[June 24, 2014] I was visiting military veterans this past weekend at the local Veterans Administration hospital. While there, all the staff could talk about was the World Soccer Cup. The vets were aware, but I could tell most were hardcore baseball fans like me. My insurance agent even got in on the act and was talking about… Read More »
[June 24, 2014] Inevitably the discussion turned to the question, “What is a warrior?” A small group of officers and sergeants were happily discussing this topic over a few near-beers the night before we were to fly into Baghdad, Iraq. For most of us, it would be the first time we would see combat. The “what is a… Read More »
[June 23, 2014] “Now, the rest of the story.” Those iconic words represent the essence of radio personality Paul Harvey. Certainly not a traditional great leader and not even in the minor leagues with the greats like General Eisenhower. Yet, Paul Harvey was one of the greatest communicators in America. Born Paul Harvey Aurandt (1919-2009), he was on… Read More »
[June 22, 2014] A long-developed theme here on the LeaderMaker.com has been the importance of learning from the failure of others. Learning from failure is a critical skill of leaders. It is so important that it ranks up there with the most important features of leadership. If we were to individually learn only from our mistakes, we would… Read More »
[June 22, 2014] “I learned it from the school of hard knocks.” In Part 1 of Building Initiative yesterday, I proposed two things. First, it is possible to improve initiative in workers through some very specific steps. Second, that it was the obligation of a leader to build initiative. Many believe that initiative is learned only through relevant… Read More »
[June 21, 2014] The story of building initiative is an old one. I frequently tell an account of a conversation I had in mid-2007 Fallujah, Iraq. A U.S. Marine and I were talking about what Army engineers would do to assist them in defense of the city. The Marine told me he didn’t mind combat but never wanted… Read More »
[June 20, 2014] Public confidence in the U.S. Congress is at an all-time low, according to a survey released yesterday by Gallup. Only seven percent of U.S. citizens said they have either a “great deal” (4%) or “quite a lot” (3%) of confidence in Congress. Of 17 institutions, Congress comes out last. In contrast, the U.S. military leads… Read More »
[June 19, 2014] As I buckled myself into the helicopter’s backseat, I joked with the young Blackhawk pilot that I probably had more hours flying in his US-60 aircraft than he did. We were flying low and fast over the city of Baghdad. That tactic got us to our destination faster and helped avoid anti-aircraft missiles. Most people… Read More »
[June 18, 2014] A common practice in leadership is to spend time learning from the mistakes, errors, and omissions of others. Senior leader mistakes should be studied very closely because of the value it brings to our development. Now comes news that the IRS “lost” emails that stem from allegations of IRS target political enemies. A basic rule… Read More »
[June 18, 2014] In June of 1944 General Eisenhower made the final decision for the invasion of German-occupied France. This was the key event that led to the unraveling of Hitler’s European empire. Eisenhower’s command to go ashore in Normandy France has been called many things; but it cannot be said it was not decisive. It is a… Read More »