Government Leadership: Retired Military Officers versus Lawyers, Scientists, Activists & Professional Politicians

So, this article was published on Linkedin on 08 December but I have only just read it. Written by Bob Ulin, Transition & Executive Coach, and Chairman & CEO, Center for Transitional Leadership, Inc. “A recent article in POLITICO noted “(General) Kelly’s military background raises interesting questions for his leadership of the department, said one… Read More

The Suit Does Not Make the Man…

“Let no man be so rash as to suppose that, in donning a general’s uniform, he is forthwith competent to perform a general’s functions; as reasonably might he assume that in putting on the robes of a judge he was ready to decide any point of law. . .” Dennis Hart Mahan, 1864 (in Dupuy,… Read More

The Army Sergeant-Major and Green Lines!

The Army Sergeant-Major of the British Army, WO1 Glenn Haughton, recently published his ‘Green Lines’, which for you business-orientated souls will look suspiciously like a company’s values statement. The Green Lines include: Leadership: Leadership is not a rank or a title, it is a behaviour. Fitness: Fitness should be at the heart of everything you… Read More

Generalship: Instinct versus Hard Study & Work

“Do make it clear that generalship, at least in my case, came not by instinct, unsought, but by understanding, hard study and brain concentration. Had it come easy to me I should not have done it as well.” T.E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) as quoted in Lawrence of Arabia by B.H.L. Hart. Reference Hale,… Read More

Commands: Divided or Undivided?

“Nothing is so important in war as an undivided command; for this reason, when war is carried on against a single power, there should be only one army, acting upon one base, and conducted by one chief.” One of the maxims from Napoleon’s Maxims of War. With notes by General Burnod, translated from French by… Read More

Leadership: Self-control, Pride & Animals!

“He [Genghis Khan] tried to teach them that the first key to leadership was self-control, particularly the mastery of pride, which was something more difficult, he explained, to subdue than a wild lion, and anger, which was more difficult to defeat than the greatest wrestler. He warned them that “if you can’t swallow your pride,… Read More