Category Archives: Leadership

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Malcolm Gladwell’s New Book

Years ago, Blink changed my entire perspective on leadership. I remember filling the book’s margins with insight sparked from #1 bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell’s fresh look at intuition, judgment, and decision making.

That book also sparked a personal interest in neuroscience, leading to a Military Review article on the brain in combat and eventually a Master’s thesis focused on helping leaders improve decision making by managing their emotional responses.

Since Blink, Gladwell has written five more books and launched the wildly popular Revisionist History podcast. He’s also embraced contrarian views, often inviting criticism—but he’s never afraid to be wrong.

Malcolm GladwellThis unique viewpoint is what you’ll find in his new book out today, Revenge of the Tipping Point.

Much like in Blink and Outliers, Gladwell reveals how the world is more interconnected—and sometimes more dangerous—than we realize. Through captivating stories, he offers new perspectives on how societal trends and tipping points can lead to unexpected and often troubling outcomes.

I invite you to grab an early copy and dive into the latest masterpiece from one of the most insightful thinkers of our time, Malcolm Gladwell.

Lead well,
Drew

Grab Your Copy

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Seasons of Development

In Seasons in Leadership, I wrote about the leader’s role in sensing the environment and guiding teams through change:

Regardless of the situation, the best leaders know that by their role and responsibility positions them to intuit transition and see opportunity. These leaders intentionally develop vision to sense impending seasons. Then they fulfill their responsibility to define reality for the team and empathetically guide their followers through the change. In doing so, they model how to lead through change with foresight and intention.

We often forget that the precursor to navigating change is the leader’s own development, the arc of personal growth that prepares them for the road ahead.

Development

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The 16 Laws of Communication

As a young leader, I was fortunate to discover two authors who set a lifelong foundation of influence for me as a leader: General Colin Powell and John C. Maxwell. I read My American Journey in high school, five years after General Powell led a 35-country coalition to victory in the Gulf War and mere months before my own leadership journey began as a cadet. Inspired by his real-world leadership lessons in and out of combat, I typed up four pages of quotes and carried them with me for years. I called My American Journey my leadership bible.

John C. Maxwell, who I came across a few years later, perfectly complemented Powell’s influence in my life. In case you haven’t read his books yet, John Maxwell is the #1 bestselling leadership author of all time. His most popular work is The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. He writes in stories and simple principles and his books perfectly weave together insight, inspiration, humor, and conviction.

Simply put, John Maxwell is the Michael Jordan of leadership coaching. And his new book, The 16 Undeniable Laws of Communication, dives into the most important skill a leader can have.

Development

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Why I Removed My Confederate Flag

I grew up in the South. A little bit in Tennessee and Florida, but mostly in Georgia. Though I spent that childhood in the neighborhoods of suburban Atlanta and not in the country farm fields, I still received the imprint of geographical culture:  Southern politeness, Waffle House, sweet tea, country music, NASCAR and The Dukes of Hazard were all accepted – and expected – norms. As was pride in the Confederacy.

confederate flag

The flag of the Confederacy on the ground during a protest against white nationalists in Washington, D.C. Photo credit.
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Time to Change Perspective

“I should have seen that coming…”

“If I hadn’t had been so focused on this, I could’ve anticipated that…”

“Where did THIS come from???”

We’ve all uttered these words at one point or another, searching for an explanation as to how our circumstances managed to outpace our intellect, premonition capacity, focused research, and detailed planning effort.

perspective

Army Staff Sgt. Ariel Hughes pulls a simulated wounded soldier through an obstacle during the Drill Sergeant of the Year Competition at Camp Bullis, Texas, Aug. 19, 2019. Twelve soldiers from around the U.S. took part in the four-day competition. Link to DoD photo.
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Seasons in Leadership

Seasons. Change. Transition. Growth.

The notion of seasons has come to me from multiple sources recently. One obvious change has been my professional transition…closing the season of battalion command and embarking on a new duty with a new scope of responsibilities. (This season even ended with a ceremony…most don’t!) The people, the conversations, battle rhythms, challenges, opportunities, office spaces, run routes…it’s all different now. It’s entirely new terrain and it demands adaptation.

The other experience that inspired reflection on change was at Yosemite National Park last week, immersed in an ecosystem that is in a perpetual state of natural change. Seasons incrementally and seamlessly slip into one another, presenting subtly-forming but radical new landscapes of sun and ice, rock and water, cloud, air, plant, animal, and fire.

seasons

Half Dome, Glacier Point, and Yosemite Valley, as seen from the Upper Yosemite Falls Trail in Yosemite National Park, CA.
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Sharing the spotlight

Every leadership position comes with its own spotlight. As a leader, you’re the one on stage, you make the decisions, you take responsibility for consequences, everyone is watching and waiting for you to take action. The default expectation is that you will do it on your own and everyone else will follow.

But what happens if you decide not to “do leadership” on your own? What if, instead of spinning inside your own head about what to do next then issuing a decree, you instead brought your team in and asked for their input? What if you said, “Hey guys, here is the situation I’m seeing. This is why it’s important. These are the factors I think are relevant. What am I not seeing? What do you think we should do?”

Would involving them undermine your authority? No.

Would it reveal weakness? No.

Would it take too much time? Not for most of the decisions you face.

On the contrary, when you involve subordinate leaders in the decisions you make, you…

…make them feel valuable and regarded.
…get their buy-in and gain a glimpse of how your impending decision might affect the team.
…reveal their strengths and gaps, which you can note for later development.
…infuse their input, making your decision stronger.
…show them how to lead at the next level.

The notion of the solitary, all-knowing leader is outdated at best. At worst, it is a weak response to the opportunity leaders have to improve the quality of their decisions and develop the team. If leaders can move past the notion that they are the only ones on the stage, the performance will be much better.

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