Six months after I left active duty with the US Air Force, I was thrilled to be hired by Wal-Mart into a leadership role in their Logistics division. I had operated as a leader in smaller groups in the USAF and could not wait to apply my military experience into a civilian career. Everything looked good – except for that pesky Open Door policy that Wal-Mart was committed to…
Tag Archives: Leadership
Vocabulary For Leaders, Words Three and Four
I’ve just returned to work after a vacation with family and dear friends from my US Air Force days. One of those friends, James (quoted here) has recently retired from active duty. In one of our customary late night socializing sessions, C-Dog asked James, as James was discussing his post-military career plans, what he was good at. James’ response?
Leading people.
Ah ha! A favorite theme! Maybe time for a quick observation on another essential element of leadership: appreciation. Continue reading
Filed under Essays
Cards Against Humanity as a Lesson in Leadership
Reporting in from the beach, our first morning.
Last night in the midst of a vicious game of Cards Against Humanity, James dropped a little nugget of wisdom on us all. Insightful and relevant to leadership. The succinct observation?
Diversity; or, “Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign”
Last night I had dinner with a coworker from a different office. He’s in town for work this week and we met tonight for some good food and great conversation. It got my thinking about a topic that I think is essential to leadership- and leadership is something near and dear to my heart. The topic we were talking about was diversity.
In his book Winning, Jack Welch quickly dismisses mission statements that reference integrity. It’s assumed- integrity for an organization is table stakes. You’ve got to have it just to sit down at the table and be dealt a hand. There’s nothing special about an organization (or leader!) placing a value on integrity. It’s expected- move on. Tell us something special.
Diversity, or more appropriately, understanding the value of diversity, is similar table stakes for a leader. There’s nothing magical about it. But you’d better understand it if you want to be an effective leader. Moreover, you owe it to your people if you are in a leadership position.
Filed under Essays
The Invisible Man Never Led Anyone…
So if you caught any of my stuff last week (like this) then you know that I was traveling for work. I’ve been on the road plenty so far this year and expect to keep traveling throughout the rest of the year. Last week, I was in one of the larger organization’s field offices visiting a small team within my group. We have recently changed some of the reporting relationships in my group and so this team now reports in to me. I’ve been a part of this group for about a year and have not been to this office in this role so, based on the new reporting structure, it was the perfect time to visit them.
Out there for most of the week, I had a lot of time to think about a favorite topic of mine. As these thoughts have now been brewing for about a week, I’m ready to put them down on (virtual) paper. So our topic for this evening is- leadership!
TMPinSYR 