[June 18, 2020] Wednesday afternoon, October 5, 2005; hot, sunny, dusty, and smelly. It was just like any other day. My engineer design section was inspecting one of the large canals in southeast Baghdad, Iraq. Their task was to find out whether the canal could supply water for our military bases in the area when it came under… Read More »
[June 17, 2020] Charles Groenhuijsen is a journalist and author whose been covering world events for over 40 years.1 He sees journalism as a mirror; people look in this mirror, and they’re supposed to see the world as it is. They don’t. They don’t know the world because journalism shows, with rare exceptions, the negative side of life. … Read More »
[June 16, 2020] If you are a leader who cares about their people and getting the job done, you will immediately understand this article’s title.1 Here is an indisputable fact; bad leaders never get both of these correct. On the one hand, some bad leaders get the mission accomplished but only by sacrificing their people. On the other… Read More »
[June 15, 2020] Leaders have an ideal painted in their minds about how they want others to see them. More than anything else, they don’t want people to see them as a failure. More specifically, how do leaders want to be seen? There is no simple answer. With the many types of leaders and combined with personality, level… Read More »
[June 14, 2020] Today is Flag Day in the United States. The Flag symbolizes all that is right with America and represents those who have chosen a successful way of life – more successful than any other. But it is not perfect. Honor, integrity, protecting the weak, standing against evil are attributes that allow us to overcome that… Read More »
[June 13, 2020] My favorite story from childhood was The Tortoise and the Hare. As one of Aesop’s fables, it tells the chronicle of a race between the slow tortoise and the speedy hare. Some have written that his folktale means that ingenuity and trickery, rather than doggedness and persistence, are best used to overcome a stronger opponent. … Read More »
[June 10, 2020] There are many characteristics of strong leaders. They are sincere, decisive, charismatic, honest, and have great communication skills. History is replete with examples. U.S President Dwight D. Eisenhower was one of those strong leaders. Just a few months into his presidency, America’s foreign policies came under fire1 for allowing the U.S. to be too involved… Read More »
[June 9, 2020] Learning to be a good leader can be difficult. The time with others training, studying, and working in leadership roles helps that process; or so I’ve been told. In 1983, I was a new U.S. Army Second Lieutenant attending the Infantry Officer Basic Course. At the end of a particularly grueling three-week phase of mechanized… Read More »
[June 8, 2020] This may come as somewhat of a surprise, but there are skills we don’t teach leaders. I don’t mean that leadership itself is not trained, formally, or informally, which is the case in many organizations. Leaders are not taught essential aspects of leadership that are both necessary to succeed and required for movement into positions… Read More »
[June 7, 2020] I live in Southern New Jersey; about two hours drive from New York City (to downtown Manhattan). My wife and I still have relatives, and many friends who live in the City, and they love it and would not live anywhere else. What surprised me was that many of them moved away temporarily to avoid… Read More »