Category Archives: Military Leadership

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The Most Important Leadership Quote You’ll Read this Year

When I read this leadership quote a few weeks ago, I kicked myself for not having found it sooner. (It’s the type of advice I’d put in my signature block…and I’m not even a “signature block philosophy” kind of emailer.) It is attributed to the immutably inspirational leader of the Allied coalition in World War II, General Dwight D. Eisenhower. This insight is powerful because it captures the fundamental nature, the heart, of what it means to be a leader. And Eisenhower uses only 26 words to do it.

Leadership Quote

Senior military commanders of World War II. Link to photo.
[Seated L-R: Gens. William Simpson, George Patton, Carl Spaatz, Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, Courtney Hodges, & Leonard Gerow
Standing L-R: Gens. Ralph Stearley, Hoyt Vandenberg, Walter Bedell Smith, Otto Weyland, & Richard Nugent.]
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Starting with “No, But, or However” (Habit Series #5)

The fifth habit that Marshall Goldsmith discusses in What Got You Here Won’t Get You There is all about telling people they’re wrong. Leaders do it, a lot, and often without realizing it’s happening. This habit is also about telling the truth and providing clarity, but before we dive into the details, imagine this scenario.

Habit

Mr. Roger Astin, exercise scenario manager of U.S. Army South,
briefs a group of multinational officials during PKO North ’08, MANAGUA, Nicaragua. Photo by Maj. Tim Stewart.
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What Combat Leaders Need to Know About Neuroscience

We remember the books that change us…that alter our thinking, move us emotionally, or reveal unseen, enlightening perspectives. Powell’s My American Journey did that for me. So did Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. And when I read Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking in 2007, I recall connecting so many new insights that I didn’t have enough book margin to capture them all. The relevancy for the military profession spilled off of the pages and sparked an intellectual curiosity that has lasted for years.

The topic is neuroscience and the breakthrough discoveries that its researchers have made in recent years. As neuroscientists publish fascinating papers about how the brain functions, authors like Gladwell, Jonah Lehrer, David Rock, Joseph LeDoux, and others translated their work into digestible language with real world application. From decision psychology to organizational efficiency to change detection and management, new understanding of the brain is changing how we live our lives.

But as I made connections from neuroscience to the military profession, specifically tactical combat leadership, I found few resources to aide the service member, Dave Grossman’s On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society and Warrior Mindset being the most useful. So I decided to embark on a personal quest to publish something that references neuroscience to improve military leader performance. What resulted was my first published article and a Master’s thesis on the topic. This post is an adapted version of that endeavor.

Neuroscience

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What’s Your Leadership Narrative?

Check out my new guest post, on From the Green Notebook

Earlier this year in a podcast interview with Leadership on Tap, I mentioned that I was wrestling with the concept of a “leadership narrative.” This was the term I used to describe the summation of personality traits, competence, experience, beliefs, biases, and opinions that one uses to communicate as a leader. Leadership narrative is the tangible expression of one’s leadership DNA.

As I compiled my thoughts into a blog post, Joe Byerly graciously offered to host it on his blog, From the Green Notebook. After lots of discussion and editing, I’m very pleased to invite you to read, How Effective is Your Leadership Narrative?

Please check it out and if you have a moment, we’d appreciate if you could share it with your network. Thanks and have a great weekend!

Leadership Narrative

Click the image for “How Effective is Your Leadership Narrative?”

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Leadership Speed and Why It Matters

In another post, I shared some of the guidance I issued during my company command time years ago. In How Do You Spot a Leader?, I suggested the notion that leaders naturally move faster than everyone else.

If you are a leader and you find yourself moving slowly throughout the day, you are probably not doing enough to help out the team.  Most of the time, leaders dart from one event to the next, or are focusing to create a new product/presentation that will help the team.  They are always looking to identify problems in the organization and tackle them quickly, so that the organization can become better or more effective.

Leaders create and disseminate energy throughout the organization to keep it moving in the right direction and responding appropriately to the environment. There is an inherent risk, however, for naturally driven leaders who move quickly towards success. Today, I want to talk about this risk.

Leadership

Paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division’s 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, sprint to emplace an M240-B machine gun as they demonstrate crew drills to Afghan National Army soldiers prior to a foot patrol May 8, 2012, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan.
U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod.
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Stop Calling Your Soldiers Your Children

And stop telling your subordinates to treat them that way

And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;

Shakespeare’s St. Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V is one of the most iconic speeches ever given. It, perhaps better so than any work save the Illiad, captures what it is like to be a fighting man (or woman).

It’s refrain about a “band of brothers” has been repeated and echoed countless times: Eisenhower’s “in company with brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts” on D-Day, HBO’s mini-series of the same name, and in countless addresses by senior leaders to their formations prior to crossing the berm in Iraq.

The idea of soldiers as brothers-in-arms – of the fraternity of arms – goes back well before Shakespeare to the feudal era and possibly even earlier. The concept of shared struggle, and thus equality, is essential to the concept of American soldiering and always has been.

And yet, under multiple well-meaning commanders in both active and reserve component, I have been instructed to treat my soldiers as my children. Not as my brothers or my sisters, but my children. As a troop commander, I once argued the point with my squadron commander that my soldiers were not my sons and was told “you know what I mean” – and I did.

And what he meant was wrong.

posts

An Army Special Forces member fires a Mark 19 belt-fed grenade launcher at a training target on Eglin Range, Fla., Oct. 30, 2013.
U.S. Air Force Photo/Staff Sgt. John Bainter.
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Achieving Effects with Your Boss, pt. 3: Decision Time

So far in the Achieving Effects with Your Boss series, we’ve covered how to make the right first impression and how to engage your boss with intention. Now that you’re comfortable with the leadership environment your boss has established, it’s time to discuss how to influence their decision making to achieve effects for you, your team, and the greater organization.

Boss

Secretary of the Army John McHugh listens as Commander of the Combined Arms Center Lt. Gen. David G. Perkins briefs during a visit at the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, April 20, 2012 at Joint Base Langley–Eustis, Va. U.S. Army Photo by Staff Sgt. Bernardo Fuller.
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Professional Development, One Paragraph at a Time (ProDev2Go)

A New Blog by Ross Coffman

What does an Army Colonel do after he finishes killing it in brigade command? …Start a professional development blog, of course! Today, let me highlight a new blog that you’ll definitely want to make part of your professional development plan.

ProDev2Go just fired up last month, but is the continuation of a groundbreaking leader development approach by one of the most successful brigade commanders in the Army today.

ProDev2Go

Breaking Barriers

While in command down at Fort Bliss, Colonel Ross Coffman sought a new way to connect his Troops with his leader development vision, something better than the usual death by PowerPoint. So, he got a Twitter account, then created a YouTube and podcast channel called Ready First. He and his Command Sergeant Major used this novel approach to communicate with the command, relay their leader development and tactical experience, and show that Army leaders are capable of getting out of their comfort zone to reach their people.

Rapid Fire Mentorship

Now, as a testament that the best leaders never stop looking for ways to have positive influence, Colonel Coffman dove head first into the blogging world and created ProDev2Go as a way to provide high quality leader development in short bursts. The concept is simple:

As a “Leader on the Go” we understand that you desire a succinct learning opportunity that provides a written glide path for success.  This leader development site is a single paragraph of lessons learned that you can use in a practical role in your workplace, job, business, or employment. We are changing Leaders one Paragraph at a time!!!

Plugging into ProDev2Go is like being mentored by a brigade commander, something we all could benefit from. You’ll find insight on trust, mission command, leader development, warfighting doctrine, and many other useful topics.

Head on over there now and check it out!

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