Articles

Following is an excerpt from my upcoming book on leadership. The advice is for anyone in a leadership role that wants to sharpen their skills and get more production out of their team. The hard-won knowledge applies to any size business, whether a two-person operation or a 20,000-person operation or more.

You should have seen the look on “The Knife’s” face when I told him if the squadron was ordered to war I was not going!

“What? Why?” Sife the Knife, demanded.

I swallowed hard and told him, “I’m not going to war because our squadron is not combat ready!”

“Sife the Knife” was the nick name of our new squadron executive officer. At the time, I had been in the squadron for a year and I had yet to start my tactical flight training. I was month’s behind my peers in sister squadrons. The sad part about it was that every other copilot in my squadron was also behind. How “Sife the Knife” reacted to my outburst reveals much of what someone should do to be a successful leader. (Keep reading).

In my nearly 37-years in uniform I’ve been exposed to numerous leadership styles, some superb and inspiring, others far from it. As one of my commanders once said, “You learn as much from the bad leaders as you do from the good.” Wise words.

Following is an excerpt from my upcoming book on leadership. The advice is for anyone in a leadership role that wants to sharpen their skills and get more production out of their team. The hard-won knowledge applies to any size business, whether a two-person operation or a 20,000-person operation or more.

“A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door.” Confucius

The aircraft was losing altitude and there weren’t many options available. We were flying over thick jungle vegetation and if I didn’t quickly come up with a plan it would simply be a matter of time before the helicopter I was flying would augur into the ground.

Always plan for the unexpected

From the first day a student pilot starts flight training there is one theme that is drilled into your head, particularly when you are flying a single engine aircraft; always plan for the unexpected. Where are you going to go if the engine stops working? If you are smart you carry that thought with you throughout your flying career.

I did and was better for it. I had to put that line of thinking to use one hot, humid morning in then northeast corner of Kenya. I was in squadron command in the middle of a seven-month deployment aboard a U.S. Navy ship. My squadron was one piece of a larger unit, a Marine Expeditionary Unit, which consisted of a reinforced infantry battalion, a reinforced helicopter squadron and a combat logistics