[June 12, 2014] Playing little league baseball while growing up in the deep South brought with it a number of lessons in life. These lessons were to later translate into successful leadership traits that were to stay with me the rest of my military career. In fact, I think that was the point of the game; besides having… Read More »
[June 08, 2014] In the 1980s, my friends and I had long conversations about Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein and his role in the Iran-Iraq War. The debate about whether he was an evil dictator or a grandfatherly figure protecting his country raged off and on; even after he used chemical weapons to attack Kurdish civilians in 1988. Yet,… Read More »
[June 06, 2014] Codenamed Operation Overlord, the invasion of German-occupied France had been long in coming. Success was an outgrowth of the many leadership lessons from the failures at Dunkirk and other battlefields. Those lessons were hard earned and cost the lives of tens of thousands of military and civilians. Yet, what did the military and civilian senior… Read More »
[June 03, 2014] Last year I was at the New York Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to get a new driver’s license and car plates. Nationwide DMVs have a bad reputation for historically terrible customer service. Interestingly, DMVs are used as an example in public service seminars as the classic case of how not to give good customer… Read More »
[May 31, 2014] Interim Veterans Administration chief Sloan Gibson stated that the VA as a whole needs “a change in culture.” The scandal of hiding wait times that appears to have resulted in military veteran deaths is shameful. However, the fix is not in better management systems and processes but in the elimination of the VA’s current employment… Read More »
[May 29, 2014] The general rule of leadership is to own up to any mistake you make and do so promptly. In particular, this is true for senior executive leaders. Reasons for admitting your mistakes are many and will be listed here. Exemptions, however, for not admitting a mistake are exceedingly rare. One unfortunate exemption to admitting ones… Read More »
[May 28, 2014] A number of readers have had trouble making their comments seen. The reason is that I’m using a spam filter that removes comments that the reader has not signed-up for posting. At the end of each article is a place to sign-up. It’s easy and no information obtained will be distributed to anyone, period. Your… Read More »
[May 28, 2014] The point of this blog has been to articulate those key leader characteristics that set senior executive leaders apart from the ordinary leader. Yet, taking a bit of a twist on this logic, people ask me all the time, “what are those things that great leaders don’t do in order to avoid failure?” My original… Read More »
[May 26, 2014: posted 8:05 pm] I’m posting this well after my speech and after returning home to Brooklyn, NY. While speaking, I made two important changes that are integrated below. First, I added the Coast Guard and civilians to those I thanked for their service. Several friends of mine were civilians who were wounded and some killed… Read More »
[May 24, 2014] Leaders who use their resources wisely are those that are also the most revered by their followers. Mahatma Gandhi is of course the epitome of a frugal leader; who as a worldwide respected leader of his people was able to accomplish many good things. Successful leaders are those that minimize waste, eliminate misuse, and use… Read More »