[February 8, 2017] This past Sunday, prior to watching the Super Bowl, my wife recommended a movie starring Anthony Hopkins (as an English butler) that I’d neither seen or heard of. The movie we saw is called The Remains of the Day (1993). It remained me of David Halberstam’s theme in his 1972 book, The Best and The… Read More »
[February 6, 2017] … to be a great leader. One of the ways many leaders excel in their profession is by simply outworking others. Longer days, more intense effort, and generally more time and dedication to their line of work are how they got ahead of their competition. But it takes more than hard work for a person… Read More »
[February 3, 2017] Being recently retired from the Army has offered me a number of advantages; most useful among them is the strength of mind – developed over four decades – to navigate most bureaucracies without great aggravation. Bureaucracies serve a useful function in their intended role to efficiently administer rules, regulations, and policies … and they have… Read More »
[January 28, 2017] I’ve been a baseball fan since I was 6 years old … being mature enough to appreciate the game. There were many professional ball players I liked as a child but my favorite player today is Cal Ripken, Jr. He’s my favorite because he was a great player (now retired) and understood that despite the… Read More »
[January 27, 2017] Many of us measure leadership by the level of popularity of the person. You hear this often about politicians; that those most popular are the greatest (they do need it to be elected). In part that explains the continuous measure of the popularity of politicians, Hollywood actors, and fashion models. In reality, however, popularity is… Read More »
[January 26, 2017] There are a number of military slang phrases and descriptions that are useful in everyday conversation. For example, when we refer to putting everything we’ve got into something, we might say we gave “the whole nine yards.”1 One recent military phrase that plays on humor describes an office-bound staff officer who creates overly complex briefings… Read More »
[January 25, 2017] Learning from leaders is not always ordained to be from good things they do; although leadership is set by example, for good and bad. I’m sure all of us have seen leaders who do things that are not just wrong, but are purposefully wrong. Leaders losing their cool is one example. People get angry … leaders… Read More »
[January 24, 2017] As junior leaders we have our entire team surround us and, of course, talking to them is easy. As senior leaders, however, that is rarely the case and because of vast geographic dispersion, using other means to communicate is a necessity. Yet while many leaders recognize this fact, what they fail to see is that… Read More »
[January 23, 2017] A basic unwritten rule in military leadership is never to criticize the outgoing leader as the incoming leader. When beginning a new leadership position, it is impossible to know everything the previous leader saw as obstacles to success. It is therefore the right thing to do to never criticize that outgoing leader. This “rule” is… Read More »
[January 22, 2017] The study and observation of senior leaders in action is required for learning how to be effective leaders. This past Friday, I promised to provide feedback on the transition of Donald Trump into the presidency of the United States. I will occasionally come back to this. For today the topic will be President Trump’s Inauguration… Read More »