[October 20, 2017] There’s a saying that one of the most difficult skill for a leader to gain and maintain is thinking clearly and accurately. At first glance, one would not think it that much of an obstacle but the experience of senior leaders says otherwise. Accurate thinking means several things; most important of all is they do… Read More »
[October 19, 2017] On this date, October 19, 1864, during the American Civil War, Confederate General Jubal Early launched a surprise attack against Union General Philip Sheridan’s forces. After a furious battle, Early’s forces were routed and at the conclusion, the Confederate invasion of the North was effectively ended. Today, there are those in the U.S. who want… Read More »
[October 17, 2017] If leaders are to make a strategy effective, it must have a realistic end-state, alignment of resources, and clarity of objectives and message. For those of us who lived through the 1973 Oil Embargo, it was a time that we all got the message. The embargo by Arab members of OPEC stopped the flow of… Read More »
[October 16, 2017] War is an awesome yet terrifying activity of humans. The destructiveness, especially of total war, far exceeds our intellectual abilities to fully understand it as a force that destroys. That is why it is a fundamental responsibility for senior leaders stand at the ready to protect those who would be harmed by the effects of… Read More »
[October 15, 2017] If you have never heard of Joshua Chamberlain, then you are missing out on the story of one of the most famous officers of the U.S. Civil War. Prior to the war, Chamberlain was a college Professor in Modern Languages; speaking at least ten languages.1 His path to leadership success during the war and after… Read More »
[October 14, 2017] As leaders, people don’t buy what you do, so much as they buy why you do it. British-American author Simon Sinek said something like this years ago when he was giving a presentation on leadership to an international audience. His observation is spot on because, as he noted later, the most basic human desire to… Read More »
[October 13, 2017] A good friend of mine who retired from the U.S. Air Force was offered an hourly-wage job at a local car dealership. After meeting with the man who would be his boss at the job, my friend turned it down. In the Air Force my friend was used to leaders not bosses. It makes a… Read More »
[October 10, 2017] A number of my old college buddies disagree with me. They disagree that leaders are never victims … but my buddies are, perhaps, talking about something different. I believe that good leaders are never victims because leadership means having a positive outlook and possessing a be-prepared approach to life. “There are hunters, and there are… Read More »
[October 9, 2017] After a wild afternoon where I burnt down the cotton fields behind their house, I sat down to dinner with both my grandparents. This was the same place where I was paid 10¢ a day to pick cotton and learned about teamwork. That day as a young child, I was to learn another valuable lesson;… Read More »
[October 8, 2017] Henry Ford, one of the best known captains of American industry, said this decades ago but it still provides us with a good working leadership philosophy today. The difference between a follower and a leader can be summed up in these few words; where one person finds fault (or problems), the other finds solutions. Don’t… Read More »