[March 30, 2015] Something that has not happened before – at least in a very long time – is the formation of an Arab Army. Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appears to be leading the effort for Sunni Arabs to push back on extensive Shia military gains in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and elsewhere. This is not the… Read More »
[March 27, 2015] There are many world leaders that claim the United States has neither a grand strategy for the Middle East nor one for its own national security. Furthermore they claim this has lead to greater instability around the world. Such bold commentary from such high ranking leaders is worthy of a response.1 “Strategy without tactics is… Read More »
[March 25, 2015] Carl von Clausewitz published an influential book called On War in 1832. In this work, he introduced the concept of “friction” as a hindrance to the execution of strategy. We have discovered that one of the difficulties associated with senior leadership is being able to accurately identify and surmount strategic friction points. “The good general must… Read More »
[March 24, 2015] The second time I ever saw a show in a movie theater was The Great Escape starring Steve McQueen and many other well-known actors. Like many others of my pre-teenage years, it inspired me to be like those brave men. The Great Escape was more than a movie or an event; it helped boost morale… Read More »
[March 23, 2014] My grandmother – affectionately called big mama – told me many times that, “if you ain’t learning, you ain’t livin.” She valued all types of education and was the first relative to insist I go to college. Continuous learning, she implicitly knew, is one of the many good habits a person needs to be the… Read More »
[March 22, 2015] Earlier this week I attended a Veterans Job Fair in central New Jersey; hosted by a Rider University. I had the opportunity to speak with nearly 100 vendor representatives. In particular I was impressed by Helmets to Hardhats – an organization dedicated to placing our men and women of the Armed Forces into building and… Read More »
[March 21, 2015] Attempting to predict the future is a flawed endeavor, at least in the minds of the lesser experienced leaders. Likewise, the required attributes of tomorrow’s leaders is a persistent question asked of our current leaders. What are those traits that will be most needed and which will be discarded? Is that leadership more involved with… Read More »
[March 20, 2015] Shortly after U.S. President Obama gave the “green light” to capture or kill the terrorist Osama Bin Laden – who was subsequently killed – the president used a sports metaphor to explain the decision not to release photos of the body. President Obama said, “We don’t need to spike the football.”1 In other words, since… Read More »
[March 19, 2015] It has always been of interest for leaders to discover those profound issues of the day by asking the question “what keeps leaders up at night?” – figuratively speaking. Our focus here at theLeaderMaker.com has always been to uncover what makes leaders tick and sometimes what frightens our most senior leaders. Our nation’s leaders in… Read More »
[March 18, 2015] In 2006 while serving in Iraq as a U.S. Army engineer, I encountered Joe S. (a pseudonym) an auditor with the U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO). He was looking into whether U.S. dollars were spent appropriately on the Iraqi reconstruction effort. Following all laws and regulations of the United States is a requirement of the… Read More »