Category Archives: Leadership

Retired Navy SEAL: No Excuses

By | October 22, 2018

[October 22, 2018]  Occasionally, I run across a story that impresses me; not because it’s about someone overcoming adversity (which is newsworthy) but because important lessons are learned from it.  David Goggins is a retired Navy SEAL and shares a story of his difficult journey and in doing so gives us a number of valuable life and leadership… Read More »

Check Your 6

By | October 18, 2018

[October 18, 2018]  Check Your 6, also phrased as Watch Your Back, is an appropriate warning for those who live under the precepts of good leadership.  As we know, what a leader says and does will be misinterpreted; either unintentionally or purposefully.  That is why leaders must ensure that they are perpetually prepared to defend what they do.… Read More »

Profile: the Dalai Lama

By | October 17, 2018

[October 17, 2018]  Yesterday I was speaking with a medically-discharged soldier who had received horrible wounds in Afghanistan.  He told me that he survives his awful wounds because of his belief in the principles espoused by the Dalai Lama.  Those who can carry on after such traumatic events are only those who find a deep spiritual faith within… Read More »

Good Morning, Vietnam!

By | October 16, 2018

[October 16, 2018]  In 2017, thirty years after the making of one of my favorite movies Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), I had the privilege to speak with its star, Robin Williams.  He was on a USO goodwill tour overseas and that’s how we met.  The first thing I asked was about this movie. I never really knew the… Read More »

Being Technically & Tactically Proficient

By | October 15, 2018

[October 15, 2018]  Being technically and tactically proficient is military phraseology meaning that to exercise leadership one must know how to perform their job inside and out.  “Are you technically proficient?”  That’s what I was once asked after I embarrassed myself after getting my platoon lost in the woods. For my peer group who had just graduated from… Read More »

A True Man Hates No One

By | October 12, 2018

[October 12, 2018]  Napoléon Bonaparte wrote these famous words more than 200 years ago; “a true man hates no one.”  As the General of the Army and Emperor of the French, he understood that to make decisions under the influence of one’s emotions will mark you as unreliable, unpredictable, and ultimately unfit for any high office. Not surprisingly,… Read More »

When Subordinates Betray their Leaders

By | October 11, 2018

[October 11, 2018]  In a popular 2007 drawing by cartoonist Michael P. Ramirez, a soldier stands ready for combat but with a knife in his back; bloodied with the words “Congress” written in the blood.  This political cartoon became popular among troops sent to Iraq.  It symbolized their anger at the U.S. Congress because their elected representatives were… Read More »