[October 01, 2014] Senior leaders have been known to make grand errors in judgment and to have failed to foresee catastrophic events that happen in the future. Such superb abilities are indeed rare when we look to people, as imperfect as humans are, to lead us. We will forgive our leaders for their poor predictions of the future,… Read More »
[September 30, 2014] New policies at the U.S. Department of Defense, initiated by the Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, have caused some controversy in military ranks. The real problem at the Pentagon is how to reduce the combat force by over 20 percent and still protect the United States and allies while worldwide threats are increasing. Now comes… Read More »
[September 29, 2014] Bill and Joanne were married after high school, joined the U.S. military for education benefits, deployed to Afghanistan, served honorably, and finally were able to enroll in Mississippi State University after their four-year tour in the Army. The problem? They both failed out of their first year of academic studies despite being provided with tutoring,… Read More »
[September 28, 2014] All senior military leaders I know today were taught early in their careers that a key component of being successful officers was based on their ability to teach, coach, and mentor. The question that is being asked of many junior leaders today is, “Can we mentor?” In other words, can we effectively ensure that those… Read More »
[September 27, 2014] More leadership failures and successes this week and it was hard to choose which ones to put in the failure category because there were so many. The following are the failures. Recall that my intent is to write enough about the issue at hand to have the reader see that this person failed to meet… Read More »
[September 24, 2014] The latest news out of the Middle East is that U.S. President Obama ordered airstrikes and missile attacks inside the country of Syria. Those attacks are on Islamic terror groups and have occurred mainly in the northern area not controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Recall that Syria is in the middle of a civil… Read More »
[September 23, 2014] Until the past couple of decades a person could relocate to another geographic area, gain useful employment, and start a family; thereby leaving past transgressions in the past. The permanency of your past is, however, here to stay. Many well-known people have experienced a bit of embarrassment when their past behavior was made public. Things… Read More »
[September 22, 2014] When we think of leadership lessons in sports, we normally think of it coming from players on the field and the coaching support of the game. The lesson today comes from higher up. The NFL itself is undergoing a controversy over Baltimore Ravens’ Ray Rice and the physical abuse of his then-fiancée. Rice’s initial two-game… Read More »
[September 20, 2014] The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is “exponentially increasing” and projections predict hundreds of thousands by the end of the year. The viral disease has no known cure, is highly contagious, and has a fatality rate over 50 percent. There is no current vaccine to prevent the disease. Transmission is by body fluids and, unfortunately,… Read More »
[September 19, 2014] An advantage to being a senior military leader means to be able to ask simple questions and actually get thoughtful answers. I’ve asked probably hundreds of military personnel and their families this one question regarding our military leaders, “Do we promote disrespect?” Families overwhelmingly say yes. The troops are a little more split on the… Read More »