[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 »
[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 »
[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 »