The Leader's Place is Not in Management

“Lieutenant McKinnon, you are dead!”
I’ll never forget those words, barked at me by the Captain evaluating me on a dusty, hot morning at Fort Knox, Kentucky, early in my officer training. I was leading a six-man team of fellow officers through a series of Leadership Simulation Exercises — the Army’s version of leadership training scenarios like you might encounter in an Outward Bound-type setting. We had a problem, in this case, getting our entire team to the other side of a “room” laced with tripwires and “explosives,” that we had to solve in a limited amount of time. Rapid-fire assessment, delegation, direction-setting, monitoring and action were demanded in a pressure-filled, time-limited environment. The grade would either by Mission Accomplished or Mission Failure — no in-between.
Sound like one of your days at the office?

Leaders in the Headlines

I’ve grown weary of reading the bad news in the print and internet media over the past week (see what I did about it at the bottom of this post).  So I decided to look at the Leaders I see in action around me who are writing their own headlines . . . CEO, CFO […]