Of history, warfare, leadership, and alcohol
Last week, one of my favorite blogs - From the Green Notebook - ran a guest piece called, 31 Things Your Senior Rater Would Like You to Know That He Probably Won’t Tell You. Quite a mouthful. While I disagreed with nearly everything that the author said, he did start a good conversation on leadership styles that has bloomed …
Continue reading "18 Things I Look For in a Senior Rater"
If you've been in the military longer than a day, you are bound to have heard your fair share of quotes about war that leaders like to drag out to show their book-learnin'. If I had nickel for the times I've heard that war is merely a continuation of politics by other means, I'd have …
Continue reading "Timeless Maxims of War"
Military doctrine is updated every few years, to reflect the changes in technology, tactics, operations, and strategy, as well as to keep several thousand doctrine writers employed. Next to military doctrine, famous quotes from past military leaders are the most commonly cited source when two strategists are arguing. But although we update our doctrine, we …
Continue reading "Classic Military Quotes Brought into the Modern Era"
Whoa there, high speed. Look at you, all brand new and shiny, right out of your basic officer leader course, hard-charging to take over your first platoon. Thing is, behind that brash exterior, you're probably confused as all get-out. After years of training in ROTC or a military academy (you OCS guys know all this stuff …
Continue reading "Thrown into the Deep End: Tips for New Platoon Leaders"
Today's guest post comes from Tim Shea (@trshea88), a former U.S. Army Captain hailing from Joint Base Lewis-McChord's now defunct 4th Stryker Brigade. In 2014, Tim traded the green pastures of Army life for the exhilarating, cutthroat world of economic development consulting. He maintains his sanity by writing here. To all the badge, tab, etc. lovers …
Continue reading "A Combat Badge Does Not a Soldier Make"
You can tell a lot about someone based on their uniform. Especially in the Army. In fact, we regularly violate the "Don't judge a book by its cover" dictum. Hell, we stomp that dictum into the dirt and build a fighting position on top of it. When meeting each other, soldiers tend to size the …
Continue reading "Integrity: The Unseen Skill Badge"
When I was seven, my mother did the worst thing I could conceive of: she took my Calvin and Hobbes books away from me. Why, why would she do such a horrible thing, I asked her at the time, probably kicking and screaming and waving my tiny fists. It was a very simple answer: I was acting too …
Continue reading "Seven Military Leadership Lessons from Calvin and Hobbes"
Everything we do in the Army seems somehow dehumanizing. We remove individual identity at basic training, in order to meld individuals into a cohesive group. Individuals are referred to by their rank or just their last name. Our entire careers can be summed up on one or two sheets of paper (usually incorrectly). While …
Continue reading "Battle Staff Made Human"
This past weekend, I spent some time re-watching Star Wars episodes IV, V, and VI, or as I call them, Star Wars. Watching them with a critical eye towards leader development, tactics, and strategy, I was struck by a number of critical flaws on both sides that could have been fixed with some basic organizational …
Continue reading "Center for Galactic Lessons Learned"
This post is part of the discussion begun by @rkranc at his site The Stable of Leadership. This discussion centers on the issue of control in leadership: how do you delegate authority, what are your concerns when doing so, and how do you mitigate these concerns, or risks? At this point in the professional development …
Continue reading "The Art of Control"
The Angry Staff Officer 
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