Episode
Col Paul Merida (Ret), USMC - Commanding Officer 22 MEU: "Handling the Crown Jewels"
- Podcast
- Moments in Leadership
- Published
- Feb 26, 2024
- Duration seconds
- 7863
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://share.transistor.fm/s/893a2a89
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Summary
In this episode of Moments in Leadership, U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Paul Merida and host David B. Armstrong discuss the early parts of his life and career, concluding with his time commanding one of the ‘Crown Jewels’ of the Marine Corps, a Marine Expeditionary Unit. His insights provide useful lessons about how to manage disparate organizations over distance and differences. Leaders are sometimes thrown into positions where they have the training, but the sudden onset of responsibility hits them unexpectedly. Colonel Merida speaks to his initial leadership baptism when he was called off leave after initial infantry officer training and thrown into Embassy reinforcement operations in Libya with a short-called-up unit itself. The lessons of setting the tone and creating a climate of discipline are useful to people thrown into a leadership position without due warning. While everyone fashions themselves as the next great General or titan of industry, sometimes, perhaps more often than we want to think about, there exist those leaders who, through a misunderstanding of the environment, create a toxic environment that makes it hard to lead in. Understanding how to lead in this environment, and create a safe operational space for their subordinates. Managing and leading are different aspects of command in the Marine Corps. Colonel Merida addresses the difficulties of planning versus executing a plan, the different qualities a person in a leadership position needs to have, and the various intangibles a unit needs versus the bulletized tangibles. The ability to run massive, personnel and distance-based, organizations is probably the most unique aspect Colonel Merida brings to the Moments in Leadership podcast. Having the ability to harness different units, personnel, ships, a…