Early this month I had the pleasure of sharing lunch with a prized friend and mentor. We talked of many things including family, our individual efforts focused on inspiring others, the future of our ongoing personal experiments, updates on some of our respective proteges, and finished with a philosophical conversation […]
Tag: Yes
Promises
As the year draws to an end, I find myself once again immersed in the annual season of reflection and goal setting. Over the years, I’ve shared plenty of thoughts about my troubled relationship with resolutions many of us make, yet have no intention of following through on. For me, establishing goals […]
Leaders and Doers
I recently had the privilege of hosting a mentorship session for a few dozen junior officers here in Maryland. We talked about many things ranging from their specific questions to my books, to different philosophies shared across the group. It was a very enjoyable two hours and served as the […]
Big E’s Big Four
On October 21st, my younger (and only) brother Erik (“Big E”) passed away. The circumstances behind his passing are not important to share, but the way he lived most certainly is. Over the past few weeks, the memories we shared and the lessons his example continues to strengthen within me […]
Swatting at Gnats
In any organization, there are main lines of operations and there are distractions. Sometimes the distractions come in the form of “good ideas” thrust upon the team by seniors. Sometimes the distractions come in the form of sub-par performers. And yes, sometimes the distractions are in fact opportunities. The challenge […]
Opportunities To Fail
It might sound odd, but I will go ahead and admit that I sometimes enjoy watching others struggle, and the highest highs I continue to enjoy in life are experienced on the back end of a personal struggle. I will also admit that as much as I don’t believe in […]
Creating Firsts
One of the many cool things about being a parent is watching your child experience things for the first time. Odds are most of us went above and beyond to document our child’s first steps, first words, first day of school, first recital, first goal, and the list goes on. […]
Prepositional Leaders
A senior officer who had recently been made aware of relevant discussion threads and bulletin boards filled with colorful conversation regarding our profession asked me if I thought a visible online presence was worthy of his time. As you might imagine, given my track record, my answer was an emphatic […]
HOW Leaders
Being both a student and practitioner of leadership, I keep my head on a swivel to identify leaders from whom I can learn, peers with whom I want to partner, and juniors who show great promise. I also am on the lookout for seniors, peers, and juniors who have yet to get […]
Are People Truly Our Greatest Assets?
We hear it all the time, “People are our greatest assets.” I used to believe it, but over the years I have grown to believe that claim is both false and misguided. The disconnect between words and actions from various leaders continue to make it obvious that we don’t believe […]
Advisors, Actors…Leaders
It’s been three weeks since I started my new position and it happened. The it to which I am referring is the reintroduction to the idea that Actors and Advisors live on different planes. They think differently, they approach problems differently, and they have different expectations of each other. Actors act, […]
Intoxication is Contagious
Last week I received a note from a junior officer asking me to explain the significance of the piece of art included on my business card. To me, art is just about anything that changes our emotion. This particular piece of art arrived at my home unannounced from a mentor […]
Change of Command Remarks
It may not have come out exactly as written, but here were my remarks for OUR Change of Command Ceremony conducted at the National Naval Aviation Museum. On 16 August 2012, Commander Pat Count became the 11th Commanding Officer of the team that is currently known as Navy Information Operations Command […]
Sharing The OODA Loop
Anyone who has served in the military understands “The OODA Loop”, and a growing percentage of business leaders in corporate America have studied or even used the same. For those who have not, it’s a four stage decision cycle that results in ACTION: Observe Orient Decide Act In the Cryptologic […]
Player Development
Most of the time I consider the insights I choose to share as doing little more than playing the role of “Master of the Obvious”. I also find it enjoyable to have someone share with me that which should be blatantly obvious but isn’t. I recently had an experience that […]
360 Degree Hiring
I like learning about new ideas, thoroughly enjoy formulating good ideas, and absolutely love executing great ideas. In a previous post summarizing a short visit at the Google complex, I mentioned five key attributes that were commonplace there that I wanted to weave into the largely traditional military culture at our command. […]
Because We Can
There are some things we as human beings can’t do, many that we won’t do, and even more that we don’t do. Rather than focus on those lists, I like to concentrate on what we can do, should do, and want to do. In fact, in partnership with my family, I have […]
Leading Even From Your Desk
Throughout my career, I have heard many people profess that you can’t lead from behind your desk. I’ve thought that to be true, but I must admit that I became less and less convinced each year and now I see how shortsighted such a philosophy truly is. Yes, technology allows us […]
The Coalition of the Doing
In a recent post, I made mention of the fact that I have a list of people that I refer to as “The Coalition of the Doing”. It evidently struck a chord with at least a few of you who sent me a note, so I wanted to amplify. I have […]
Bunting For Singles
I played my fair share of baseball as a child, but I am not a big fan. Each spring, as many of my friends get excited about spring training, I am left scratching my head. That said, I have a few interests that may perplex others, so I am not […]