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Nineteen years ago today, I was in Washington D.C. attending an Army conference in a hotel – 2,700 feet from the point of impact of American Airlines Flight 77. After the explosion, we all went outside to see a large black plume of smoke rising from the Pentagon.  Our host had offices at ground zero Read More »

Whether in the military, the corporate world, or in our day-to-day lives, effective communications have always been important. This is particularly true for leaders. Having a clear understanding of HOW your audience will best receive your message BEFORE you transmit is a skill that can be taught. We can communicate the same message to a Read More »

The more senior you become, the broader the organizational span of control. Still, there’s still only 24 hours in a day. How do you keep everything organized and moving forward?  In a word, delegate. An excellent article from the November-December 1999 issue of the Harvard Business Review is titled “Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey?” Read More »

And Forks in the Road I can’t tell you how many times – in both my personal and my professional life that I’ve reached a fork in the road and thought that I should turn right, but circumstance took me left.  At the time, I thought “Why is this happening to me? How did this Read More »

When I was a young Major at Command and General Staff College years ago, I attended – with hundreds of other aspiring warriors – the annual Spring visit and presentation by the Chief of Staff of the Army. After his pitch, a student asked, “Sir, what does it take to succeed in today’s Army?” After pondering a Read More »

In the era of instant communications: Email, Text, Podcast, Twitter, cable, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and perhaps dozens of others I’m not even aware of, an oft-made mistake is “pushing send” too early. We see this on Twitter almost daily – with both the famous and infamous. Occasionally, it is followed by “so-and-so removed their post” Read More »

Have you ever worked for a bi-polar, Jekyll and Hyde personality? One who sucks up to the boss but is abusive with subordinates? I have…. When interviewed by a panel for the job I currently have, I was asked “If you had 30 seconds in an elevator to convince the hiring official you are the Read More »