Two points here: First, I don't think I was mean. Was I hard on them? Yes. It was a hard environment. Boot camp is tough. And we were working to increase the standards—that's hard work. I was especially hard on the Marines whom I felt weren't pulling their weight. And, second, this is the Marine Corps. I don't believe the environment should be tough-as-nails and miserable, but come on. I rolled my eyes? I wonder if, in the history of the Marine Corps, anyone has complained that a male battalion commander rolled his eyes or hurt their feelings.
My response was to chalk it up to the change-is-bad folks.
However, you can't make lasting change happen if the disgruntled people know your boss welcomes complaints. If he doesn't support what you're trying to do, and they know it, all they have to do is go over your head.
And that's exactly what happened.
In mid-May, soon after receiving the command-climate survey results, Colonel Haas instructed me to brief my action plan to correct the problems indicated by the survey. He didn't give me a lot of time—he shot me an email and said, “Come see me. Have your action plan ready.” He didn't say what he wanted or how he wanted it presented. But I've done a brief or two before, and I had obviously been thinking nonstop about the survey results. So I put together the inevitable PowerPoint slide briefing.
I started by stating that I'm responsible for everything my Marines do, but that same level of responsibility needs to rest at every echelon of command.
In other words, just as my command philosophy laid out, my Marines also needed to understand that they were responsible for their actions and making positive changes in the battalion, and that they shouldn't be able to lob anonymous complaint grenades without taking every step to resolve problems themselves at the small-unit-leader level—exactly what we expect everywhere else in the Marine Corps.
After all, beginning at boot camp, we taught recruits to use informal resolution methods to solve problems at the lowest level. I fully expected my Marines to use the same methods to try to solve their problems at the unit level before they brought issues to me to address.
So, in the action plan, I reinforced much of what I had already said. I discussed how we would continue to focus on improving our conflict-resolution and mediation skills and the critical importance of my officers affecting change and achieving high standards. I talked about continuing to stress decision-making in the battalion on facts rather than emotions because, frankly, I was frustrated that so many of my Marines and officers interpreted my push for them to take responsibility as me just being mean.
For that to happen, we needed to communicate clearly with each other. Obviously, going to the XO's office to complain about the commanding officer or talking in front of recruits about how I was “making them” do something they considered unimportant wasn't going to get us there.
I told Colonel Haas I would ask my officers to present training to their Marines about small-unit conflict resolution.
I told him we should talk about the difference between perception and reality: Did my Marines feel they were being mistreated, rather than understand they were being held accountable?
Did that meet Colonel Haas's intent for creating a command-climate survey action plan to correct our deficiencies? You know, I don't think I was thinking that way. I felt as if I was constantly hard on myself and constantly trying to take responsibility. I felt as if I had worked hard for transparency and to make sure the Marines and officers knew what I expected of them.
But, most important to me, I knew the complaints in the survey came from my XO and the Marines who had fought hardest against change in the battalion, and I had tons of documentation showing that I was doing everything I could to address performance and behavior problems for these same individuals—things that would be expected of a leader anywhere else in the Marine Corps. I felt that, in directing me to come up with an action plan to correct my command-climate deficiencies, Colonel Haas was telling me I had to accept the results of the survey as factual, and my conscience would not allow me to do so.
Reading through the survey, I noted that the complaints were about the same incidents from the same company. Did the company commander I fired complain about me? It seems like it would have been a little strange for a woman I fired to say I was the perfect boss. Did my XO complain about me? After the counselings she had received for not doing her job and for fomenting dissent throughout the battalion, of course she did. The investigation that led to my relief laid out her complaints clearly. Did Papa Company's commanding officer and her drill instructors say bad things? The ones accused of hazing? Yeah. They did. These were the same Marines who made statements against me to the investigating officer a few weeks later.
I think Colonel Haas expected that I would come up with an action plan that included not rolling my eyes and being nicer to officers and Marines after they hazed recruits or fell behind on training. I'm sure I could come up with a PowerPoint presentation to that effect. But I don't feel like that would have addressed the real issues, and I think it would have reassured officers and DIs who performed badly that they could continue to do so.
I told Colonel Haas that if we continued to work on personal responsibility and transparency, everything would improve. When people are rewarded for success and held accountable for problems, everything else gets fixed. It makes things fair: Everyone knows what she's responsible for. So she will think to herself, “I know if I do this, I will be treated this way.”
I did present my action plan in a PowerPoint, of course. But I also stated that
