Author Archives: Douglas R. Satterfield
[November 26, 2015] Incidents over the past few weeks in the Middle East have heightened our awareness of the volatility of the region. What many respected and proven leaders advise is a dose of tolerance and patience among the major powers; especially those that have strong military forces in the area. Senior leaders who consistently produce success understand… Read More »
[November 26, 2015] Captain Christopher Jones was born about 1570 to the father of a mariner and ship owner. After the early death of his father, Jones inherited interest in the British ship Marie Fortune upon reaching the age of 18. Married twice and having a number of children, his legacy might have ended there but he was… Read More »
[November 24, 2015] Leadership is certainly not easy, but no one who has taken such a position does so with the intent to do a bad job of it. Poor leadership – that can be described as being ineffective – is also not something that comes about due to a single error or bad decision but from a… Read More »
[November 24, 2015] We’ve seen over the past few weeks the resignation of at least one university president, as well as student class walkouts, protests, and sit-ins at several universities over accusations of the mishandling of racial issues. The uproar at campuses across the United States, we are told, is caused by a lack of attention to student… Read More »
[November 23, 2015] The weather has turned cooler and the tree in front of my house has lost all but a few of its leaves. With cooler weather and the political season heating up I find it satisfying to sit down with a good book; one that pushes my intellectual boundaries. Books that create controversy are some of… Read More »
[November 22, 2015] As a new Private in the U.S. Army in West Germany in the mid-1970s, my fellow soldiers and I regularly and passionately discussed the personal deficiencies in our leaders. We saw (at least what we thought we saw) among them inflated egos and careerism. Typical of junior soldiers throughout our history of any military, we… Read More »
[November 21, 2015] Occasionally it’s good to take a break from the challenge of the study of leadership. Today I’m providing my personal list of favorite war movies … those that made an impression on me when I saw them. Yes, they’re English movies so the list doesn’t include some great, non-English movies. For some reason these movies… Read More »
[November 20, 2014] When three of my friends and I joined the U.S. Army, we were happy to be away from home and thrilled to finally reach the pinnacle of real men by being real soldiers. After two days of intense basic combat training (emphasis on “combat”) we had second thoughts. My best friend asked us on the… Read More »
[November 19, 2015] The first two parts of this 3-part series proposed that the U.S. military has a leadership problem and it begins with the rejection of its mission to fight the nation’s enemies. The American military has experienced an increase in the overall number of its leaders at all levels since WWII but, I have proposed, it… Read More »
[November 18, 2015] No, we are not brave! This may come as a shock to many but nearly every person I’ve ever met, whether in the military or in civilian life, are cowards and so am I. We put up a good front … of course … and we do this by talking big, owning cool stuff, and… Read More »