[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 »
[August 23, 2016] Looking back on the many many leaders I served under for the past 40-plus years, the ones I admired most were the ones that showed perpetual selflessness in carrying out their duties. Studies on important traits of leadership consistently conclude that selflessness is a leader trait people like the most. A number of historical studies… Read More »
[August 22, 2016] Most Americans have heard of John Walker, the infamous traitor responsible for spying for the KGB of the Soviet Union from 1968 to 1985. Of all traitors from the United States since Benedict Arnold, John Walker’s espionage was likely the most destructive and was the biggest cryptographic failure in military history. And Walker did it… Read More »
[August 20, 2016] The physical presence of a leader is often crucial to the success of that same leader, those who follow, and their mission. This is especially true for those in senior leader positions. Being there helps make a leader. Each time I remind leaders about the negative consequences of an absent leader, I think of the… Read More »
[August 19, 2016] I stood on the grounds of one of the many battlefields of the American Revolutionary War just yesterday and not knowing it until a friend told me. I was at Liberty State Park (east of lower Manhattan across the Hudson River) in Jersey City at the site of the Raid at Paulus Hook. Honestly, I’d… Read More »
[August 18, 2016] I’ve been meaning to write about this subject for some time now but haven’t quite figured out how to approach it without sounding too pedantic. The United States is a divided nation; one that witnesses a divisiveness in its rhetoric, behavior, laws, and customs … ever more so daily. Divisions are growing and our political… Read More »
[August 16, 2016] It’s been now a couple of months since I posted to my series on good habits for leaders. Not to diminish their necessity for a successful leader, but I’ve just not got around to it with so much on my social calendar. Today I deal with one of the more crucial daily habits that a… Read More »
[August 15, 2016] Yes, even when you’re no longer in the position of leadership, you’re still a leader. When you do stupid things, decide to quit being a leader, or retire … you’re still a leader. Leadership is not about position, status, or personal decisions because it’s all about the ability to influence people to do things they… Read More »
[August 14, 2016] A good friend of mine, retired military, was at the U.S. Veterans Administration last month trying to straighten out his disability compensation. It appears that he was overpaid and rightly he must pay back any overpayments. He is anxious to do so because it’s the right thing to do and owes just a few hundred… Read More »
[August 13, 2016] Politicians provide fertile examples of leaders with communications problems; giving us valuable lessons. There is no other profession that experiences such a high degree of miscommunication, errors, omissions, and deliberate commissions of the corruption of information than a politician. It is serious business for a leader to talk and write with absolute clarity; to make… Read More »