Marine Corps Leadership Traits

There are different aspects that make up a leader, and of them the two that are seen most often are the leader’s overall traits and his or her personality. Of these two domains, there exist a list of traits that define how a person leads his or her people. The common acronym for these traits in the United States Marine Corps is “JJ DID TIE BUCKLE.” This stands for Justice, Judgement, Dependability, Integrity, Decisiveness, Tact, Initiative, Endurance, Bearing, Unselfishness, Courage, Knowledge, Loyalty, and Enthusiasm. Each leader in both the military and in the civilian sector can be defined by these traits. Not only are the leader’s traits important, but his or her overall personality is as well. The personality of a leader is important

A leader should focus on the strengthening each of these traits as opposed to solely focusing on one of the traits individually. Personally, I feel that I my courage is one of my stronger traits. Courage is defined as the ability to do something that frightens oneself. I made this realization during my time at Career Orientation Training for Midshipmen (CORTRAMID) East. There were many events that I experienced during CORTRAMID, but none challenged me more than going through the gas chamber at Camp Lejeune during Marine Week. I can safely say that going through the gas chamber was the scariest times that I had ever had, but it taught me that to lead my men and women, I would need to be able to stand fearlessly in front of them. One of my more weaker traits would be decisiveness because I struggle with making timely decisions. This has proven to be true in a large portion of my life, particularly when it comes down to deciding minor items such as where I want to eat for

Personality can be described as the qualities that make up a person. There are tests to approximate one’s personality such as the Jung Typology Test (JTT) and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS). Per the KTS, I am an Artisan, meaning that I possess a natural ability to excel in any of the arts. Other qualities that describe the Artisan are impulsive, adaptable, and competitive. Additionally, I am more prone to be where the action is. The Jung Typology test described me as ESFP meaning that I am more extraverted than introverted, I have a preference of sensing over intuition, that I prefer feeling over thinking, and that I prefer perceiving over judging. The Jung test says that I am attracted to new things in general, and that I love to talk to people. Some of the qualities from these two tests, such as loving to talk to others, adaptability, being attracted to new items are some that could make a strong leader. Being able to adapt to a new situation is a key element to producing a good leader because the leader would not have their mission foiled as easily due to him or her being able to adapt to the new situation. However, the impulsive and competitive qualities are not always good personality traits for a leader to have because it could allow for poorly or underdeveloped plans. The Jung test and Keirsey Temperament Sorter managed to get my