Happy 3rd Anniversary: the Leader Maker

By | September 3, 2016

[September 03, 2016]  Happy “3rd” Anniversary to the Leader Maker!  Special thanks to all my regular and new readers who have all made this leadership blog so successful. I began theLeaderMaker to provide a easily accessible site that addresses leadership issues and where any person could go to quickly gain some advice on leader principles.  The site reinforces… Read More »

Leadership Means Don’t Forget Nothin’

By | September 2, 2016

[September 2, 2016]  Leaders who want to always be on top of their game, focused, and fully proficient in duty performance, might want to take a look at the Standing Rules of Rogers’ Rangers.  The first rule is DON’T FORGET NOTHIN’.  These rules lay the groundwork for what leadership means at any level and are applicable at the… Read More »

Sports, Leadership, and Politics

By | September 1, 2016

[September 1, 2016]  My introduction to sports was as a very young child and as a participant in large family gatherings to watch baseball’s Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, and the New York Yankees play and win the World Series.  We never missed a game watching the 1958 series.  Their leadership on the field was legendary and… Read More »

Islamic State Terrorism & World Leader Excuses

By | August 31, 2016

[August 31, 2016]  New evidence has recently surfaced that 72 mass graves were discovered and contain Islamic State victims of industrial-scale murder.1  There are indicators of many more sites but due to ISIS presence, those locations are too dangerous to visit.  What students of leadership should review, however, is how world leaders have failed to agree on a… Read More »

Hero: Nancy Wake

By | August 30, 2016

[August 30, 2016]  For a vibrant, open society to have heroes is necessary like a living animal having blood that flows through its veins.  A hero helps us define the limits of our aspirations in life and so it is with Nancy Wake, the Allies’ most decorated servicewoman of World War II.  Her story is one of daring,… Read More »

Leaders Remember the Little Things

By | August 29, 2016

[August 29, 2016]  One of my first lessons in the effectiveness of leadership was when, as a U.S. Army Private (the lowest rank), my Platoon Leader Jimmy Madison approached me one day to say Happy Birthday.  What a shock!  My entire time in the military had been one humiliation after another and now I was getting a little… Read More »

Insults, Leadership, and Gold Star Parents

By | August 26, 2016

[August 26, 2016]  Regular readers of this column know that I often advise against insulting people; regardless of who they are or whether they deserve it.  I’ve written about it (see links here, here, and here) and mentored other leaders to avoid it.  Insults are generally counterproductive; insults are divisive, an immature tactic, and rarely produce positive results… Read More »

Good Habits #24: Ask ‘Who Needs to Know’

By | August 25, 2016

[August 25, 2016]  As the Staff Sergeant walked in the new Afghanistan combat operations center in the heart of the Division headquarters, he saw plastered everywhere the printed words, ‘Who needs to know?”  He was new to combat and so he asked the closest person working on the security staff what it meant.  The sergeant was to discover… Read More »