MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. -- Whether in the Marine Corps, college basketball or elsewhere, the traits and challenges of leadership are basically the same. This was the premise of the Leadership Roundtable that brought together past and present Marine Corps leaders and NCAA Basketball Hall of Fame Coach John Thompson to talk about leadership, diversity and the transition into a regular, civilian life.
The program was sponsored by the Marine Corps Leadership Seminar, an official program of the Marine Corps that brings speakers to colleges and high schools around the country.
“You will see some parallel, I’m sure, between a coach’s life and that of a Marine Corps leader,” Naomi Dorren, spokeswoman for the Headquarters Marine Corps Division of Public Affairs, told the 115 or so Marines, sailors, civilians and others gathered in the Clubs at Quantico to hear the roundtable on Nov. 14.
Joining Thompson on the panel were retired Lt. Gen. Ronald Coleman, former deputy commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs; Col. Robin Gallant, commanding officer of Quantico’s Headquarters and Service Battalion; Debbie Paxton, mental health advisor to the Wounded Warrior Regiment and wife of the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps; Col. Michael Peznola, deputy director of the Reserve Affairs Division of M&RA; and Master Gunnery Sgt. Patricia Mendoza Schumacher of the Manpower Information Systems Division.
On the subject of leadership, Coleman said great leaders have great mentors, and they, in turn, mentor those under their leadership to the point that they can take command when the time comes. “You have to have a caring feeling, you have to be dedicated, and you have to want people to succeed,” he said.
Thompson, 27-year coach of the Georgetown Hoyas, said strong leadership requires knowing oneself, knowing what one is talking about and knowing one’s audience, as well as knowing how to follow.
Managing perceptions is also a challenge of leadership, Gallant said. She said she was working on dispelling the idea that young Marines are held more accountable than senior officers. “If you don’t nip bad perceptions in the bud, you’re going to have problems in your command,” she said.
Asked about the importance of diversity, Thompson said he took advantage of discrimination, in a way, by hiring women. “Because of how women were discriminated against, they worked longer, harder and smarter,” he said. “I’d put the women I had working for me against any group of men.”
“I need diversity so I’m not looking at things in one way,” Gallant said, adding that a bigger variety of ideas means more options for making decisions.
Coleman recalled his time in Officer Candidates School, when he and the six other black candidates in his platoon didn’t see a black officer until they’d been there for 10 weeks. Then, when they were running the Hill Trail, he said, they saw two black captains, and he finally knew he, too, could be a captain. “I damn near killed myself looking at them because I hadn’t seen anyone like that for 10 weeks,” he recalled.
All the panelists spoke about the difficulty of preparing those under their leadership to return to the “real world.”
Thompson said college basketball players get their egos pumped up so large and are told so often that they can do anything, that they’re often not prepared for their careers to come to an end.
Career Marines are much like those athletes, focusing on their work without thinking about the end, Peznola said, noting that generals need to be reminded two or three years ahead of time that they need to attend transition readiness seminars. “People want to ignore it,” he said. “Everyone gets kicked out.”
The panelists also took questions from the audience.
Asked how to balance the need to recruit the “most qualified” with the need to recruit the “fully qualified,” with respect to the issue of gender, Thompson asked how the most qualified can become fully qualified if they don’t get the chance to try.
“I was the least qualified,” he said, noting that he’d had no college coaching experience when he was chosen as the Hoyas’ coach in 1972. “People were running around crazy, and they said, ‘We need to get a black coach,’” he said.
In the case of the Marine Corps, Thompson acknowledged, lives are at stake. But he added, “That puts you in a position to rationalize saying they’re not fully qualified instead of asking, ‘Why are they not fully qualified?’”
Asked how to retain more black officers in the upper ranks, Peznola said Manpower and Reserve Affairs encourages minorities to consider combat military occupational specialties, as these are where the upper ranks usually come from.
Coleman noted that he first chose a logistics MOS because it translated into work in the outside world. When he changed his mind while in The Basic School, deciding he wanted to go into the infantry, he was told it was too late.
“I can be an infantry officer and then be a supply officer, but I can’t be a supply officer and then be an infantry officer,” he said, asking how that made sense.
Overall, Thompson said, the biggest danger of leadership is the temptation to try to live up to one’s reputation. When that happens, “Your ego runs you more than your common sense,” he said.
“I tell people, this is Coach Thompson,” he said, holding up the hand with a championship ring. Then he held up the other hand. “This is me,” he said. “This is the perception; and this is the reality.”
— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com