How to Train Employees: A Marine Corps Lesson for Leaders

From The Self Aware Leader with Jason Rigby Jason Rigby

How do you train employees so they actually get better? Marine Corps veteran Jason Rigby shares the method the Marine Corps uses to develop people and shows how managers can use it with their own teams.

Jason draws on Sustaining the Transformation (MCTP 6-10A), the Marine Corps leadership manual updated in 2024. You can download it free from the Marine Corps website: https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publications/MCTP%206-10A%20(SECURED).pdf

In this episode:

The five-step teaching method Marine corporals use: explain, demonstrate, practice, correct, repeat
Why reviewing performance numbers is different from coaching a skill
How Silver Star recipient Lance Corporal Kasey Krock credited repetitive training in Desert Storm
Marine Corps "hip pocket classes" and training people before the moment demands it
How leaders create dependent employees by always giving the answer
Why going back to the basics helps someone who is struggling
A fifteen-minute practice exercise to run with your team this week

The question for you: when was the last time somebody watched you lead and gave you honest feedback?