Austin-

I liked that link, particularly this part:

Marines by nature are inquisitive. To promote efficiency and morale, a leader should inform the Marines in his unit of all happenings and give reasons why things are to be done. This, of course, is done when time and security permit. Informing your Marines of the situation makes them feel that they are a part of the team and not just a cog in a wheel. Informed Marines perform better and, if knowledgeable of the situation, can carry on without your personal supervision. The key to giving out information is to be sure that the Marines have enough information to do their job intelligently and to inspire their initiative, enthusiasm, loyalty, and convictions.

My husband was an army first sergeant and we had discussions about whether or not it is important to learn to blindly follow rules without asking why and never asking if they could do something differently if they think there might be a better way to do it. He said when he was a first sergeant he wanted his soldiers to know why they had to do things, that it important for the reasons mentioned above. These discussions all started with our public school's insistence that our kid should learn to color in the lines because they said to do it without explaining why it was important. My husband said that he always told his soldiers why when he was teaching them because it was very important. My husband was promoted very quickly because of his leadership ability and intelligence and it didn't matter that he came from a poor family and worked his way through high school. Maybe his strong motivation came from being poor. He made a higher score on tests than a lot of people who had a better education. I think he, like a lot of smart people, learned more on his own than at school anyway because he was highly motivated. His mother was motivated to make sure her kids developed a love of reading before she died. That was her legacy. Her youngest daughter was about 5 when she died and her life was not easy but she worked hard and became a college professor. She had to have been highly motivated to do that but then I guess she would have to have a high IQ also.

My husband sometimes had to deal with officers who were well educated and arrogant but the army looked at his record and promoted him based on that. They were more interested in what he could do than how much education he had.

My son is very motivated because he wants to make his dad proud and with his disabilities I think it is that motivation that will get him through more than his IQ although the high IQ will certainly help.