[August 17, 2014] A fundamental truth about great leadership is the recognition that everyone must have a clear sense of purpose. Otherwise, it will be difficult to decide what to do and how to do it. With the right purpose, informed decisions are possible. Nearly every person in an organization understands what they do and generally how they… Read More »
[August 17, 2014] Today, many Americans are celebrating the “grooviest event in music history.” The Woodstock Music Festival ended after three days of “peace, love and rock’n’roll in upstate New York.” Very famous musicians played there: Janis Joplin, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, etc. What nearly no one knows about is that on this date in 1942, U.S. Marine… Read More »
[August 16, 2014] Nero was the Roman emperor in July of 64 A.D. when much of Rome burned. Whether it was literally true that he “fiddled” an instrument while the city burned, is in doubt. Yet, the meaning that we take from his actions as a leader is what interests us in the study of leadership methods. The… Read More »
[August 15, 2014] I remember the beautiful Friday afternoon in early May 1999 when Fort Dix, New Jersey got the call that it would be receiving the next day over 300 Albanian refugees from war-torn Kosovo. Over the next month, the U.S. Army base was to receive over 4,000 refugees as part of a nationwide resettlement effort. These… Read More »
[August 15, 2014] One hundred years ago today, the Panama Canal was opened for traffic. We all know about the engineering effort to build the 51 mile long canal, the effort to eradicate diseases in the area, and the economic and military need to have it built. Long recognized as a shortcut between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans,… Read More »
[August 14, 2014] That question is often debated and tinged with passion. Working my way through college, I trained dogs for a couple of years on the side; made good money, cash. Texas was a good state for dog training and I sure had a great time and earned a few extra dollars to pay the tuition bill.… Read More »
[August 14, 2014] When Chicken Little was hit on the head with the proverbial acorn, he ran to the King to tell him that the sky is falling. All of us grew up reading fables and this is one of the more impressionable ones from our childhood. Chicken Little, also known as Henny Penny, is a name often… Read More »
[August 13, 2014] At a recent graduation ceremony, the speaker said that “People just hate to fail, but there’s simply no escaping the fact that success is the daughter of failure.” U.S. Navy Admiral “Sandy” Winnefeld, Jr.,1 speaks frequently and passionately about the art of command. For him, command means leading change, as well as possessing certain values… Read More »
[August 13, 2014] “It’s all ancient history so forget about it.” I was told by a number of political science professors that what happened in the country of Cambodia is unimportant in today’s world. The legacy of the “killing fields” that resulted in the death of approximately 2 million Cambodians, out of a population of 8 million, was… Read More »
[August 12, 2014] In 2006 a senior U.S. Army officer had his Bronze Star medal revoked; it had been awarded for exception service in combat. I had the sad duty to write the justification to remove this award because of the officer’s highly toxic command climate during this combat tour. This was well before the subject of command… Read More »