When I was a brand new Air Force maintenance officer, my unit’s superintendent informed me that it was time for our annual breakfast. Each year the unit’s senior leaders cooked breakfast for the troops and he invited me to join in the cooking. It was a fun morning and I… Read More »Some Random Thoughts on Leadership
It was a Saturday morning and no other customers were at the pharmacy. My wife and I were at a large military hospital’s pharmacy to get a prescription filled. The gentleman at the counter looked at the prescription form I presented and said he could not fill it until eligibility… Read More »Are You Telling Your People to do Stupid Things?
I’m appalled, though unfortunately I guess I’m not really surprised. Amidst all the rhetoric about equality and fair treatment, it turns out there is a lot of inequality and unfair treatment going on. Specifically, ever day now the news brings us another story detailing the sordid details of some new… Read More »I’m Appalled – Enough Already
Command and control (the beast) is not a popular form of leadership these days. Most of the time the method is unnecessary and a sign of a weak and insecure leader who knows no other way to be effective. The most effective leaders find some version of servant leadership (beauty)… Read More »Beauty and the Beast: Servant Leadership vs. Command and Control
Coach. Say the word and different pictures come to mind. Some might think of a favorite sports coach while others conjure images (good or bad) of their drill instructor, or perhaps a favorite teacher. Regardless of the situation, we find that coaches are individuals who provide assistance to someone to… Read More »9 Ways to Create the Perfect Coaching Relationship
A prerequisite for effective and high-performing teams is trust among its members. According to Patrick Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, trust is foundational to team effectiveness. Improving an absence of trust due to unfamiliarity, personality and cultural differences, or ambiguous roles and responsibilities is “relatively†straight forward… Read More »Toxic Behavior Destroys Team Trust
As we went around the table, each staff member introduced themselves with their name and a brief job description. When it was the custodian’s turn, instead of telling us she was the custodian, she proudly announced that she was the “Manager of First Impressions.” It was obvious that the rest… Read More »The First 4 Essential Steps to Achieve Team Engagement
The air around us was orange. That was pretty common after a dust storm as a fine powder of sand hung in the air. Through the orange haze, I could see the mechanics going through their morning inspections of the rescue helicopters that sat on alert, ready to rapidly respond… Read More »The Mission: That Others May Live
I have a new lady in my life, and my wife approves! My new “lady†is an 8-year old golden retriever we’ve named Katy. She came to us as Savana, but we thought Katy was a better fit. Not that it mattered that we changed this old dog’s name; Savana… Read More »Leadership, Motivation, and a Dog
We were on final for a practice bombing run 300 feet above the Arizona desert going about 540 knots (620 mph). The plane was an F-16D which is a two-seat trainer version of the F-16C Falcon. My back-seater was a flight surgeon logging mandatory air time and who was blissfully… Read More »Four Steps to Leader Awareness – Hard lessons learned from flight operations