Articles
Ep 160- Surviving Separation: Deployments and Relationships with Dr. Galena Rhoades
Dr. Galena Rhoades, coauthor of Fighting For Your Marriage, returns to From the Green Notebook to talk with Joe about the strain that deployments, training, and time apart place on military marriages—and how couples can stay...
The Day I Took Command: Leading Through Crisis and Learning Command in Real-Time
By Joe Hap The call came late. My commander had been in a serious accident. Suddenly, everything I thought I knew about leadership changed. In an instant, I wasn’t preparing for command—I was living it. No ceremony. No speeches. Just a...
Ep 159: Army Directive 2025-18 with Sergeant Major of the Army
In this special Notebook Notes episode, Joe sits down with Sergeant Major Urzua and Sergeant Major Brady to discuss the Army Directive 2025-18, with a guest appearance from Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Weimer. The intent behind the...
The Power of Patience
by CPT Benjamin L. Kenneaster Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is “timing”. It waits on the right time to act, for the right principle and in the right way.-Fulton J. Sheen A Forgotten Principle An article from...
The Walls We Build
By Joe Byerly About a year ago, I got into an argument with my wife that spiraled way beyond what we were actually talking about. It began with a question about where to go for breakfast, but escalated into a full-blown shouting match. She said one...
The Tone Range Fan: A Tool for Leaders at All Levels
By COL Ed Arntson and LTC Erik Miller “We must strive to become experts in the human dimension. Wars are fought on land, by humans, and we must always work to become better at how we interact with one another to build trust and cohesion.” – GEN...
What is Power?
By Joe Byerly Two Army officers stand across from each other. Both are in their mid-50s. One slightly older, but only by a few years. Both wear stars on their shoulders. Both have commanded thousands of troops—the elder, tens of thousands. The...
Ep 158- Turning Groups into Teams: Lessons for Leaders with Dr. Colin Fisher
Author and researcher Dr. Colin Fisher joins Joe to unpack the invisible forces that shape teams—and why leaders ignore them at their own risk. From his book The Collective Edge: Unlocking the Secret Power of Groups Dr. Fisher shows...
Representing the Uniform, Even When It’s Not On
By Noah Jager When we wake up in the morning and put on the uniform, sometimes freshly pressed or other times rumpled and grabbed from a rucksack, we are expected to uphold the standards that come with our service. With the American flag strapped...
My Commander Is Available 24/7: Is Yours?
By Mike Eads If military leadership is built on presence, experience, and decisiveness, then my commander is unmatched. He is always available—ready to provide guidance, review plans, refine decisions, and offer precise feedback at any hour of the...
Books That Every Junior Officer Should Read
“A properly schooled officer never arrives on a battlefield for the first time, even if he has never actually trod the ground, if that officer has read wisely to acquire the wisdom of those who have experienced war in...
A Homework Assignment from General Carter Ham
Recently at a gathering of senior military leaders in the Pacific meant to discuss pertinent issues in the region – as well as strategic leadership writ large – General (Retired) Carter Ham spoke at length about his career and the lessons garnered...
What Happens When War Leaves Its Box?
This post originally appeared on the Strategy Bridge on August 17, 2016 How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon. Rosa Brooks. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2016. In June 1945, 850 delegates...
The Ultimate Summer Reading List
By Joe Byerly Last summer, I wrote a short article about promoting reading by simply talking about it. I believe the best way to encourage leaders to pick up a book is through conversation, not mandatory reading assignments. So this year, I thought...
Rifleman Dodd: It Should be on Your Bookshelf
Recently, I asked followers on Twitter for books recommendations. The response was amazing. Fellow military leaders, journalists, academics, and even a Ukranian offered up suggestions. This guest post by Nathan Wike is a continuation of...
Reading in 2015
For the last two years, I’ve compiled a year-end reading list to share the books I’ve completed over a 12 month period. This is one of my favorite posts, because it forces me to reflect on a year’s worth of books and take a holistic look at what...
When a Son Becomes His Father
This post was originally featured at Foreign Policy on December 3, 2015 Recently, I wrote a short piece for the Atlantic Council’s Art of Future Warfare Project about the importance of fiction in the professional development of military...
Where’s the Fiction? The Case for More Fiction on Military Reading Lists
This post first appeared on the Art of Future Warfare Blog on Friday, October 13, 2015. Ever since my developmental switch “flipped” a few years ago and the pursuit of knowledge became a critical aspect of my professional identity as a U.S. Army...
Bridging the Divide: A Social Media Reading List for Senior Leaders
Today, there is a large generational divide in the military. While our younger Soldiers and leaders were raised on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms, our senior leadership was not. Many senior military leaders struggle with...
Singer and Cole’s ‘Ghost Fleet’: The Book Every Army Officer Should Read-and it’s fun
This post was originally published via Tom Ricks’ Best Defense on June 11, 2015 I’ve been in the Army for a little over a decade, and if I’m being honest with myself, my ability to imagine war in the future is somewhat...
What’s the Cost of Greatness?
By Joe Byerly A dozen eggs costs about $3. A value meal at McDonald’s? Around $5. A Friday night movie ticket? $17. These prices are tangible. We know them before we walk into the store, pull into the drive-thru, or pick someone up for a night out....
One More Play: Commanding at the Finish Line
By Joe Byerly Today marks one year since I changed command and then signed out on terminal leave from the Army. This morning, I reread my journal entry from that day—and decided to write a few reflections on that decision: to stay in the 20-year...
How to Become the AI-Empowered Iron Major
Partnering with Your AI-Teammate in the Mundane Trenches of Staff Officer Warfare By Jerry Champion It’s after 1800, and you’re knee-deep in your sixth meeting of the day. The chat thread in Microsoft Teams is growing longer by the second, sidebar...
My “Why”: The Army Family
By Mike Everett We’ve all been asked numerous times: Why did you join? The answer early in my career was “to pay off my college debt.” There may have been other reasons—the challenge, love for country, and a meaningful career. But, initially, the...
How to Quit Climbing the Envy Ladder
By Joe Byerly One of the pitfalls of ambition, if we’re not careful, is that we start looking outward too much, always measuring our life against the lives of others. They have a nicer house. A cooler job. A better car. Even their vacations look...
Make the Best Decision for You: Why I Stayed in the Army
by Dave Leydet As I sat in my high school algebra class, the principal’s voice came over the loudspeaker. “A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center,” he announced. I thought to myself, That’s odd; why are they telling us about a random...
Kids, COAs, and Career Crossroads: the Coordinated Chaos of being Dual-Military
By CPT Alex Weisser “Until I get too old or too ugly; Uncle Sam will tell me when to leave.” That’s what I tell people when they ask me how long I plan to stay in the Army. To an extent, my tongue-in-cheek saying is heartfelt. I enjoy Soldiering....
Retiring at 20: Why I Chose Family Over Competing for Battalion Command
Three years ago, with palms sweating, I walked into my senior rater’s office for a counseling session. I told him, “I don’t want battalion command and plan to retire at the first opportunity.” It took months to gather the courage to say those...
Sometimes, They Have to Touch the Stove
By Joe Byerly Now that I’m a parent of kids who are getting older, I find myself wanting to play more “life defense”—to protect them from the bruises and blows of growing up: failure, misfortune, consequences. I think we all do this to...
Letting Go of the Uniform, Not the Lessons
By: Joshua Risner In the Right Place I turned 15 on 9/11. I was raised in a patriotic household in rural America, by a family that valued and demonstrated service to others, to the community, and to the Nation. Like so many others, 9/11 was the...
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