On Fitness Reports

We’re all aching to retain better Marines. The solution? Knowing how to identify talent and educate the troops on what top tier performance looks like. 

We can gripe about a “broken” system but we can still use it to our advantage.

This is how I’ve been taught and how I now teach my young leaders to handle fitness reports:

1. During initial counselings I share with my Marines how I tend to score on fitreps. I share with them what top and bottom performance looks like. This is followed up by continued mentoring. There should be no surprises when they get scored.

2. Every leader has their own scoring mechanism. I like to stick to what the fitness report delineates and I highlight what I think best describes the MRO. I offer written explanations where I deem them necessary. To each their own.

3. I use a tracker (will upload later) where my averages/rankings automatically update. On the front of the fitrep, I write out where the MRO stands, to give them a complete picture (low, high, average, and their score). 

For the MRO-W:
Without a fault I have always kicked it back for corrections. Teach your Marines how to quantify and express their accomplishments. If they ever have an uninvolved leader this might be their only saving grace. In the last two slides, I show my corrections on an MRO-W and how I taught the MRO how to better express billet accomplishments. 

If they’re a young Sgt or SSgt, at some point they’ll have to mentor their young officer on how to do this. 

Take these serious. From Sergeant up, if they have not been educated on fitness reports, sit down and teach them. You may only be teaching one Marine, but they will in turn educate our future leaders. 

I will post more in the future on how to write squared away MRO-Ws and share examples on how to best counsel your Marines. 

S/F
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