[February 02, 2014] In a January 26 Washington Post article, several generals and admirals (flag officers) were identified as having involvement in allegedly unethical behavior. A follow-up article appeared two days later. The author rightly exposes what was hidden and is an example of bad leaders. But this is not the entire story. The military should be neither… Read More »
[January 31, 2014] Leadership means many things but ultimately it means getting people to accomplish a goal. Leaders come in a range of abilities and outcomes in performance – great, good, bad and yes evil. But there is one category, the evil leader, which deserves special mention. Several years ago I was presented with a DVD of recordings… Read More »
[January 30, 2014 – Thursday] I’m writing this from the Atlanta airport this morning, being delayed along with thousands of others since yesterday. For those who have been out of the last 48-hour news cycle, the city of Atlanta and much of the southeast was in gridlock after two inches of snow and ice hit mid-day Tuesday. Both… Read More »
[January 29, 2014] Leadership is neither linear, nor is it one-dimensional. It is not linear because critical skills of leaders are not gained at a consistent or predictable pace; if at all. And, leadership is not one-dimensional because it is complex, multifaceted, requires focused effort to learn, and those skills can be lost. We have all read books… Read More »
[January 26, 2014] Nearly everyone I know filling any leadership position will say that knowing one’s self is a requirement for a good leader. What they will not say is that many do not believe it. This may come as a shock to many but the vast majority of leaders do not truly know themselves or are actively… Read More »
[January 24, 2014] Leadership is difficult under any circumstance, but distance between humans makes it that much harder. It is well known that face-to-face social interaction brings us the best communications. Distance is a form of barrier or obstacle that acts to prevent understanding. The “tyranny of distance” means that we do not see others (figuratively) in an… Read More »
[January 22, 2014] Just yesterday a good friend of mine said that the reason so many people act with disrespect (without regard to others), is the lack of “shame” in our society. Leadership today means, he stated, that we must go out of our way to ensure that the guilty are not in any way publically embarrassed (shamed)… Read More »
[January 21, 2014] Senior leaders improve leadership and effectiveness in their organizations in a variety of ways. One of the most useful techniques is to draw upon the expertise of “red teams” to discover and recommend improvements. A “red team” is usually a small, independent group with the mission to directly target the failures and inefficiencies of a… Read More »
[January 19, 2014] Over the past several days, there has been heightened rhetoric about the lack of trust and confidence in the U.S. government as a whole and the failure of its senior leadership in particular. This time it was due to the highlighting of NSA’s data collection methods and the situation is unfortunate because all successful societies… Read More »
[January 17, 2014] Leadership requires a person with a balanced personality. The problem, of course, with this observation is the debate over what constitutes a “balanced” personality. There are many books and articles, as well as big businesses that make money allegedly offering the answers through a balanced personal life. Some of these actually have great points about… Read More »