[August 31, 2015] The greatest threat to a nation outside of armed invasion is the degeneration of its military from its professional standing into a bureaucracy. If we are to believe the outgoing U.S. Army Chief of Staff who told us that there is a struggle for the Army to maintain its professionalism, we will have to reverse… Read More »
[August 22, 2015] The sad fact is that many senior leaders do, in fact, promote divisiveness by their choice of words and inaction to promote basic standards of good behavior. Whether purposefully or by accident, some national leaders also encourage divisiveness and they are not good leaders in the sense that they portray the requisite traits of excellence. … Read More »
[August 19, 2015] U.S. Army senior leadership has always been hesitant to say who among the general population makes the best soldiers. While such a politically correct stance is not unexpected, there are many who have served and studied patterns that help us predict who will be the best soldiers. Although these attributes and experiences of those in… Read More »
[August 16, 2015] A special treat for my readers today! A new book on my recommended list is by a writer who is a 4-star U.S. Army general; no surprise but in this case it’s the Army’s first female general. This is a new book, only recently published and comes out at a time the women running for… Read More »
[July 29, 2015] A little over 43 years ago there was an break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. President Nixon along with his administration were responsible but attempted to cover-up their involvement in the illegal action. As a result, two years later Nixon resigned from his office as U.S.… Read More »
[July 22, 2015] Great leadership begins with a grand vision. Simply put, leadership is the ability to turn a vision into something. Having vision means identifying a clear goal for the future and ideally it’s also inspirational. The implication in the vision is that it’s realistic and that efforts to achieve it may mean doing things differently such… Read More »
[July 21, 2015] There is an old Chinese short story about honesty and the rich gifts that telling the truth can bring upon us. Many of us, especially leaders, want success so badly that we can be enticed to lie … or perhaps just shade the truth a little. I’ve seen it done so many times by leaders… Read More »
By guest blogger Ernest M. Kennedy III [See Biography] [July 18, 2015] I spent a lot of time as a young man fighting in the jungles of Vietnam; looking the enemy in the eye and having to kill him. I returned to an ungrateful nation which was led to politicians who asked us to fight and then gave… Read More »
[June 29, 2015] A few years ago I was asked to give a presentation on those things that were likely to brand senior military leaders as unprofessional. Putting aside for the moment that many senior officers have failed because of basic violations of law or due to bad personal habits, leaders also fail for more common reasons. For… Read More »
[June 18, 2015] Growing up as a kid with so many Korean and World War II veterans around me, it was odd that the American hero I admired the most was Captain Eddie Rickenbacker the World War I ace. Rickenbacker was much more, however, than being the most productive fighter during WWI with 26 aerial victories. His deeds… Read More »