Some years ago, as a new company commander, I encountered a junior leader in my command who personified Marshall Goldsmith’s Habit #8 of the “Twenty Habits that Hold You Back From the Top.” Like many of the destructive habits, this one is a learned, not inherited. It can stifle momentum on any team and, paradoxically, it is easy to succumb to as leaders gain more authority and experience. Habit #8 is negativity.
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.
This 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
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.
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.
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.
When serving on staff and even while in command, process often dilutes purpose. As individuals and on teams, we routinely focus on what we’re supposed to do at the expense of appreciating the why or fully realizing the impact of our efforts.
“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.
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.
