[April 2, 2017] There is an old stereotype that soldiers of the American military are rigid, lack creativity, and are robots that always do as they are told. It’s sophomoric to hold such a view because behind it lays an important truth; there is a lot of freedom of military thought and that is a good thing for… Read More »
[April 1, 2017] Learning and improving upon our leadership skills is difficult; even under the best of conditions. The level of complexity and degrees of difficulty improving on those skill sets are intertwined with and depend upon many factors; often, so it seems, beyond our abilities. Yet, there is one proven method of ensuring we gain those skills… Read More »
[March 30, 2017] There are many long-held ideas about why individuals behave a certain way under specific circumstances. Those ideas are the keys to understanding humans and variations in our behaviors called culture (a makeup of many individual actions). Yet, it is the greatness of any society that can only be achieved through the exercise of good and… Read More »
[March 29, 2017] There was a small group of us U.S. Army Infantry second lieutenants sitting next to a M60A3 Patton Main Battle Tank when one of our black-hat instructors came by. Calling out one of the lieutenants, he said that the officer had failed to meet the standards on his second retake of the Land Navigation exam… Read More »
[March 27, 2017] If you’re an American, then you are familiar with the famous 1836 Battle of the Alamo where the Texan defenders refused to surrender to Mexican forces and were destroyed. The rallying cry “Remember the Alamo” helped stir America and the world. Yet there was another battle shortly thereafter the Alamo which also helped boost patriotism… Read More »
[March 26, 2017] I’ve profiled a lot of leaders here in theLeaderMaker.com blog but never have I written about a film director. Leadership can be found in the strangest of places but directing a movie is exactly where it can be seen for what it really is all about. John Ford, the winner of four Academy Awards for… Read More »
[March 25, 2017] I was given command of the worst company in a U.S. Infantry battalion. The company consisted of 179 soldiers, most from the farmlands and small towns around the Northeast United States and recently returned from Operation Desert Storm in 1991.1 The unit’s Battalion Commander came to me one day and asked me to take command… Read More »
[March 23, 2017] There’s been a lot of name-calling lately; in the media, among politicians, and on the streets. Likely the common reaction today is to call someone a fascist who we disagree with politically. But fascism is not what most people think it is, or its history, and therein lays a problem that leaders should quickly fix.… Read More »
[March 20, 2017] One of my favorite senior leaders in the President George W. Bush administration was Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. Secretary of Defense. Yet, next to Vice President Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld was the most disliked member at the White House and I found his thinking to be profound and insightful. It is therefore not uncharacteristic of Rumsfeld… Read More »
[March 19, 2017] Three years ago I wrote that the U.S. policy toward North Korea is one of “strategic patience” and that it has been successful if measured pragmatically; it has prevented war.1 Yet, if we measure this U.S. strategy on a scale of decency and morality, it is one of the greatest U.S. leadership failures of the… Read More »