Great Leaders Take Responsibility

By | August 21, 2021

[August 21, 2021]    If there had to be one common characteristic of leadership, basic to great leaders, taking responsibility would be it.  Only the very best leaders “own” what happens on their watch.  Excuses for not getting things right are the sign of weakness and cowardliness.  Every leader knows this. “The buck stops here” is a phrase… Read More »

Great Leaders Pick the Right People

By | August 20, 2021

[August 20, 2021]   One of the critical attributes of great leaders is their ability to pick the right people for the right job.  Unfortunately, sometimes people are chosen to be senior leaders and who turn out to be spectacular failures.  We have all seen examples of CEOs, Presidents, and political leaders who are epic disappointments. Choosing leaders is… Read More »

Building Trust

By | August 19, 2021

[August 19, 2021]  A fundamental attribute of any leader is the ability to build trust in the people who work for us, supervisors, peers and associates, and clients.  Building and managing that trust ranks as one of the top factors to achieve and sustain high levels of organizational strength.  It is also a measure of a leader’s successful… Read More »

No Man Left Behind

By | August 18, 2021

[August 18, 2021]  It is the unwritten creed of soldiers everywhere and across time that no man is ever left behind on the battlefield.  At its heart, the idea is based on the most elementary human need; trust.  If we trust our fellow man, for him to stand up with us and to have our backs, then we… Read More »

When You Have ‘Woke’ Generals & Admirals

By | August 17, 2021

[August 17, 2021]  My original post today was about intellectual laziness, but I’ll defer it to later.  My subject today has an element of intellectual laziness about it.  Let me be blunt.  Gen Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has gone full ‘woke.’  Period.  We can argue the point, but no one disputing this claim… Read More »

U.S. Retreating from Afghanistan [Vietnam Redux]

By | August 16, 2021

[August 16, 2021]  When you don’t have allies, you don’t have anything.  In Afghanistan, we just dumped an ally by turning them over to a terror group known as the Taliban.  Perhaps Americans forgot what happened almost exactly to the day, 20 years ago, when Islamic terrorists slammed airliners into buildings making September 11 a day in infamy. … Read More »

Knowing When to Quit

By | August 13, 2021

[August 13, 2021]  The Revolutionary War was nearing an end, although few realized how close it really was.  One of those groups that did not realize how close it was, were those loyal to the English King in South Carolina. Today is a lesson in knowing when to quit. I’ve always been of the mind never to give up,… Read More »

Police Turn their Backs to Chicago Mayor

By | August 12, 2021

[August 12, 2021]  In a recent incident this past Saturday night, the police turned their backs to anti-police Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot when she visited the hospital where an officer is in critical condition.  The officers’ female partner, Ella French, died from injuries suffered at a routine traffic stop.  Two brothers were arrested for her murder.1 The hospitalized… Read More »