[August 23, 2021] In a speech after the brutal U.S. Civil War ended, Army General William Tecumseh Sherman said, “I tell you, war is Hell.”1 He was a man who knew the viciousness of war and the terrible price people pay. But he was also adamant that when the going gets tough, character counts more than anything else.… Read More »
[August 22, 2021] If there is but one characteristic of great leaders that stands tall above all others, it is the possession of unquestionable integrity. Without it, all the other key leader traits will amount to nothing at all. “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether… Read More »
[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 »
[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 »
[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 »
[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 »
[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 »
[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 »
[August 15, 2021] You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig. For those who remember the final days of the Vietnam War, you will find that once again, American is abandoning its allies and retreating (surrender is a better term) from a fight. We’re getting out of Afghanistan so fast that we are… Read More »
[August 14, 2021] Recently, I began writing a book on the early years of the Iraq War. By writing a bit of that history, I’m being forced to relearn many of the rules of combat that I may have forgotten from my days on the battlefield. In this article and several that follow, I will highlight the rules… Read More »