Leading instead of merely executing on orders

Secretary of Defense Hagel resigned today.  It seems he was hired so that President Obama would have an ally in the Department of Defense so he wouldn't have to fight with the military.  Apparently, Secretary Hagel fulfilled that role too perfectly, and was quiet in meetings, inarticulate in the press, and did what the administration wanted, rather than informing the administration, helping with decision making, and being a leader.

I think the lesson here is that you should always be a leader.  Never take a back seat and be quiet because that is what is expected of you.  Rather, fully define your role, provide and honest (and informed) opinion, and don't just accept the information given to you and execute on it.

"But several of Mr. Obama’s top advisers over the past few months have also acknowledged privately that the president did not want another high-profile defense secretary in the mold of Mr. Gates, who went on to write a memoir of his years with Mr. Obama in which he sharply criticized the president. Mr. Hagel, they said, in many ways was exactly the kind of defense secretary whom the president, after battling the military during his first term, wanted.

"Mr. Hagel, for his part, spent his time on the job largely carrying out Mr. Obama’s stated wishes on matters like bringing back American troops from Afghanistan and trimming the Pentagon budget, with little pushback. He did manage to inspire loyalty among enlisted soldiers and often seemed at his most confident when talking to troops or sharing wartime experiences as a Vietnam veteran."

-NYTimes article on Hagel's resignation

Why change will come easier to the Army than the Marines

The Marines have a tighter culture than the Army.  Within the Marines, there is consensus on both of Clay Christensen’s axes of agreement.  Marines agree on 1) what they want out of the organization, and 2) how they view the world.  Marines are called to serve, and they want to be the absolute best, and they view maintaining their strong tradition and culture as the best way to approach any problem.

In the Army, there is a less extensive agreement on both of those axes.  People in the Army want to serve, but they are also propelled by money for college, a desire to gain new skills for a post-Army career, and other factors.  They also agree less on how the world works, so they see change as being possible through trying new things in some situations.  Therefore, the Army is more suscepitable to change if it is implemented by a visionary leader, or if it is built into their training and SOPs.  That’s not true of the Marines, who would require some type of cultural change. 

These conclusions were based off the "Tools of Cooperation" theory articulated by Clay Christensen and Howard Stevenson.