USMC How To: Age Gracefully

Guided Discovery.

Artist: GP Photography

Suggested Reading

• MCTP 6-10A, Sustaining the Transformation

  • Pages 5-1 through 5-20 based on printed document (PDF pages 73-92)

  • Description of general responsibilities and expectations of more senior enlisted Marines as they progress through the later stages of their careers

• Link to MCTP 6-10A on the US Marine Corps Publications Electronic Library

• This week’s Study: First Salute

• All excerpts below are from MCTP 6-10A

Guided Discovery

“I carry myself with military grace, unbowed by the weight of command, unflinching in the execution of lawful orders, and unwavering in my dedication to the most complete success of my assigned mission.”
USMC Staff Non-Commissioned Officer (SNCO) Creed

Arriving at the point of our careers where we’re expected to ‘know things’ is a jarring experience. One day we were in control of our own space, comfortable in our ability to lead within specific parameters, and then, without warning, we realize we’ve grown a head taller than our peers and a senior leader is staring straight at us, expectantly.

Every organization’s pyramid looks different, so arrival times to this point vary, but in the United States Marine Corps, it’s marked by promotion to Staff Sergeant. Staff non-commissioned officers (SNCOs) align to the enlisted ranks of Staff Sergeant and above. These are the Marine’s senior enlisted leaders.

5-1. The primary role of senior enlisted leadership is to shape the future of the Corps. It is their responsibility to contribute to the betterment of the institution for the sake of the Marines around them. At the same time, they must continue improving themselves to remain current and retain their value. Some of the main areas of balancing personal advancement with servant leadership are investing sacrificially, avoiding the expectation of entitlement in their position, and supporting the institution.

They are also decidedly mid-career within the Marine Corps. They have many years of work and leadership ahead of them, both in the Marines and potentially later in a civilian role. Balancing responsibilities to others (as a leader) and self (as one who must sustain their own transformation) is challenging.

5-2. For SNCOs, the scale tips more heavily toward others and away from themselves, but they cannot abandon their own development and advancement entirely. Marines who focus too much on giving to the next generation without receiving will become depleted.

Balancing time and energy spent on others and self appropriately. Challenging.

5-2. Marines must find the right balance between taking care of themselves and taking care of others. While easy to view peers as being in competition, they are mutually supporting elements that work together as a team toward both individual and unit accomplishment. Personal and professional endeavors are continually overlapping, each reinforcing the other for better.

Working with peers, who are our competition for future promotions, without treating it like competition. Challenging.

Not abandoning personal endeavors while maintaining our professional development. Challenging.

This is also the point in our careers where families might be blossoming, parents might be aging, or we find it difficult to allocate time to maintaining hobbies and friendships. Challenging.

How do we age gracefully, to become a mature leaders, given the overwhelming expectations and complicated balancing required?

It requires embracing the leadership roles and expectations in a way that is new and different from how we’ve engaged in our careers thus far.

Senior enlisted non-commissioned officers are the leadership cohort that simultaneously represent continuity and evolution. Senior enough to have survived the trials that reinforce the criticality of the values and technical requirements…but still close enough to the action to understand what is evolving in real-time and able to be the agents of change.

But there is one more balancing act this creates:

5-2. Although opportunities exist for SNCOs to create enterprise-level change, most SNCOs will find the greatest opportunities to mold the future of the Corps at the individual level—specifically in the routine interactions with their Marines.

The accumulation of expertise and understanding improves our perspective on what can and should change in the world around us, but this perspective scales faster than our abilities and influence to enact change. A common point of frustration, and one that can become debilitating if dwelled upon too intently.

Even as the Marines expect staff non-commissioned officers to increase their impact in wider and more strategic ways, they exhort them to remember where their greatest impact will (almost) always be felt: interpersonal interactions.

5-3. Most Marines can think back on a SNCO who shaped their career in some way. Drawing on that influence, SNCOs should also take the time to recognize the position of influence in which they now find themselves. It can be humbling to realize that they no longer look to “The Gunny” for motivation and esprit de corps, but instead they are The Gunny.

Accepting this position is a decision. The opportunity must be embraced continually - it is not a one-off choice. Everyone gets older, but how we age and mature as leaders depends very much on how we show up every day.

Staff non-commissioned officers are called to be unwavering in their dedication to the most complete success of their assigned missions. The missions are to others and self.

What do you do with your expertise?
How do you balance your assigned missions?
Is your expertise a personal strength, a team strength, or an organizational strength?

The Marines suggest five actions in which SNCOs should take with their growing expertise to create the most complete successes for others and themselves.

1. Invest Sacrificially

2. Avoid Entitlement

3. Be Excited About the Organization

4. Embody the Role

5. Ingest and Share (More) Knowledge

None, individually, is difficult. Combined, performed continuously, they are a challenge worthy of a growing leader. They are what we should be doing with our expertise.

Invest Sacrificially

The act that most typically underscores the quality of servant leadership is sacrificial investment. We know it when we see it.