Develop a sense of responsibility in your subordinates

Another way to show your Marines that you are interested in their welfare is to give them the opportunity for professional development. Assigning tasks and delegating the authority to accomplish tasks promotes mutual confidence and respect between the leader and subordinates.

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Calibration

Under, just right, over.

SituationUnderJust RightOver
A person ready for harder workKeeps the hard piece because it is faster if you do it.Gives them the piece, stays close enough to catch a real miss, and lets them own the result.Hands over the whole area in one week and disappears.
Credit for a team resultNames only the star, or only yourself.Names what the group did and the specific growth you saw in more than one person.Spreads the credit so evenly that nobody can tell what to do again.
One person wants every hard problemLets them take all of it because the result will be better this week.Gives them a hard piece and gives the next one to someone who needs the practice.Benches the strong person to make a point, and the work suffers for the lesson.
A development chanceOffers it only to the person who already looks like the last person who had it.Says what the chance is, what good looks like, and invites more than one person to make a case.Rotates the chance so mechanically that the work has no owner who can succeed at it.
Coaching versus doing itRewrites their work after hours and tells them it was fine.Shows them the gap, lets them fix it, and checks the result.Turns every task into a lesson and the delivery date slips for the teaching.
Growth that ignores the weekHas no growth in the plan at all, only this week's tickets.Picks one stretch that still lets the week's commitment ship.Builds a development plan that replaces the job the team was hired to do.

Further reading

Sources and essays on this principle.

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