[March 10, 2017] Leadership means making tough decisions and having the temerity to keep us informed even when it’s not popular to do so. The night of the black snow is what the Japanese later called the night of March 9 to 10, 1945 when the American strategic air campaign firebombed the city of Tokyo, Japan. It is… Read More »
[March 9, 2017] Years ago while studying for my undergraduate degree at Texas Tech University, I also worked a part-time job that involved training dogs. Several days a week I would walk one of my personal-bodyguard dogs to the local park. Passing a public housing area en route I saw through nearly every open door intravenous drug users… Read More »
[March 8, 2017] The short answer is “yes.” Technology does make leadership easier but this answer comes with a significant caveat. There are many components to leadership (communication being one of them) and technology can make a leader’s communications easier to reach a larger and more geographically-dispersed audience. You knew that. What you likely didn’t know is that… Read More »
[March 7, 2017] A recent video posted on the Facebook page of U.S. Senate Democrats includes “words of inspiration” and is a recent example of how leader words can have multiple meanings and multiple interpretations. I’d like to use this opportunity to restate that good leadership means being clear in what is said and every effort is made… Read More »
[March 6, 2017] An informative article was recently published by Caroline Glick, entitled Lessons of the Hamas War.1 What she has done is to articulate the background to Israel’s war with Hamas in the summer of 2014 and interplay between strategy and tactics. I recommend you read it in its entirety because it shows how a government (in… Read More »
[March 5, 2017] There’s a worldwide war on those who manufacture and distribute illicit drugs and that war is mostly hidden from Americans and the most affluent in Western democracies. The war is deadly and how it’s played out is best illustrated in the case of the small country of the Philippines. Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte is the new… Read More »
[February 27, 2017] Trick question!! … Sorry but to ask this question implies something that often goes unnoticed. I was once asked this question during an interview to determine the ‘Private of Year’ award. Unfortunately, I got the answer wrong and didn’t win. The right answer? A soldier never needs a haircut because they get one before they… Read More »
[February 26, 2017] It was mid-August in 1983 when my Infantry training class was on maneuvers at Fort Benning, Georgia. The heat was oppressive and the humidity seemed like we were swimming through the air. That was when we were told to dig-in and “defend” a hill from the OPFOR1. The first task assigned to me was to… Read More »
[February 25, 2017] Someone once said that a smile is the language of kindness and that is certainly true. Leaders of all stripes, to be successful, smile in order to be both approachable and motivational. This is achieved easily for those willing to take the simple step of smiling. Recent interpretations of ancient writings tell us that a… Read More »
[February 24, 2017] … but you’re not can be a strangely motivating event. I’m reminded of the Allstate Insurance’s commercials involving the Mayhem Guy who plays out scenarios involving accidents.1 An underlying theme in those commercials is that since we’re humans, we’re often the object of our own failures. Overconfident: foolishly adventurous, reckless, foolhardy are just a few… Read More »