Recently, I was in a discussion with fellow members of the National Speakers Association who are also military veterans. We were discussing what our military experience brought to our speaking profession and I noticed a common theme. We had all noticed a major difference between our military experience and… Read More »What’s Esprit de Corps and How do I Get Some
Type leadership into Amazon’s search bar and you’ll be offered a list of more than 60,000 books on the topic. Books about what leadership is, what leadership isn’t, books about how to do leadership, books about great leaders (surprisingly very few books about poor leaders, which could probably double the… Read More »Common Sense Leadership
What can a collegiate-level cyber defense competition teach us about leadership? The answer, it seems, is “quite a bit.†A recent article (In Cyber Defense, Sometimes Communication Is Overrated, Defense Systems, Susan Miller Apr 27, 2018) described lessons-learned from the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. As the article’s title suggests,… Read More »Can your team have too much communication?
In fact there are several. It’s true that to be most effective, the team should act as a coordinated entity, smoothly working together toward a common mission and shared goals. But, all teams are made up of individuals with their own personal goals and priorities. The leader’s challenge is to… Read More »There is an “I” in Team
It was a cry of despair. The retail employee was waiting to find out if the store manager had decided to move her to a new position as she had requested. After listening to her story, I could see that she really wasn’t being impatient; her request had been made… Read More »How Long Does it Take to Make a Decision?
As a young Boy Scout, I enjoyed hiking and camping in the beautiful mountains of New Mexico. One area where we occasionally camped was near an irrigation canal that brought water to the dryer, lower elevations. We were always warned to stay away from the canal. Even though the surface… Read More »What is the Inside Scoop on Your Team?
I knew I had the answer. From the head of the table I had the power to end the discussion and let everyone know my answer. I really wanted to do that because I knew I was right. Finally, I could stand it no longer. With an air of confidence… Read More »When You Know You Have the Answer, Stop!
Did he really just say that? I was sitting in my new boss’s office. I had just been moved to a new position which I was not very excited about and was in the office for the traditional “meet the boss” session. I had been snatched from a job I… Read More »It’s OK to be an Ignorant Leader
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