With a father and sons weekend in the offing, I’ll keep the shorts short (bad combination of words!) and offer you encouragement to get out and enjoy the all too fast-moving weekends of summer. Here in the Midwest, we feel good about cracking 2-digits on the number of weekends that make up our available summer, so, there is no time to waste.
Some quick-thoughts and fast links:
-The Rolling Stone and a Presidential Leadership Dilemma
It seems as if I may be the only person in America that thought that General McChrystal should not have been fired for some ill-advised name calling. I had the good fortune to poll Veterans old and new as well as anyone else that would opine. The Veterans in particular were unanimous in support of the decision. While some agonized over the loss of a good man and the destruction of a career, all that I spoke with agreed the line had been crossed.
As an aside, I never tire of listening to those that have served. They offer inspiration and education in every conversation.
Leadership Tip of the Day and The “I Want to Lead” Series of posts at Building Better Leaders
When Rich and I wrote Practical Lessons in Leadership, one of my early chapters included a segment on “The 7 Questions for Ambitious, Aspiring Leaders.” This was intended to prompt some appropriate investigation on the part of aspiring leaders and offer experienced managers a tool to leverage when responding to the “Hey, I think I’m ready to lead,” pronouncements of their team members.
I am running a blog series featuring each question and some supporting suggestions as part of my Leadership Tip of the Day program at Building Better Leaders. This week, I wrote on the first two questions:
#2 “Do you understand the true role of a leader?”
Along with:
And
“7 Signs Your Leadership Approach is Working“
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Enjoy your weekends! I’ll be back Monday with a fresh cup of Iced Leadership Caffeine!
Art, I agree with you on the firing of McChrystal under civilian guidelines. However, I read somewhere that military “code” (or some such) prohibits personnel from speaking out publicly and negatively against their superiors. In that case, it might be possible that the firing was justified (technically the General submitted a resignation that was accepted by the President). I wonder if one of your readers might be able to confirm that military “code”.
Mary Jo, my “military advisors” have assured me that there was no choice in this situation. My read on history tells me that there have been many of these conflicts that were not dealt with in such absolute fashion. Of course, there were many others dealt with in far more aggressive terms. Would love to hear from other veterans. Thanks for adding your always valued perspective! -Art