Unique Leadership Axiom: If You Leave A Buddy Behind, You Are The Enemy!
Children are self-centered survivalists. When they are choosing up sides for a sandlot football or baseball game they try to leave behind the ones who are least likely to contribute to a win. This crushes the moral of the kid who is the last one picked to play.
Today I had lunch with two men who have long served America in the U. S. Army. Along with all the musings about our past experience in the military we finally got around to what are you doing now? For a few minutes I held forth on my ideas about how complex system ideas can help us understand why military organizations often perform better that traditional business and non-military governmental or union dominated organizations.
Unique Leadership Axiom: Acquire the tools that give you vision to win.
“Own the night” is jargon which came from “WE OWN THE NIGHT”, a slogan. Slogans are another layer of jargon; they are the public face of the private language. Often the public face is specific in its significance. In this case the public face is both a boast and a recruiting slogan. A boast about the night vision goggles equipment used on the battlefield.
Unique Leadership Axiom: Day-To-Day Life is a local affair, but over the long haul the motivating decisions are made at the top.
Whatever you do, you have trained and practiced to be your best. As a soldier you have been through basic and now you are in advanced training. You are going to be a rifleman. So you go to the quartermaster to draw your equipment. There are pounds of it, but no weapon! … No rifle! Why?
Master Sergeant is the eighth rank up from the entry level in the Army. For this and every military rank there is a plethora of mandatory skills and attributes. It is the mastery of those skills and attributes that makes a soldier a eligible for that rank. Mastery makes a winner. Any rank is yours only if you have mastery of the necessary skills and attributes. If you have ever achieved mastery in any field, you understand that much lies behind the achievement, behind the associated label.
