Management By Marine

I recently enjoyed a dinner with a retired member of the U.S. Marine Corps. His 30 years of service reached a peak when he was Chief of Operations for Marine Corps Air, Western United States. As I found out, this was a very big job, with a lot of responsibility.

It was interesting to learn that when he first arrived as this assignment, much of his day was filled with meetings. Soon he realized that he wasn't getting anything done. Slowly he started pulling back on his meetings and later said he would go to about one a week and then only if it was less than 30 minutes.

For those who worked below him, his orders were clear: If you're doing your job right, you won't see me hardly at all. If you're doing something wrong, I'll be all over you.

What a great lesson in time and people management.