A bad leader lacks talent and skill, a destructive leader lacks character.
Frank Sonnenberg
Leadership can be destructive. I mean this in the sense that poor, weak, or harmful leaders exist and can do great and lasting damage, not only to the organization but most importantly, to the people.
Great leaders use meaningful connections, shared values and mutual understanding to bring people together. ~ Linda Fisher Thornton
Lately, I have been very focused on the rise in destructive leadership in the lives of those I intersect with. A leader’s responsibility is many-fold but destruction is typically not one of the verbs used.… Read the rest
“The single most important element of success in war is leadership.”
Standing on the platform in front of troops and family for the fourth time to take command, this time of a Mission Support Group, I was following a popular and successful commander. I’d be leading a very talented unit of 2,600 Airmen, civil service personnel, and contractors. They had a tremendous reputation for excellence.
A change in leadership is not a change in mission. -Military maxim
Standing in front of the assembled group of more than 150 staff to tell them they were being reorganized–again–was a little daunting to say the least. Everyone was clearly nervous about the change, but the leadership team assured them we would seize this latest change as an opportunity. However, embracing the change and looking for opportunities to make that change work for us was key to turning a potential disaster into success. Using a three step process we turned the reorg into an opportunity to chart our own future.… 
“A man has integrity if his interest in the good of the service is at all times greater than his personal pride, and when he holds himself to the same line of duty when unobserved as he would follow if his superiors were present”
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing”
“If a leader can’t describe the culture, the organization will never achieve it”
“In an honest service there is thin commons, low wages, and hard labor; in this, plenty and satiety, pleasure and ease, liberty and power…a merry life and a short one, shall be my motto.”
The ballplayer who loses his head, who can’t keep his cool, is worse than no ballplayer at all.
“You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.”
“People ask the difference between a leader and a boss … The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.”
There may be situations in military leadership where the leader must keep the team in the dark–but in 27 years service and commanding five units I’ve never found one. On the contrary, the question asked most often by military leaders and those they lead is, “
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