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Happy Anniversary to Cowardly Leadership! [caption id="attachment_627" align="alignright" width="143"] Happy 1st Anniversary to Cowardly Leadership![/caption] Sixty-five posts ago, with It's What You Do After You Get There, Cowardly Leadership-Up Close and Personal was launched.  The week before Christmas may, or may not, have been the best timing, but it is when the opportunity and subjects were available. Subject Matter As I've written about over the past year, I have worked directly for two cowardly leaders in my career.  These are people who are in positions of power and authority, but are not Leaders and therefore are always referred to as lower case leaders.   Cowardly leaders are in positions of authority in all walks of life.  Since my background has been primarily in local government, I have focused my personal observations to those that, also, work…

Full Disclosure- the idea for this and some of the material herein is borrowed from James Altucher, whom I quote regularly here at Cowardly Leadership-Up Close and Personal.  This material is from his posting 10 Reasons Your Boss Hates You here 6 Reasons Your Boss is Incompetent 1.  You're More Qualified At the local government level, which is the platform I use since it's the profession I worked in for 30+ years, many people in senior positions are there for the wrong reasons.  Now, without question, the majority of colleagues I worked with at the department head level were smart, dedicated, talented, and creative.  Many of them were game-changers.  But at the level above them are the elected officials and appointed officials.    And just as often, the majority of them are in their…

Disciplines cowardly leaders don't practice-So You Should! Sergeant Major Dailey is an E9- the very highest ranking an enlisted member of the U.S. Army can attain.  So he's been around, has shown excellent leadership over his career, and knows a few things.  He wrote a "Top 10 to Sergeants Major" Army-wide, so I'm borrowing significant points and broadening it for use by leaders anywhere. Set The Example If you’re not out there saluting the flag  and performing PT (Physical Training, i.e. running) every morning at 6:30, you can automatically assume your soldiers are not. Soldiers don’t care if you’re in first place. They just want to see you out there. This is a team sport. Moral:  Same goes with any employee anywhere.  Set the example.  Be the first in to the office-…

The Cowardly Golfer As many of you know, I enjoy golf, and in fact have started a golf website and newsletter at www.ShootingYourAge.com.  One of the reasons I enjoy golf is due to the fact it's the one sport that expects the player to call their own penalties.  Ball moved?  It's your responsibility to call a penalty on yourself.  Marking your ball on the green?  The assumption by everyone is that you will mark it exactly where it was before.  The game's foundation is built on integrity and honesty, with the expectation that everyone else will play by the highest standards. As you might expect, cowardly leaders are also cowardly golfers, and have a difficult time accepting these parameters. [caption id="attachment_605" align="alignright" width="286"] Cowardly Leaders make up their own rules on the golf course also[/caption] The…

Strategic Leadership Lessons from Flag Officers Those who have been reading Cowardly Leadership-Up Close and Personal over the last year know that I feel strongly about the exemplary leadership that military officers have shown throughout our country's history.  I've mentioned Washington's leadership of a volunteer militia with the bare minimum of food and ammunition- yet an effort that resulted in the creation of this country.  I've discussed Colonel Chamberlain's leadership of the 20th Maine at Gettysburg, Patton in World War II, [Watch the iconic opening scene] and as a more recent example, General Mattis' Command Guidance principles as Commander of First Marine Division. [There are affiliate links both above and below.  If you click on a link and purchase a product, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.  It's a…

5 More Great Leadership Books This is a continuation of last week's "My 10 favorite leadership books that I own" series.  And with the holidays quickly approaching, a great book is always a great gift.  At least it always is for me. This post has affiliate links.  If you click on a link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.  A win-win for both of us! Without further adieu... The Second Five F.  The Tipping Point It's hard to believe that this came out 15 years ago.  The Tipping Point was the book that put Malcolm Gladwell on the map, and introduces the concept that a small, insignificant change, or group of people, can lead to major shifts in history.  From a leadership perspective,…

Leadership Books Make Great Gifts I reference books about leadership, and authors who write books about leadership a lot.  A LOT.  And since the holidays will soon be upon us (Canada has already celebrated Thanksgiving, so I guess the holidays ARE upon us), I thought it would be the perfect time to give you my Top 10 favorite books on Leadership.  Five will be introduced and explored this week, and five next week.  Any one of these would be a great gift for someone in a leadership position.  Or- to just sit with during the holidays and see how someone else made it (or didn't make it) work. I have read each of these, and have most of them in my bookcase now.  Some I read and passed on to others, or…

Disclaimer:  This blog may contain affiliate links, or advertising, and if you click on a link and ultimately purchase a product, I will receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.    A win-win for both of us.  On to the show... Abuse of Power I was watching the Today Show last week and saw a feature on President George W. Bush's twin girls Barbara and Jenna. Although this blog often deals with the subject of abuse of power, we have had several national examples that have come to light recently that highlight the various ways power is abused.  As I've said many times over the past several months, "Power is not leadership."  It never ceases to surprise me how many people who are in positions of power automatically assume…

I read a quote recently from Simon Sinek. "Bad leaders provide the structure to come to work.  Good leaders provide the passion to come to work." Adapting that a little, I'd say:  "Cowardly leaders provide the structure to come to work; True Leaders provide the reason, and passion, and enthusiasm and excitement- to come to work." Structure vs. Passion Cowardly leaders operate from an autocratic, dictatorial perspective.  A cowardly leader is very power-centric, and power requires discipline and structure and order to be in place.  Many of us have worked in organizations that encouraged free thought, and strategic thinking.  In organizations that advocated and celebrated "thinking outside the box."  I'm not a big fan of that term, but we all know what it means. These are organizations that are, almost without exception, successful.  As…

“If you’re going to tell me how to do my job, you should at least know how to do my job.”   DOING MY JOB The worst two people in authority (not Leaders) I ever worked for had several things in common.  One that was common to both, was their insistence that they “knew” everything there was to know about my job.  The job, by the way, they hired me to do. Cowardly leaders tend to fall into one of two extreme categories.  The first is, they wash their hands of any responsibility and turn their back on the position they were elected or appointed to.  The other extreme is when they micro-manage.  They insist that decisions be sent to them first.  Nothing can be implemented until they approve. But…