Skip to content

Category Archives: Military Managers

Ready for action

Monday, November 12, 2007

It is important for managers in the civilian world to understand that they have little to learn as “leaders” from examples of the great individual military captains in history. The realms of operation are too different to admit of useful lessons from one world for application in the other. . .

Also filed in Management Skills, Organizational Leadership, Personal Observations, Training and Education | | Comments (8)

All hat, no cattle

Thursday, October 11, 2007

We’ve spent the last couple of days talking about two distinct problems with the use of leadership characteristics lists to develop leaders. We noted that when advocates of superlative individual leadership attempt to raise the leadership persona to a level of self-referential virtue, they may actually be inadvertently promoting a harmful cult centered on personal loyalty, rather than the pursuit of organizational aims. But, of course, we persist in trying to sort out this fundamentally flawed premise. So, today, we’ll briefly cover a third problem: the notion that we can use such lists of traits to identify people as (or as not) leaders, and safely assign or promote them on that basis.

Also filed in Individual Leadership | | Comments (11)

At your service

Monday, July 9, 2007

Since the advent of the all-volunteer military decades ago, fewer and fewer Americans have any personal experience with it - or with friends or colleagues who do. As a result, military employees are met with considerable curiosity and even prejudicial ignorance in the civilian workforce. But they are very likely positioned to be among your very best managers and employees. . .

Also filed in Personal Observations | | Comments (0)