Dave Anderson | Tag Archive | General Jim Anderson

December 27, 2016 maximios

She looked me in the eyes and said, “I am not having any fun.” Sandy was obviously frustrated while trying to lead her peers. Sandy was trying to lead them through a leadership “ropes course”.

I smiled at her and said, “It’s not supposed to be fun for you. You are the leader.” Sandy learned a lot that day. Perhaps the biggest thing she learned was being a leader can be uncomfortable.

In fact, I believe leadership should be uncomfortable if I am doing it right! Continue Reading…

I’ve been that guy. I wanted everything to run smoothly so I would do as Nancy Reagan did and “Just Say No.”

Years later, in my rearview mirror, I realize by saying “No” too quickly, I damaged my team and the individuals on my team. I missed opportunities to develop better decision makers and therefore better leaders.

What was it about me as a leader that made me say “No” so quickly? I usually had 1 of 3 excuses for saying “No” and none of them were good.

In a nutshell: Inflicting pain on myself or someone else is a test of character and courage.

There are some decisions I make in leadership, I know are going to hurt. They may hurt me, or they may hurt others. In these situations, it may not be my integrity being tested. It is most likely my courage.

I couldn’t wait to be promoted. I knew all the things I wanted to accomplish. I was also looking forward to the perks of leadership. In the Army we used to say, “Rank Has It’s Privileges (RHIP).”

But, years later, I realized that these sentiments were naive. They seem real to someone who has not held a position of leadership. But, once I earned that promotion, I learned that my assumptions were far from reality.

I blame the movie Patton. In today’s business world, people assume autocratic, top down leadership prevails in our military and that military leaders are not prepared for the less rigid world of business leadership. This is a myth!

Just like all civilian business leaders are not like Michael Douglas in Wall Street, all military officers are not like George C. Scott in Patton. Many business leaders without a military background have bought into the way Hollywood portrays military officers. Continue Reading…

There is a lot of discussion of the word integrity in business books, in politics, in universities…in every walk of life. I read about it all the time. But, my father, General Jim Anderson, the former Master of the Sword at West Point, taught me more about integrity than any other source. He says:

INTEGRITY requires three steps:

Discerning what is right and wrong.
Acting on what you have discerned, even at personal cost.
Saying openly that you are acting on your understanding of right and wrong.

Leadership is a blend of competence and character.

BG (Retired) Jim Anderson, my father, taught me that. In 41 years in the Army, including two tours in Vietnam, he saw a lot of great leaders and a lot of leadership failures that formed his philosophy.

I started this website with this post. I have learned a lot since then. Thank you for joining me and contributing. Every time you comment on a blog, you make me better. Thank you for that!

“I’ve seen it all. I’ve read it all. I’ve sat through more leadership seminars than you can imagine. Everything I see these days is just a repackaging of someone else’s work.”

Kurt’s reaction to the company’s latest leadership initiative did not surprise Judy. In her first six months as VP of the division, she quickly realized that Kurt had all the answers. At least he believed he did. Continue Reading…

Today, I was thinking about what I dislike about meetings. It was a huge chunk of my morning. I obviously dislike meetings a lot! The scary thing is, I thrive working in a group environment. I figured out that it was not being in a meeting I disliked. It was how people run them. Continue Reading…

Character is now a buzzword. I use the term buzzword here to describe words that we hear frequently yet are rarely defined by the speakers. The Presidential campaign is full of buzzwords. I hear athletes described on Sportcenter using some of the same buzzwords as the politicians use. The problem is, if you dig into those words’ real meanings, you would see how much of a stretch the speakers are making. Continue Reading…