-flying managers," he said.
Sajal
Agarwal, a graduating MBA student who is set to become a management
consultant, said: "The Quantico experience showed me that effective
teamwork is crucial. For the Marines, once a common goal is established,
everyone is fully committed to realising it. This contrasts with the
business world, when teams underperform because managers often cling to
their own agendas."
In
addition to the lessons in leadership, the students benefited greatly from
a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the US Marine Corps.
Although
none of the Wharton students wanted to exchange their MBA programme for
the officer training course, everyone left with insights that they would
not have gained in the classroom. Mr Martino attributed the success of the
event to "getting MBA students out of their comfort zones to really
learn about leadership and teamwork".
"Outside
business school, MBAs will have to lead in unstructured environments and
be prepared to apply themselves fully. Quantico is designed to prepare
soldiers for the battlefield but it offers many lessons for managers
heading for the boardrooms of international corporations."
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