Know Yourself

By | January 26, 2014

[January 26, 2014]  Nearly everyone I know filling any leadership position will say that knowing one’s self is a requirement for a good leader.  What they will not say is that many do not believe it. This may come as a shock to many but the vast majority of leaders do not truly know themselves or are actively… Read More »

Reading List (Update)

By | January 25, 2014

[January 25, 2014] Two exceptional books this week to recommend.  Both address issues with senior executive leadership.  The first book by a retired U.S. Army brigadier general is about leading yourself and the problems that a military leader faces day to day.  The second book, one which has become controversial, by past Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is… Read More »

The Tyranny of Distance

By | January 24, 2014

[January 24, 2014]  Leadership is difficult under any circumstance, but distance between humans makes it that much harder.  It is well known that face-to-face social interaction brings us the best communications.  Distance is a form of barrier or obstacle that acts to prevent understanding.  The “tyranny of distance” means that we do not see others (figuratively) in an… Read More »

Characteristic #46: Be Diplomatic

By | January 23, 2014

[January 23, 2014]  Senior leadership requires the special skills inherent in what is referred to as “diplomacy.”  This means that senior executive leaders have the ability to advance important ideas and to do so with tact and decorum.  For the purposes of this article, diplomacy is practiced at the organizational level.  I’ll leave statesmanship for another time.  A… Read More »

Shame, Is There Enough of It?

By | January 22, 2014

[January 22, 2014]  Just yesterday a good friend of mine said that the reason so many people act with disrespect (without regard to others), is the lack of “shame” in our society.  Leadership today means, he stated, that we must go out of our way to ensure that the guilty are not in any way publically embarrassed (shamed)… Read More »

Use of “Red Teams” to Improve Leadership

By | January 21, 2014

[January 21, 2014]  Senior leaders improve leadership and effectiveness in their organizations in a variety of ways.  One of the most useful techniques is to draw upon the expertise of “red teams” to discover and recommend improvements.  A “red team” is usually a small, independent group with the mission to directly target the failures and inefficiencies of a… Read More »

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

By | January 20, 2014

[January 20, 2014]  Today we recognize and give our respect to Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK), whose leadership helped move the U.S. toward the ideal of eliminating racial discrimination.  MLK was the leader and chief spokesperson for the civil rights movement – protesting racial discrimination in federal and state law. MLK was largely responsible for the nonviolent protest… Read More »

Lack of Trust in the U.S. Government

By | January 19, 2014

[January 19, 2014]  Over the past several days, there has been heightened rhetoric about the lack of trust and confidence in the U.S. government as a whole and the failure of its senior leadership in particular.  This time it was due to the highlighting of NSA’s data collection methods and the situation is unfortunate because all successful societies… Read More »

Photographs of Battle

By | January 18, 2014

[January 18, 2014]  War extracts a toll on the lives of humans.  Only in the past 150 years have we been able to document by photography the battles that have shaped human history but also our families. In respect for our military, I have included here some photographs from World War II. There are many websites dedicated to… Read More »