Semper Fi: Business Leadership the Marine Corps Way - Paperback

by Dan Carrison (Author), Rod Walsh (Author)

This book goes behind the scenes to pinpoint what works for the U.S. Marine Corps, showing you how to create a training and management culture that brings out the best in all your employees.

For more than 200 years, the U.S. Marine Corps has been a paragon of world-class leadership, excelling in the areas of motivation, training, and management. Semper Fi -- which since its publication has become a best-selling, business leadership classic -- shows you how to adapt these proven practices for your own organizations.

The book gives you tough, practical tips for:

• inspiring individual initiative
• rewarding hard work
• encouraging loyalty
• working with limited resources
• dealing with change
• "leading the troops" at every level of the organization

This is not a pseudo-philosophical book on leadership. Semper Fi is a book you will actually use, read, and refer to again and again.

Front Jacket

The U.S. Marine Corps doesn't create an elite force simply by barking orders at underlings or demanding grueling rounds of laps. Rather, the Corps is the master of in-depth training, nonstop motivating, and world-class leadership. For more than 200 years, the Marines have excelled at a task that every business leader knows is critical: inspiring the "troops" to take initiative, accept responsibility, and truly want to go that extra mile.

Semper fidelis -- Latin for "always faithful" -- is both the motto of the USMC and the inspiration for this book's unique approach to corporate leadership. Written by two former Marines who are now successful businessmen, Semper Fi goes behind the scenes to pinpoint what works for the USMC. It then applies those strategies to the competitive world of business, showing you how to create a training and management culture that brings out the best in all your employees.

You'll discover hundreds of time-tested tips and innovative strategies, including these:
-- Recruiting -- Look for the kinds of qualities the Marines search out, then let your training programs do the rest. Honesty, determination, and the cheerful acceptance of stress is often more valuable to your company than grade-point averages or years of "related experience".
-- Basic Training -- The consequences of poor training can be as fatal in business as on the battlefield. Beef up your training efforts with intensive programs for everyone in your organization. And reward top performers in each department with highly prestigious "tours of duty" as corporate instructors.
-- Leading the Rank and File -- The Marines can't tolerate proprietary secrets between its members, and neithershould you. Instead, foster a "no secrets" environment where knowledge is shared among employees. You can implement "Team Player of the Month" awards and promote top team players as well as top producers.
-- Leading the Mission -- In business or on the battlefield, few events are more disastrous than a sudden loss of leadership. Learn how to avoid a vacuum at the top by preparing your subordinates for two jobs -- theirs and yours.
-- Leading the Organization -- The Corps understands that morale is not proportionally linked to increased amenities. In the corporate world, CEOs should realize that the best employees are often less concerned with perks and more concerned with belonging to a great company.
-- Leading to Victory -- Cultivate a "culture of courage" by rewarding acts of bravery, such as taking an ethical stand against the use of insider information or stepping outside the chain of command to address a potential product flaw.

For all the differences between the armed services and the profit-driven corporation, they share a key goal: to create a high-performance organization filled with committed, motivated leaders, all the way through the ranks. Semper Fi is an evocative and ingenious guide for making that goal a reality.

Author Biography

Dan Carrison and Rod Walsh are both former Marines and now successful business executives. Their biweekly column, "Rosie's Bar & Grill," was picked up by the "New York Times Syndicate."