Lead High Performance | Col Mickey Addison
Leadership author and speaker
Lead High Performance | Col Mickey Addison
Leadership author and speaker
In the realm of corporate governance and financial management, there are theories used to
predict the behavior of a company’s manager in the absence of the company’s owner. In other
words, these theories predict how that manager, if left to their own devices, will handle the
assets for which they are responsible.
In last week’s post I discussed an example of an “honest mistake” using an example from an HBO dramatization of the Apollo Moon program in the 1960s. Today, we discuss crimes.
Recently, the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church many of us thought was behind us has been thrust back into the spotlight. According to what I’ve read, it was brought about largely because men in positions of authority either lacked the moral courage to act or worse, condoned the behavior of men committing crimes against […]
This week I’m pleased to bring you my guest post on The Outbound Collective. Be sure to click the link and show them some love! My mom was a prolific writer and tried mightily to get her short story published about the vacations she used to take with her 4 siblings and her mom and dad […]
This week I’m pleased to bring you my guest post on the Society of American Military Engineer’s Bricks & Clicks Blog. Be sure to click the link and show them some love! Every time I come back from the Society of American Military Engineers Joint Engineer Training Conference (“JETC”), I find myself sorting through a […]
I don’t need to tell anyone that sometimes people with–shall we say strong political views?–have difficulty communicating below the 100 decibel level, especially on social media. Navigating the office and social media environment in the age of the 24 hour news cycle while maintaining your sanity and your friendships is not as easy as it once was. But […]
All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days . . .nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin. -John F. Kennedy My first month as Mission Support Group Commander at the Air Force Academy was […]
When things go wrong in your command, start wading for the reason in increasing larger concentric circles around your own desk. – General Bruce D. Clark Standing on the platform in front of troops and family for the fourth time to take command, this time of a Mission Support Group, I was following a popular […]
Every four years or so we grade our leaders on their “First 100 Days,” but other than watching pundits debate on TV what does that mean for us? It’s an opportunity for us to take a look at our own progress toward our goals. We’re certainly not going to have Bret Baier talking about our […]
Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time. -George W. Bush This month, I continue my series on successful leadership transition. If you missed the first part, you can go back and read it here. When we accept a leadership position we accept two things: […]
It was the second time I’d been sent to fix a broken unit, only this time the unit didn’t know they were broken. The team had all the externals of a high performing team, but only on the surface. Below the surface, they were dysfunctional and broken. The organizational chart bore little resemblance to […]
The military change of command ceremony is rooted in centuries of tradition back to the time of Frederick the Great. In the days before radio communications, the unit’s commander used his flag as a symbol of command and to signal movements on the battlefield. Leaders would physically hand the unit’s organizational flag from the outgoing […]
A change in leadership is not a change in mission. -Military maxim The focus of January is the transition of leadership in the White House, so it’s a good time to talk about how successful leaders transition. I believe we do leadership transition well in the military, so there’s some lessons there for others. Every […]
I tried to stay out of sight, but I just had to return the car keys. Calling my now former deputy, I asked him to meet me in the parking lot so I could return his car keys. “Why don’t you just come up?” he asked. “I’ve already said my good-byes,” I replied, “it would […]
There has been considerable talk in the press and in the blogs on the importance of people treating each other with respect. It’s a subject I write about often because it’s central to leaders inspiring people to be their best, and groups forming into high performing teams. Whether it’s travelling, shopping in a crowd, or […]
Ask any HR professional and they’ll tell you how recruiting quality people and then developing them is much more a cost-effective business model than constantly seeking the perfect match. When Tom Landry and Tex Schramm led the Dallas Cowboys, they rarely recruited players for a particular position. They went looking for the best athlete they […]
I missed the block. The defensive end was my guy to block and I missed him, so our quarterback, Louis, ended up on his back. Again. I felt terrible—we were already struggling and now I’d made a mistake that cost us another 10 yards and Louis some undeserved bruises. Finally, I couldn’t hold it back […]
“A man has integrity if his interest in the good of the service is at all times greater than his personal pride, and when he holds himself to the same line of duty when unobserved as he would follow if his superiors were present” – General S.L.A. Marshall It was very dark and cold on […]
I don’t know what it is that I’m doing, but I sure as heck keep doing it! – Gilligan If you’re a member of a certain “experienced” generation—ahem, mine—then you’ll remember a television show called Gilligan’s Island. It was one of my favorites, and there was often a lesson in the antics of the hapless […]
In 2013, I completed a personal goal of riding in the Honolulu Century Ride, 100 miles through the beautiful Hawaiian countryside and back to Honolulu. It’s a great lesson in goal setting. In 2013, I accomplished a personal goal by completing a “century” bicycle ride. On hundred miles in six and a half hours flat on […]