We don’t coddle people. We care for them. Some leaders are soft. They mistakenly believe that being nice is always the best choice. Unfortunately, they miss the point. The goal of leadership is not being nice. A leader’s calling is to make the people around them better. Sometimes making someone better means we care about […]
Read More
Twenty-five years ago, I thought I had it all figured out. I believed I understood leadership, and I understood marriage. Boy was I naive! I look back now and see how many leadership lessons marriage has taught me.
Read More
Leadership is fun – right up until you have to make those first tough decisions. Everyone goes through this transition from eager new leader ready to change the world, to the realization that the decisions involved in leading are a lot harder than they look from the outside.
Read More
The victim mentality is everywhere. In business, in non-profits, in schools, and in homes that mentality destroys any opportunity for team and individual success. When a leader embraces the victim mentality, the best case scenario is the leader will be marginalized and ignored. The worst case scenario is the rest of the team become victims […]
Read More
Many leaders would rather eat a bug than admit to others they made a mistake or expose a weakness. Exposing your own failures is not a sign of weakness. Hiding your failures is! Nobody believes we are perfect. In fact, when we own up to our own weaknesses, we are rarely telling them anything they don’t […]
Read More
Our actions create followers more than our words do. The actions of an introverted Leader of Character will lead a team to excellence before the eloquent words of hypocritical extrovert. Thank goodness politicians are not the only examples we have for leadership. Rarely do their words match their actions. They may be great speakers, but […]
Read More
You can be an unethical rule follower. All organizations have rules and regulations people must follow. But many organizations fail to consider that we can all be unethical rule followers. Just because we do not break the law or a corporate regulation does not make us a person of Integrity.
Read More
If you want an easy life, then ignore this post. Character is not that complicated a subject to discuss. But, character is hard to do. That is why so few of today’s leaders do the hard work required to exercise character.
Read More
We are not going to candy coat this blog with euphemisms. Let’s just be honest with ourselves. A liar tells lies. A coward is too scared to do what is right. An egomaniac puts himself first. When we use a euphemism to describe our behaviors, it is usually a tool to make us feel better […]
Read More
“I’ve lost faith in my leaders. How do I get it back?” Great question! What do you do when you have lost faith in your leaders? They’ve let you down? They’ve broken your trust? They’ve fallen short of who you expected them to be?
Some organizations do not have people ready to step into a vacant leadership position. The issue in most of these situations is not a lack of talent, but a lack of people development. And that is the leader’s job. If you’re people are not growing, you are probably not leading.
Read More
Twenty somethings, you’ve been given bad advice. “Get a marketable degree and good grades from a big university. Get advanced degrees and have a lot of letters following your name. Get certified in something and publish papers.” When you are in your twenties, people tell you these things. That bad advice is well intentioned. But […]
Read More
If you are in your twenties, I have news for you. You did not get what you needed in high school and college if you are planning to be a leader. On top of that, most companies will not invest in developing you as a leader until you are already in a leadership position. What’s […]
Read More
If you are Twenty-Something years old, the time to begin leading is NOW! Too many of us in the older generations sat back and waited. Many of us thought because of our lack of age or experience, our only job was to follow. That attitude has created a leadership void in businesses and in society […]
Read More
“The velocity of business today prevents me from spending time on developing my people.” , admitted the senior leader. I was leading a table discussion among the senior leadership team of a multi-billion dollar company, and this leader was humble enough to admit the truth. He’s not alone. Almost everyone is being asked to do more […]
Read More
We don’t lack smart people in business these days. Smart people are everywhere. We lack leaders. The latest studies are proving leadership equates to profits. Developing good leaders does more to effect the bottom line of an organization than hiring yet another top graduate from a famous school.
Read More
Just because we hand somebody a new set of tools, it does not make him a carpenter. Many corporate initiatives in leader development do the same thing. They hand out good tools and wonder why the people aren’t becoming better leaders.
Read More
“I know what I am doing now.” That is what I thought after a few years leading sales teams. I thought I had arrived. But each time I allowed myself to think that, I was proven wrong. It took awhile, but I finally realized becoming a leader has no end point.
Read More
If we are not developing our people, we should stop calling ourselves leaders! I don’t know why leaders ignore the coaching part of their jobs. But I work with so many organizations and hear the same story again and again. “I never hear from my boss unless something is wrong.” “I get feedback once a […]
Read More
“If you want to accomplish something you have never accomplished before you must start doing things you have never done before.” Those words hit me hard a few years ago. The truth is: Your Comfort Zone is Also Your Mediocrity Zone If you want to be average – if you want to be the same […]
Many leaders would rather eat a bug than admit to others they made a mistake or expose a weakness. Exposing your own failures is not a sign of weakness. Hiding your failures is! Nobody believes we are perfect. In fact, when we own up to our own weaknesses, we are rarely telling them anything they don’t […]
Read More
If you want an easy life, then ignore this post. Character is not that complicated a subject to discuss. But, character is hard to do. That is why so few of today’s leaders do the hard work required to exercise character.
Read More
We are not going to candy coat this blog with euphemisms. Let’s just be honest with ourselves. A liar tells lies. A coward is too scared to do what is right. An egomaniac puts himself first. When we use a euphemism to describe our behaviors, it is usually a tool to make us feel better […]
Read More
Don’t play the blame game. Problem finders are everywhere. It does not take a PhD, a MBA or even a GED to be a good problem finder. It takes no skill or advanced education to point fingers. Problem finders usually wallow at the lower levels in organizations and rarely make it past middle management.
Read More
Don’t be deceived. Self-discipline is not just about ourselves. We often think of self-discipline as it relates to diet, exercise, or other personal goals. But as a leader, our self-discipline effects those we are called to lead as well.
Read More
Thirty-four years ago this week, I entered the United States Military Academy at West Point as part of the Class of 1988. That first week, we had to learn the West Point Cadet Prayer. This week the Class of 2022 began their journey as part of the “Long Gray Line”.
Read More
Untrustworthy. Poor communication. Poor listening. Micromanaging. Selfishness. Uncaring. Demeaning. Many people believe if you fix these things you will fix a bad leader. But these are just the signs of a bad leader. They don’t identify the root cause of bad leadership.
Read More
When you are dealt a bad hand, you can choose to exercise great Positivity or you can wallow in self-pity. It is your choice. Iesha Champs made her choice. She chose her attitude and went from homeless to law school. Read her story and see how great Positivity can change your world.
Read More
Athletes have the opportunity to exercise great Integrity every time they play the game. But, many times we see great athletes result to gamesmanship instead of sportsmanship. They sacrifice their Integrity in order to gain an advantage. But, there are some athletes who do the right thing – even at personal cost. Here is one example […]
Read More
We all want to follow leaders who exercise Humility. Yet when you see leadership failures, so many of those failures are the result of a leader’s pride. The leader won’t listen to another person’s opinion. The leader refuses to admit they might be wrong. Or the leader is more interested in how they look to […]
If everything is a priority then nothing is. I sat in hundreds of meetings in the twenty years I spent in the corporate world where we discussed our need to focus.
The irony is we developed new areas for focus at each meeting, but we never eliminated a thing from our to do list. We just kept adding and adding and adding….
Mr. Miagi told young Daniel to “Focus, Danielson. Focus.” I heard it and believed! But the question that The Karate Kid did not answer was – How?
Diffusion of Effort versus Focus
Focus requires elimination. Acquiring and maintaining focus through elimination is a discipline.
Elimination is a discipline the most productive people have. It is a discipline that underperforming yet talented people need to cultivate. The same can be said for businesses as well.
Establishing Priorities
We all need to prioritize our lives. Few people will argue with that sentiment. At best, anyone failing to effectively prioritize will have mediocre results. At worst, they will have a life full of failures and missed opportunities.
I am not writing this to convince anyone they need to have priorities. If you are reading this and you are floating through life without any goals, please email me privately so we can discuss this–no charge for that coaching session!
This post is for those of us who see the need to set priorities and goals. The issue is not recognition of the need for priorities. The issue for us tends to be successful follow-through.
How Many Priorities?
Periodically, I look in the mirror and realize I am sliding towards a life of mediocrity. I have allowed my to do list to grow to unrealistic lengths. My priorities are still on that list, but they are drowning among less important items.
Interestingly, I was probably better at keeping my teams focused on their priorities than I was on doing it for myself. We started with a long list and pared it down to just a few items at each meeting.
I thought I was helping my team when I would narrow our priorities to 3-5 per quarter. I knew we were ahead of the curve. Many of my peers and competitors walked out of meetings with 10-15 goals.
I Wasn’t Right. I Was Just Less Wrong!
Well the Covey Group did a study that showed I wasn’t right. I was just less wrong than those other leaders.
Covey evaluated the number of goals people established versus the number that were actually accomplished. They found that the number of goals a person or organization sets is inversely proportional to the number they actually achieve.
Number of Goals
2-3
4-10
11-20
Goals Achieved with Excellence
2-3
1-2
0
One or two priorities! That’s it! It may sound good to have more. But it sounds even better if I am actually accomplishing the priorities I set!
Sometimes I find I started with an unrealistically long list. Other times the issue is a new opportunity that I don’t want to miss out on. So my list grows. Either way, I must discipline myself to begin eliminating.
Old Priorities
If I have too many priorities, I must be disciplined in eliminating the good ones in favor of keeping the best ones. The question I need to ask myself is:
“What one or two things will have the biggest impact?”
(On my life, my family or my team- depending on the setting)
Impact is the key! I need to discipline myself to answer these questions:
What will be the magnitude of the impact if I accomplish this goal?
What is the worst that will happen if I do not accomplish the goal?
What will make the biggest difference on my life, for my family or for my team if it gets accomplished?
If it does not rank in the top two, it is not my priority! It may be a good goal to have, but it is not my best one.
New Priorities
Once I have established a set of goals or priorities, I must be disciplined in avoiding “goal creep.” Personally, this is my downfall. I can get excited over a lot of new and shiny strategies. I can convince myself very easily to expand my priority list.
They seem to all have promise. They make sense and others are implementing them. I want to innovate and jump on things so I don’t miss out.
This discipline of elimination requires me to evaluate the new opportunity versus the priorities I have already established.
Question: Is this new opportunity better than what is already on my list?
Answer: No. Then it is not a priority.
Answer: Yes. Then I must eliminate one of the other priorities before I begin to work on the new opportunity.
The idea that I can maintain focus by adding something else to my to do list is a fallacy. Focus can not occur through the defusion of effort. If I truly want to focus, I must brutally evaluate every new opportunity in comparison to my established goals.
The Bottom Line:
To achieve our goals the key for many of us is the discipline of elimination. I know that when I turn off the radio, my cell phone, and my email, I can write a blog in half the time it takes me to write one otherwise.
Why? The Discipline of Elimination works. When I write, I know my priority so I eliminate the good in favor of the best. I have a singular focus, and therefore I am more productive.
I have tried it the other way and my results were underwhelming. I am sure you have had that same experience at some point personally, at work or in your family.
I can’t make everything a priority and expect to get anything done. Whether it is a daily to do list, a quarterly business plan, or a family five year plan, focusing on the priorities requires elimination.
For me, the real goal is to eliminate stagnation and mediocrity. If I am to do this, I must eliminate the good goals in my life in favor of the best.
Question:
What part of the discipline of elimination can you implement with yourself, at work, or with your family?
We don’t coddle people. We care for them. Some leaders are soft. They mistakenly believe that being nice is always the best choice. Unfortunately, they miss the point. The goal of leadership is not being nice. A leader’s calling is to make the people around them better. Sometimes making someone better means we care about […]
Read More
Twenty-five years ago, I thought I had it all figured out. I believed I understood leadership, and I understood marriage. Boy was I naive! I look back now and see how many leadership lessons marriage has taught me.
Read More
Leadership is fun – right up until you have to make those first tough decisions. Everyone goes through this transition from eager new leader ready to change the world, to the realization that the decisions involved in leading are a lot harder than they look from the outside.
Read More
The victim mentality is everywhere. In business, in non-profits, in schools, and in homes that mentality destroys any opportunity for team and individual success. When a leader embraces the victim mentality, the best case scenario is the leader will be marginalized and ignored. The worst case scenario is the rest of the team become victims […]
Read More
Many leaders would rather eat a bug than admit to others they made a mistake or expose a weakness. Exposing your own failures is not a sign of weakness. Hiding your failures is! Nobody believes we are perfect. In fact, when we own up to our own weaknesses, we are rarely telling them anything they don’t […]
Read More
Our actions create followers more than our words do. The actions of an introverted Leader of Character will lead a team to excellence before the eloquent words of hypocritical extrovert. Thank goodness politicians are not the only examples we have for leadership. Rarely do their words match their actions. They may be great speakers, but […]
Read More
You can be an unethical rule follower. All organizations have rules and regulations people must follow. But many organizations fail to consider that we can all be unethical rule followers. Just because we do not break the law or a corporate regulation does not make us a person of Integrity.
Read More
If you want an easy life, then ignore this post. Character is not that complicated a subject to discuss. But, character is hard to do. That is why so few of today’s leaders do the hard work required to exercise character.
Read More
We are not going to candy coat this blog with euphemisms. Let’s just be honest with ourselves. A liar tells lies. A coward is too scared to do what is right. An egomaniac puts himself first. When we use a euphemism to describe our behaviors, it is usually a tool to make us feel better […]
Read More
“I’ve lost faith in my leaders. How do I get it back?” Great question! What do you do when you have lost faith in your leaders? They’ve let you down? They’ve broken your trust? They’ve fallen short of who you expected them to be?
Graduated: Over 450 East Texas Business Leaders since 2012.
Local: An East Texas Business designed to serve East Texas Businesses.
Follow-up: Not a leadership event. A leadership program that includes accountability and coaching from session to session.
Frontlines to the C-Suite Leaders Program: 6 Sessions
The #1 reason for employee turnover is their frontline manager. The #2 reason is the trust they have in upper management. The goal of this program is to serve our clients through training their leaders from the C-Suite to the Frontlines. A team with great leaders at every level will always beat a team with good leadership only at the top.
Session 1: Becoming a Leader of Character: Courage, Humility and Integrity Session 2: Becoming a Leader of Character: Selflessness, Duty, and Positivity Session 3: Communicate Like Leaders Session 4: Building a Winning Culture – Organizational Character Session 5: Priority Management and Goal Setting Session 6: Leadership Case Studies
Next Class begins August 2018
A La Carte Classes
We also have a menu of shorter A La Carte Classes including lunch & learns, half-day, and full day seminars. To see currently scheduled A La Carte Classes click the button below:
A La Carte Classes
Sustainability Tools
The whirlwind of a leader’s job often causes them to lose sight of the goals they develop as part of many leadership seminars. Express Leadership University can implement different tools to help the busy and overwhelmed manager “keep his/her eye on the ball” between sessions.
Conference Calls
You Tube Reminder Videos
Pre-arranged Individual Telephone or Live Coaching
Articles and/or case studies for review and discussion
Contact Dave about Express Leadership University
Contact Dave
Dave’s use of real life stories and more importantly his personal investment in his client groups truly make his message impactful. I cannot remember a trainer ever conducting the amount of advance work that Dave does, and it provides a level of customization that is unmatched.
Pat Stacey VP / General Manager, KLTV-TV
2011 Emmy Award Winner
As a seasoned executive, it is essential to me that my continuing professional development complements my years of experience and considers important shifts in business and nonprofit industry standards. This leadership program was impactful, relevant and current. I am pleased to say, the six-month leadership program more that met my expectations. I left each month with new, practical and applicable information. To find a program that encompasses so many facets of leadership and has a mentoring aspect is rare. I would highly recommend this program to anyone who is interested in building a stronger team, improving their communication skills, or simply becoming a better leader.
Becoming Officers and Leaders of Character – ONLINE
If you don’t have time for live training…or
If you want to augment what you learned live…or
If you want more after reading the book…or
If you want your entire department to hear this…then
This course is for you!
Learn More Here
Interested in Hosting Training?
3/14/23 – 3/16/23 (Three Day: Modules 1 – 3 Host: New Braunfels Police Department, New Braunfels, TX)
Register for a Class
Officers and Agencies of Character
Module 1: How to Become an Officer of Character
The Foundational Habits of Character –Courage, Humility, Integrity,Selflessness, Duty, and Positivity
Plus: A Copy of the Best Seller – Becoming a Leader of Character
Plus: 6 Months of Follow-up training resources – Becoming an Officer of Character Companion Guide (NEW)
Appropriate Audience: All
Duration: 8 hours
Module 2: How to Communicate with Character
Prerequisite Module 1
Part 1: Communicating with Character (DISC)
Part 2: Courageous Communications (Conflict with Different Personalities)
Appropriate Audience: All
Duration: 8 hours
Module 3: Becoming a Team of Character
Prerequisite Module 1
Part 1: Building Organizational Character
Part 2: Building a Committed Team
Appropriate Audience:
Those currently leading or about to take over leadership positions.
Duration: 8 hours
Download Full Curricula
“The material presented by Dave Anderson is perhaps the most relevant leadership training material I’ve ever encountered. To first read about why most leadership failures are failures of character in “Becoming a Leader of Character” and then to hear Dave explain it were two of the most profound “aha!” moments of my professional life. To drive this point home, Dave has an ultra-simple approach which emphasizes for his audience that we choose to follow leaders not because of what they know but rather because of who they are. Who we are is defined by our character. It really is that simple, but there is so much more! I look forward to experiencing how this material can help to raise my organization to the next level.”
Check out Dave’s Amazon Best Seller, Becoming a Leader of Character.
Order the Book
I’m Dave Anderson, a West Point graduate, a Character Evangelist and a family man. I’m based in Tyler, TX, but serve businesses all over the world.
More about Dave Anderson
Click here to receive my blog posts by e-mail. Sign me up!
Dell Astra Zeneca Pharmaceuticals EOG Resources United Way Worldwide Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals Sadler’s Smokehouse East Texas Medical Center The Genesis Group GE Healthcare Oncor Electricity Regions Bank Austin Bank Heartland Insurance
Express Employment Professionals
“Like most people in management, I spend a good deal of time in pursuit of the skills associated with leadership. I read books, I take seminars, I watch TED talks, I read my Bible, I pray…But recently I began with Dave Anderson….small group sessions with different layers of management from local companies. Not an inexpensive investment on the surface, but I received more value in the first session than in all of the seminars and workbooks from the last 20 years put together….Make the call. Call me if you’d like an endorsement. Those that know me, know I don’t endorse often.”
My dad, General (retired) Jim Anderson, served active duty in the U. S. Army for 41 years. He graduated from West Point in 1956, became an Army Ranger and was later an instructor at the Ranger School. He served two tours in Vietnam earning many combat medals to include 2 Purple Hearts, 2 Bronze Stars for Valor, and a Silver Star.
He became the Master of the Sword (click to see history of the title) a.k.a. Department Head, Department of Physical Education) in 1973 and spent the next 24 years of his life dedicated to developing leaders of character at his alma mater. Since retiring from the military in 1997, he has dedicated his life to promoting the value of character-based leadership impacting more than 100 Fortune 500 companies and multiple governmental agencies. His complete bio is listed below.
Childhood and College:
General Jim Anderson was raised in a county orphanage in New Lexington, Ohio. His father left his children at the orphanage soon after his wife’s death. The orphanage was a working farm that was run by a strict but caring German couple. Every child had chores. Some of young Jim’s responsibilities included milking the cows and feeding the chickens every morning before school. Every Christmas, he had was given the privilege of reading the Christmas story (Luke 2:1-21) from the King James Version. In high school, he graduated at the top of his class and was quarterback and captain of his football team. He was recruited by Woody Hayes to play football at Ohio State, but realized “I didn’t have a particularly good arm and I wasn’t very fast.” Knowing that the only way to afford college was to get a scholarship, he applied to West Point.
After graduating from high school in 1951, he had to wait a year to get his congressional nomination to West Point. He enlisted in the fledgling Air Force, was stationed at Lackland AFB in San Antonio and was immediately promoted to Sergeant because of his high testing scores. Soon however, he was assigned to the United States Military Academy Prep School and entered West Point in the summer of 1952.
During his four years at West Point, he played varsity lacrosse. His best memory of lacrosse was playing against NFL football great Jim Brown, while Brown was at Syracuse. Jim Anderson graduated from the United States Military Academy with the Class of 1956.
The Army
Upon graduation, General Anderson was commissioned in the Infantry, attended Airborne School and was honor graduate from Ranger School. He served in Germany from 1957-1960. He returned to the Ranger detachment as an instructor and Company Commander of the 1st Ranger Company from 1960-1963.
Recognized as an expert in counter insurgency warfare, General Anderson served in Vietnam from 1963-64 as a Battalion Advisor to the Vietnamese 9th Infantry Division. In October 1963, he assisted the Vietnamese Battalion Commander whose unit that was in danger of being over run, in leading a bayonet assault that routed a numerically superior attacking force. It was the first time the Army of the Republic of Vietnam defeated a major Viet Cong ambush during the Vietnam War.
For his actions in Vietnam during this tour, General Anderson was awarded two Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart. General Anderson would again return to Vietnam in 1969 after earning a Masters Degree at Indiana University and serving as an instructor at West Point from 1965-1968. While at West Point, he received a personal call from General Creighton Abrams with an invitation to be the general’s aide in Vietnam. General Anderson agreed to the assignment on the condition he would have the opportunity to command a battalion while he was in country as well.
After six months as Executive Officer and Aide to General Creighton Abrams, MAACV commander, then Lieutenant Colonel Anderson would volunteer to command the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division. General Abrams and others told him the unit was suffering from the same racial discord affecting the much of the United States in that era.
Upon taking command, he held meetings with the soldiers and non-commissioned officers in his unit to hear the concerns of people on both sides of the debate. He often spent evenings walking the perimeter of his fire support base speaking with African American soldiers and Caucasian soldiers about their lives and listening to their thoughts on racial issues.
By gaining the trust and respect of the soldiers, symbols like a Confederate Battle Flag and Black Power Salutes soon disappeared from the unit. With tensions eased, he would lead the battalion during the invasion of Cambodia in May 1970. 1/5 Cavalry made the deepest penetration into Cambodia of any American force in Vietnam. The unit was awarded the Valorous Unit Citation for this action.
In other action, General Anderson was personally involved in an attack on a NVA bunker complex. The battalion’s standing order was that no American bodies would be left on the battlefield. When a company commander refused to lead his men in an effort to retrieve three of his soldiers’ bodies, General Anderson relieved the captain, assigned a new company commander, and participated in the assualt to retrieve the bodies.
Later, while his fire support base was being overrun by a North Vietnamese force led by sappers, General Anderson coordinated the counterattack that defeated the larger enemy force and was awarded the Silver Star for his actions in this battle. He was also awarded the Legion of Merit and twelve Air Medals during this tour.
Upon his return from Vietnam in 1970, General Anderson would serve at the Pentagon in the Office of the Special Assistant for the Modern Volunteer Army. The Army had relied on the draft since the Civil War. General Anderson was responsible for developing the framework and strategies that led the Army to become the highly effective and highly trained all volunteer force that serves America today in Iraq and Afghanistan.
After completing his doctorate in Exercise Physiology at Indiana University, General Anderson was the promoted to Colonel, and became the seventeenth “Master of the Sword”, the Professor and Head of the Department of Physical Education in 1973.
The Master of The Sword
General Anderson served twenty-seven years on faculty at West Point, twenty-four of those as the “Master of the Sword”, the Professor and Head of the Department of Physical Education from 1973-1997. During those twenty-four years 22,756 cadets graduated from the Academy. At the time of his retirement, there were 38,910 living graduates. Meaning that 58% of the living graduates at the time of his retirement recognized him as their “Master of the Sword”.
During his tenure as Department Head, General Anderson believed it was his duty to prepare West Point and its cadets for their role in leading the United States Army into the future. He led in the development of physical standards of performance for women at the West Point. Predicting the inclusion of women at West Point, General Anderson conducted extensive studies to determine the physical capabilities of young women who would soon be part of the Long Grey Line. His research and influence convinced Congress that women were physiologically different from men resulting in the rewriting of the bill that admitted the first women to West Point. His foresight was instrumental in making the transition of women coming into West Point in 1976, smooth, sensible and with fewer problems than the other academies. Of the 3710 women to graduate from West Point since 1980, the first 1717 (46%) graduated with General Anderson as “Master of the Sword.”
In 1977, General Anderson authored the best seller The West Point Fitness and Diet Book, one of the first books leading America into the “fitness revolution”. He was also one of the founders and original editors of the Yearbook of Sports Medicine, which has been recognized as the definitive referred journal for sports medicine research around the world. From 1978 though 1998 he participated in writing and publishing all volumes. In 1981, he also wrote The Competitive Edge: The West Point Guide for the Weekend Athlete.
In May 1997, he retired from the United States Army as a Brigadier General. The Department of Physical Education annually awards “The Anderson Excellence in Teaching Award” in his honor.
Civilian Life
After retirement, General Anderson turned from developing leaders of character for the United States Army to developing leaders of character in the civilian sector. From 1997-2005 General Anderson was the primary leadership consultant and trainer with one Fortune 50 company. He used the Purpose of the United States Military Academy as the foundation for a training program on Character Based Leadership.
He personally led this training impacting everyone from the Vice President of Worldwide Human Resources and most mid-level leaders and sales representatives hired in those years. Currently, General Anderson is part of the faculty at The Lincoln Leadership Institute (link) at Gettysburg, PA, which uses the Battle of Gettysburg to teach lessons of leadership to both corporate clients and major governmental agencies. Thousands of leaders from Apple, Shell, Black and Decker, Novartis, the Department of Defense, the Office of the Inspector General and others have learned the lessons of Character Based Leadership on the Gettysburg Battlefield from General Anderson.
General Anderson continues to serve others in his community and abroad. He serves as president of his Methodist Church Board and has led his congregation in a campaign to build an orphanage and financially support the children of that orphanage in Brazil. Two Sundays a month he is the lead cook at the local soup kitchen making breakfast for the less fortunate.
General James L. Anderson led with courage in combat. His visionary leadership to West Point and the Corps of Cadets as the longest serving Master of the Sword in history ensured the effectiveness of our fighting force for decades after his retirement. His continuing leadership in the civilian sector guarantees the principles of service, honor, and character will continue to be heard in boardrooms across our country.
I am honored to call him my father and now co-author. Most of the lessons in leadership I learned in life started with my father. I am excited to get to work with him on leadership projects now and into the future.
Interested in what I have to offer? Tell me more about your needs.
Check out Dave’s Amazon Best Seller, Becoming a Leader of Character.
Order the Book
I’m Dave Anderson, a West Point graduate, a Character Evangelist and a family man. I’m based in Tyler, TX, but serve businesses all over the world.
More about Dave Anderson
Click here to receive my blog posts by e-mail. Sign me up!
Dell Astra Zeneca Pharmaceuticals EOG Resources United Way Worldwide Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals Sadler’s Smokehouse East Texas Medical Center The Genesis Group GE Healthcare Oncor Electricity Regions Bank Austin Bank Heartland Insurance
Express Employment Professionals
“Like most people in management, I spend a good deal of time in pursuit of the skills associated with leadership. I read books, I take seminars, I watch TED talks, I read my Bible, I pray…But recently I began with Dave Anderson….small group sessions with different layers of management from local companies. Not an inexpensive investment on the surface, but I received more value in the first session than in all of the seminars and workbooks from the last 20 years put together….Make the call. Call me if you’d like an endorsement. Those that know me, know I don’t endorse often.”
Click here to receive my blog posts by e-mail. Sign me up!
My dad, General (retired) Jim Anderson, served active duty in the U. S. Army for 41 years. He graduated from West Point in 1956, became an Army Ranger and was later an instructor at the Ranger School. He served two tours in Vietnam earning many combat medals to include 2 Purple Hearts, 2 Bronze Stars for Valor, and a Silver Star.
Upon graduation, General Anderson was commissioned in the Infantry, attended Airborne School and was honor graduate from Ranger School. He served in Germany from 1957-1960. He returned to the Ranger detachment as an instructor and Company Commander of the 1st Ranger Company from 1960-1963.
General Anderson served twenty-seven years on faculty at West Point, twenty-four of those as the “Master of the Sword”, the Professor and Head of the Department of Physical Education from 1973-1997. During those twenty-four years 22,756 cadets graduated from the Academy. At the time of his retirement, there were 38,910 living graduates. Meaning that 58% of the living graduates at the time of his retirement recognized him as their “Master of the Sword”.
Currently, General Anderson is part of the faculty at The Lincoln Leadership Institute (link) at Gettysburg, PA, which uses the Battle of Gettysburg to teach lessons of leadership to both corporate clients and major governmental agencies. Thousands of leaders from Apple, Shell, Black and Decker, Novartis, the Department of Defense, the Office of the Inspector General and others have learned the lessons of Character Based Leadership on the Gettysburg Battlefield from General Anderson.