[September 27, 2026] Years ago, I wrote that senior leaders live in a fishbowl. A friend had just been pinned as a Brigadier General and discovered he could no longer sit in the back of a room and disappear. Every sentence he said was dissected. Every habit he demonstrated was amplified. He was a “baby flag,” and the… Read More »
[September 25, 2026] In the “old days” of U.S. Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT), our Soldiers were smart. They knew that scoring high on the test itself meant quicker promotions and better assignments. So they did what any good Soldier would do under those circumstances; they practiced for the test. This is called “training to the test.” It… Read More »
[September 24, 2026] Announced earlier this week, the Secretary of War Pete Hegseth directed the military to begin “testing generals” for warfighting abilities. Hegseth appears to believe that Flag Officer promotions are not based on their ability to fight and win wars. I agree with him on that issue, but not on the “why.” For a leadership website… Read More »
[September 10, 2026] Call it what you want, but showing people what right looks like is the proper way to be a good leader. Some call this “mentoring” or “leading by example.” The problem with these later concepts is that they don’t tell the story of what a leader does from the moment he steps into the position.… Read More »
[September 5, 2026] A good leader is one who makes himself less relevant as rapidly as possible. Then he’s free to take on the next, larger problem. That is not abdication, it’s the payoff. What the best leader wants is distributed competence. This idea is associated with Prof. Jordan Peterson, not because he invented it, but because… Read More »
[September 2, 2026] If people are not listening to you, then stop talking to them. As far as advice goes on making you a better person, that is one to take to heart. If you stop talking to them, and start watching and listening to them, they will tell you what they’re up to. But if you have… Read More »
[September 1, 2026] Anger is something that can easily grip you, and so it’s got a reality that actually transcends you. The best way to think about anger is that it is a necessary part of your personality. So, when you are possessed by anger, it changes your perceptions, your emotions, your view of the future and your… Read More »
[August 31, 2026] “It keeps you on your game.” My good friend once told me that he loved the fact that a leader’s ignorance must and had to be exposed. His logic was that this was a “forcing function” to weed out those without the capability or aptitude to be a good leader. Bad leaders are everywhere, and… Read More »
[August 29, 2026] The Wall Street Journal opinion posted Michael Pack’s “The Path to Zero” documentary earlier this week. It is a hard-hitting expose of the Biden Administration’s calamitous retreat from Afghanistan on the fifth anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing. At the end of the video, we see that Anthony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, General Mark Milley, and… Read More »
[August 26, 2026] Failed leaders have awful, predictable consequences, and that is the position of Europe. Europe is in civilizational free fall. Guy Millière’s recent Gatestone piece lays out the case. They are not merely struggling, Europe is sliding toward civilizational erasure. The statistics don’t lie. What we see here is a tragedy of failed political leadership, and… Read More »