Judgment is one of the leadership traits in the Marine Corps. Judgment is the ability to weigh the facts at hand and deciding the effective course of action to help to formulate informed decisions. This doctrine is deeply rooted in the army’s principles; it is mentioned twenty-nine times in the Army Leadership (ADRP 6-22) and 31 times in mission command (ADRP 6-0).
Most people use judgment and decisions interchangeably, and they tend to confuse process with outcome.
According to Bar-Eli, Plessner, and Raab (2011) postulate that in the basic sense, judgment is a separate psychological phenomenon that does not need to be connected with decisions made, but often the connection is present. Judging is the cognitive process that involves assessing a situation, making a conclusion which results in an opinion. The output of the judgment process is the opinions that individuals form after making an appraisal of the case. The choice that is made out of the many ideas then becomes the decision.
Kahneman (2015), when making an explanation of how judgment works categorized the thinking process into fast and intuitive, and slow and deliberate in a practice termed the Dual Processing Theory. The quick and intuitive process he classified into (system 1) which is the fast and effortless thinking that is dictated by habit. Many terms have been used to describe this thinking, such as; intuition, gut feeling, hunch, or sixth-sense. The slow and deliberate thinking (system 2) requires time and effort to analyze the opinions presented by system one, then choosing the best course of action.
Marines are usually involved in conflicts in their line of work. They are faced with an entire spectrum of tactical challenges; the success or failure of any mission is, therefore, dependant on each marines’ ability to make the right decisions at the right time. The late John R Boyd retired Colonel in the United States Air Force introduced the “Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) loop.” He postulated that in the midst of conflict, marine moves through a pattern of recognition that helps them gain a position of advantage over their enemies’ response and action. He goes further and says that an officer who makes decisions faster interferes with the opponent’s decision-making process. This doctrine then was adopted into the Marine Corps’ maneuver warfare philosophy in 1989 which states, “shatter the enemy’s cohesion through a variety of rapid, focused, and unexpected actions, which create a turbulent and rapidly deteriorating situation with which the enemy cannot cope” (Marine Corps, p. 73).
All missions that the Marine Corps are preceded with extensive surveillance. This is the gathering of information on a particular enemy before any operation commences. Sound judgment helps the leaders use hindsight their prior knowledge in similar cases, and then they make decisions based on the information in hand to predict a positive outcome. This process involves careful planning of the mission details such as time and mode of execution, support, and back-up facilities, all of which go into ensuring mission success. With proper decision making the team in a mission gets the upper hand in predicting the enemy moves and effectively executes a strategy that is effective and ensures minimal or low casualty levels on their team.
According to the Academy Leadership, sound judgment is the key to effective leadership. In the Marine Corps, operational intelligence and sound judgment are essential traits for the leaders to have. Because the army is has a highly organized structure, it demands that at every level, there is some higher authority to report to. When the leaders in the group show sound judgment that leads to successful operations, the officers that are under the said leader develop morale and become motivated to work with the leader. Poor judgment from a leader is a morale killer for the team, and the persons being led will most often time second guess the decisions of such a leader. Since effective execution of strategy involves fast choices, a delay in executing orders due to a lack of confidence in a leader would mean the advantage of rapid action is not utilized, which gives the enemy a chance to perform their retaliatory attacks. Therefore sound judgment in the leaders will nature a spirit of confidence, which trickles down into the effectiveness of command order executions, which are essential factors in the success of the various missions. The ADRP 6-22 states,
Often, leaders must balance facts, question assumptions, and sense intangible factors like morale or enemy’s intent. Judgment contributes to the ability to compare possible courses of action and decide what one to take. There are times, particularly in combat, where there are no good decisions, only the least bad decision possible in the moment. Sound judgment requires consideration of consequences. It also includes the ability to assess the strengths and weaknesses of subordinates, peers, and the enemy. Like mental agility, sound judgment is a crucial part of problem-solving and decision making.
In a study that sought to establish the influence of leaders’ decisions, personal values stood out. These own beliefs on what is right and appropriate determine the judgments that leaders make. That is why after enrolling in the Marine Corps, individuals are taken through a training course aimed at conditioning their minds to accept a new set of values that are associated with the army doctrines. This is a necessary stage which ensures that the values of the officers from different cultures and backgrounds are molded into a uniform set of beliefs and practices. By following a standardized code of conduct, then the officers’ judgment criteria would fall under the same purview. As such, it becomes easy to ensure teams are altruistically motivated in pursuing a collective interest.
Sound judgment, therefore, is vital in the Marine Corps in ensuring that operations are carried out smoothly with the least casualties on the subject’s side and maximum impact on the enemies. Improved judgment ability as a skill can be learned through combat training where the soldiers are taken through obstacle courses to help their minds adapt a fast decision-making ability.