[July 06, 2014] Military leaders are taught from the beginning to be aware of the dangers of “group think.” There have been a number of colossal military disasters that resulted from group think: Custer’s Last Stand, the Maginot Line, Stalingrad, and the Bay of Pigs. Any good leader would rather learn from group think failures than experience them… Read More »
[July 05, 2014] Today I added a new page to test the feasibility of having a leadership news page. Right now, I’m calling it “Leadership Weekly”. My intent is to have a place people can go for major stories from the past week on leadership. Those selected stories will be simply linked to articles published elsewhere … but… Read More »
[July 04, 2014] In 2006, soon after the President announced a “surge” in Iraq, I was given an extra duty. Several of us, the most senior colonels, were to help “flush out the particulars of the military surge strategy.” General Petraeus outlined the strategy for us but there were to be a structure to the direction and control… Read More »
[July 03, 2014] Yesterday, I missed a very important date. Fifty years ago, on July 2, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.1 While the entire Act is important, Title VII Equal Employment Opportunity is the part most commonly cited and the core of the Act. The signing of the Act was conducted with much fanfare… Read More »
[July 03, 2014] When a good friend of mine was newly promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, the lowest flag rank, he was shocked that he was highly visible in spite of where he went or what he did. He could no longer remain anonymous in the back of a meeting room. Everything he said was analyzed… Read More »
[July 02, 2014] Yesterday, we discussed Detroit’s problem of an entitlement mentality with so many of its citizens (link here). It turns out that over half the population is delinquent on their water bills and is threatened with their water being turned off. A parallel between the privileged status of Detroiters and the failed socialist system was difficult… Read More »
[July 01, 2014] News comes to us over the past several weeks that large numbers of residents who do not pay their water bills are having their water service disconnected. What is interesting, from a leadership perspective, is what folks are saying and doing about it. A water department official said, “The majority of our customers (who) are in… Read More »
[June 30, 2014] As a new Platoon Leader in the U.S. Army infantry, the men were always comparing me to the previous leader. And oh, that leader did not do so very well. The comparisons were usually unflattering and frankly I was not too happy about it. It took a year before I was accepted for who I… Read More »
[June 30, 2014] Leaders know that communication is one of the most important senior leadership characteristics one can possess. Great leaders, personally, have vast communication talents. Yet, they also have the ability to ensure their message is pushed throughout the organization, without unnecessary distortion. The best leaders also go to great lengths to avoid sending mixed signals. Nothing… Read More »
[June 29, 2014] It was inevitable that someone would get around to calling the U.S. Army racist and a slur for naming its helicopters after American Indians. While it is true that the Army has done so since at least the 1960s as noted in an earlier post (link here), it was done with the consent of the… Read More »