It’s more organized than Level 1. It’s also more rigid. In We’re All In, I described what I witnessed as a young officer in the U.S. Army in West Germany in the mid-1970s. It was, looking back, a perfect example of a Follower culture at scale. The Army was in crisis. The clash of a … Read more
Early in my career as a Major in the U.S. Army, I had the privilege of serving as aide-de-camp to General Crosbie Saint, then the Commander in Chief of U.S. Army Europe. We spent most of our time together in helicopters and jets, moving constantly across Western Europe and back across the Atlantic for meetings … Read more
Why Every CEO Needs a Trusted Advisor Who Has Been in the Trenches In the military, the battle buddy concept is non-negotiable. You never go anywhere alone. Your battle buddy is your trusted partner, the person who shares your risks, watches your blind spots, holds you accountable when it matters most, and tells you the … Read more
Where Does Your Organization Live? I didn’t always understand what a great culture looks like. As a young West Point cadet and later as an Army officer, I only had a vague notion of what culture was at all. Throughout my journey as a Soldier, though, I came to understand that there is a … Read more
When people show up but never buy in, and the clock is already running. In We’re All In, I described several case studies where cultures had decayed to the point of causing serious harm — not just to their bottom lines, but to real people. One of them was Barclays Bank. Barclays was among the leading … Read more
What the military concept of tactical patience can teach executive teams about making sound decisions under pressure. Chaos Doesn’t Destroy All In Adaptive Leaders. It Reveals Them. I recently joined Frank Zaccari on the Bounce Back in Business and Life podcast, and the conversation took me somewhere I find myself returning to often: what separates … Read more
