Articles
Leadership in the Furnace: What Cancer Taught Me About Leading Others
By COL Ron Sprang Nearly three decades in the Army has taught me how to prepare for uncertainty. I trained for combat, deployed to war, commanded organizations, and learned to make decisions when lives and missions—not profits or promotions—were at...
Innovation Is a Command Problem
by LTC Yu-Sheng (Dave) Chen Military organizations operate with finite money, time, manpower, equipment, and leader attention. Picture those resources as a single pie. Every slice allocated to one priority inevitably comes at the expense of...
Teach Junior Officers How to Negotiate
By Jason Ruggieri A Coast Guard Boarding Team just denied entry of two million dollars’ worth of marijuana into the United States from an intercepted go-fast vessel somewhere in the Caribbean. As the flames from the sinking go-fast vessel faded...
Watchfulness and Industry: How a Revolutionary War General Conquered Imposter Syndrome
By Tanner Cook In the summer of 1775, a Rhode Island Quaker named Nathanael Greene experienced one of the most dizzying career leaps in military history. With no military experience of any kind, this career businessman was suddenly promoted from...
What Odysseus Knew About Coming Home: The Veteran’s Second Odyssey
By Joe Byerly Regardless of what you did in the military, how many times you deployed, how long you spent in uniform, or what rank you achieved, there is a common experience that unites all of us: the homecoming. And when I say homecoming, I’m not...
The Advice I Got From Outer Space
By Joe Byerly I was on a road trip with my family in May 2023 when I received a phone call from a Houston-area number. “Joe, this is Frank Rubio calling from the International Space Station. Our mutual friend Jon passed me your number. Is now a...
WWE, Burning Buildings, and Solving Big Problems with George Barrios
George Barrios, former co-president of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), co-founder and co-CEO of Isos Capital Management, and author of Sometimes Wrong, But Never in Doubt, joins Joe to explore leadership, preparation, reinvention, and...
Congratulations on Your Promotion to MAJ! Here is a Dumpster Fire: Lessons from Two First-Year KD Majors
By Sam Balch and Sara Roger Nobody warns you. They just hand you the keys, wish you luck, and walk away. The first year of key development (KD) time as a Major is unlike anything that comes before it. For the first time in your career, the...
Protecting Patches of Weeds
By Joe Byerly One of the Czars of Russia, walking through his park, came upon a sentry standing guard over a small patch of weeds. Curious, the Czar asked what he was doing there. The sentry didn’t know. He simply replied that he had been ordered...
The Internal AAR: What to Do After a Bad Evaluation (or a Great One)
By Steven Prater “You just did your job.” Those words still resonate with me. The moment my Senior Rater hit me in my own self-worth during one of my previous evaluations. If you are in the military long enough, you will eventually hear words...
Identifying Bias in Your Workplace? Read Kim Scott’s Just Work
by Aidan Looney As a West Point Cadet, I often hear that the academy is a leadership laboratory. Cadets are given the space and opportunities to experiment in leadership and learn how they want to lead before going out to the operational...
Three Hockey Books On Leadership
By Dan Sukman If you want to go somewhere fast, go by yourself. If you want to go far, go together. – Glen Sather Sports often serve as a metaphor, and in many cases as a testing ground for real life. There are lessons we learn playing youth...
Book Review: Phil Jackson’s Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success
By Ryan Kranc and Megan Jantos Editor’s note: This piece is published to coincide with Army Leader Exchange’s second annual #MarchMasters competition. Click here to vote for From the Green Notebook or other leader development content...
Book Review: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
By John Geracitano Having three kids at home, time has become my most valuable commodity. This may be why the bestselling book Four Thousand Weeks resonated with my halfway-complete journey of an approximate 80-year life. In a sea of...
Why We Should Read Fiction
by Addison McLamb I recently spent an hour looking at lists of “top leadership books.” There were a few books on psychology, some on strategy, and some on decision-making. Most were published in the last 5-10 years. None of the lists included any...
What Reading Taught Me About Living in 2023
By Joe Byerly Essayist Maria Popova recently wrote, “To look back on a year of reading is to be handed a clear mirror of your priorities and passions, of the questions that live in you and the reckonings that keep you up at night.”...
AI Picked 25 Books Military Leaders Should Read
by Jasper AI (with oversight from Joe Byerly and Jack Hadley) A Note from Joe and Jack: Recently From the Green Notebook leadership has been playing with artificial intelligence (AI) tools for artwork, branding, and social media posting. To assess...
4 Reading Recs For Holistic Self-Development
by Jack Hadley Military professionals’ reading for self-development tends to fall into two general categories. First, well, military professional reading. This genre is flexible, but generally includes things like A Message to Garcia (and other...
A Father-Daughter Book Club Review of Slaughterhouse-Five
by Amy Padilla My father is a retired Marine Corps Major General and a combat veteran who gave over 37 years of his life to the service. He is now living his best life in Woodland Park, CO, enjoying retirement and lots of time with family. A big...
What Reading Taught Me About Living in 2022
By Joe Byerly Lesson #1: The finish line is never fixed Several authors warned about the dangers of hitching our happiness to goal achievement. Too many of us spend years doing things we don’t enjoy while sacrificing the things that bring us...
What Odysseus Knew About Coming Home: The Veteran’s Second Odyssey
By Joe Byerly Regardless of what you did in the military, how many times you deployed, how long you spent in uniform, or what rank you achieved, there is a common experience that unites all of us: the homecoming. And when I say homecoming, I’m not...
The Advice I Got From Outer Space
By Joe Byerly I was on a road trip with my family in May 2023 when I received a phone call from a Houston-area number. “Joe, this is Frank Rubio calling from the International Space Station. Our mutual friend Jon passed me your number. Is now a...
Congratulations on Your Promotion to MAJ! Here is a Dumpster Fire: Lessons from Two First-Year KD Majors
By Sam Balch and Sara Roger Nobody warns you. They just hand you the keys, wish you luck, and walk away. The first year of key development (KD) time as a Major is unlike anything that comes before it. For the first time in your career, the...
Protecting Patches of Weeds
By Joe Byerly One of the Czars of Russia, walking through his park, came upon a sentry standing guard over a small patch of weeds. Curious, the Czar asked what he was doing there. The sentry didn’t know. He simply replied that he had been ordered...
The Internal AAR: What to Do After a Bad Evaluation (or a Great One)
By Steven Prater “You just did your job.” Those words still resonate with me. The moment my Senior Rater hit me in my own self-worth during one of my previous evaluations. If you are in the military long enough, you will eventually hear words...
Knowing What Something Isn’t
By Joe Byerly There are some things I know with 100% certainty. I know purpose isn’t something someone else can hand you. I know you can’t warm up a Chick-fil-A sandwich in the microwave while it’s still inside one of those tinfoil-lined bags. And...
Family Fitness Opportunities: A Father’s Day Gift from Afghanistan
By Joe Byerly When I returned from Afghanistan as the world was shutting down in March of 2020, I struggled to regain my footing. I missed the mission, the people, and the sense of purpose that had been the heartbeat of deployments during the...
How LinkedIn Upped My Military Game
by Stephen T. Messenger As a U.S. Army officer, I never had much need nor desire to interact on LinkedIn. After all, it’s for people job hunting, not military professionals, right? I understood it to be like any other social media platform, only...
In the Wake of a Leader’s Suicide: Leading Through Grief, Readiness, and Organizational Complexity
By Colonel Laura Weimer The burden of command is heavy. In early 2023, I felt that immense weight of responsibility coupled with personal pain and grief. Seven months into command of a division Headquarters Battalion (HHBN), one of my company...
Gambling with Influence: Don’t Bet Your Life on Someone Else’s Promise
By Joe Byerly I sat across from the Army general during my initial counseling, just a few months into squadron command. He talked about the two years of command ahead of me. But when he moved on to my next career move, I interrupted him. “Sir, I...
Stories That Win Wars: The Role of Narrative in Military Planning and Innovation
Tom Gaines In military strategy, critical thinking, adaptability, and effective communication are essential. Traditional military instruction, focused on logic, data analysis, and protocols, often falls short in preparing leaders for the...
Unlock Your Potential Through Journaling
By Melissa A. Czarnogursky “The brain enjoys writing. It enjoys the act of naming things, the process of association and discernment.” –Julia Cameron I had the wrong perspective on journaling. Throughout my military career, mentors...
Multitasking is Bad for Your Brain
This post originally appeared on The Quiet Workplace By Michele O’Hagan In today’s job market, multitasking is the norm. “Ability to multitask” is listed as a “must” in nearly every job description. We pride ourselves on our ability to juggle...
Check Out the Military Review’s Series on Professional Military Writing
By Rebecca Segal In every job we serve, we learn. Whether you’re journaling to sort through your thoughts or crafting an article to share best practices, writing is an important part of the growth process. At FTGN, we focus on sharing those...
Reflecting on Gratitude- It Will Change Your Life
By Joe Byerly For as long as I’ve been writing, I’ve mostly focused on the positive aspects of leading others. However, not every day as a leader is a good day. In fact, leaders often experience very dark days.One of the hardest days of...
May 3rd Prospective Writers Information Webinar
If you are interested in writing for From the Green Notebook, or curious to learn more, please attend this webinar on May 3, 2024. It will include information on FTGN’s history, background, audience, readership, and a Q&A portion on writing for...
A Text to Garcia: Business Rules for Work Texting
by Joon Lee “We do NOT use Signal as our primary means of communication!” my fellow staff officer exclaimed. I sympathized—in our years of service, we’ve embraced the tenet that “we train like we fight,” that we must exercise our tactical systems...
3 Reasons to Attend The Next FTGN Writers Webinar
By Kevin Cutright Editor’s Note: Sign up for our May 3rd prospective writers webinar here. Not convinced? Read this piece. I was one of about 15 attendees in From the Green Notebook’s webinar for prospective writers in early February. I...
Warrant Officers Need to Write Well Too
by Mike Lima It’s not just officers who need to know how to write—it’s warrant officers too. Warrant officers now have many roles, including staff officer positions and numerous duties as action officers. As a staff officer, the primary...
Communicating Your Intent: Overcome the Illusion of Transparency
by Dr. Yasmine L. Kalkstein and Brian Gerardi My (Yasmine’s) early experiences as a leader, despite effort and good intentions, were fraught with failure. One problem I ran up against were complaints about my lack of communication. My...
Podcast
Listen to our latest episode.
Store
Support our work.
Get Involved
Learn how to partner with us.
Lead with the best version of yourself.
Sign up for our emails.