Articles
Ep 165: Fascism, Communism, and the War for Middle-Earth with Joe Loconte
Dr. Joseph Loconte joins Joe for a powerful exploration of faith, imagination, and courage in times of crisis—how two Oxford professors used story to resist the darkness of their age and inspire generations to come. As a historian and author...
Burned Brakes and Broken Habits: Bringing a JMPI Mindset to the 2d Cavalry Regiment
By Sam Balch The Paratroopers stand quietly in the PAX shed, helmets on, heavy rucks pulling on their shoulders, face paint applied, and parachutes strapped tight. A Jumpmaster moves deliberately down the line, inspecting every strap, snap, stitch,...
Education Without Execution: When the Best Year of Your Life Doesn’t Prepare You for the Fight.
by Sungkuyn “Eddie” Chang After completing the Advanced Operations Course (AOC) at the United States Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC), all students completed an online after-action report survey for the Quality Assurance team at CGSC....
The Power of Panta Rei
By Joe Byerly When I was a kid, there were a handful of professional athletes I used to idolize. They were at the top of their game. They had money, fame, and even got to ride around in limousines. I don’t know why, but that was a big deal back...
Ep 164-A Blueprint for Leading Change with Phil Gilbert
Phil Gilbert joins Joe for a masterclass on leading lasting change—how to move large organizations, overcome cultural antibodies, and build systems that make transformation stick. As the former head of design at IBM, Phil was tasked with one of the...
You Belong at the Table, but Bring your Own Chair: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome in a Culture of Meritocracy
By Lindsey Umlauf Have you ever felt that you were one misstep away from being found out as a fraud? Despite your objective success and merit, does the phrase ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ resonate? If so, you may be experiencing Imposter...
The Battle of the Three Selves
By Joe Byerly Here’s what happened this weekend: Friday: One more drink. One more hour around the fire pit. Then I’ll head home. I’ll deal with the consequences tomorrow. Saturday morning: What the hell was I thinking? I’m exhausted. The...
Ep 163- The 7 Rules of Power with Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer
Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer joins Joe Byerly for a candid and provocative discussion about power—what it is, how it works, and why more good people need to learn to use it. Drawing from his influential books Power: Why Some People Have...
Two Salaries
By Joe Byerly When we compare jobs or career fields, sometimes we tend to default to one number: salary. How much does it pay? What will our financial quality of life look like? What are the monetary perks of the job? I hear this a lot from...
The Narrative Fallacy: Challenging Army Myths
by George Fust Every organization has institutional narratives. These taglines go beyond best practices, they are embedded in the soul of the organization and passed from generation to generation. Sometimes these phrases, often framed as advice,...
McChrystal: Everything I Thought About Leadership Has Changed
By Stanley McChrystal Because leaders don’t rise as much as they emerge to fulfill a specific need for followers at moments, it can get dangerous when leaders emerge who give resonance to our darker impulses. To caution against this, we need to...
So You Want to Study Military Adaptation and Innovation?
Adaptation and innovation are particularly relevant to today’s Army given the challenges faced in recent wars and the uncertainty of future armed conflict. Our ability to meet the operational demands posed by a variety of enemies and their...
What Does It Mean to be a Military Professional?
By Tony Ingesson and Ray Kimball Over fifty years have passed since the seminal texts that fundamentally changed the conversation on professional Western militaries were written. Samuel P. Huntington’s The Soldier and the State, Morris Janowitz’s...
Can Your Network Help Your Career?
One of my favorite books this year is Friend of a Friend: Understanding the Hidden Networks that Can Transform Your Life and Your Career by David Burkus. It’s not your typical business self-improvement book. Burkus examines 50+ years...
Can Reading Make Us Better Leaders?
One of my favorite podcasts is the Read to Lead Podcast hosted by Jeff Brown. In each episode he interviews an author about their book and discusses insights on leadership, personal development, productivity, and more. I recently caught up with...
The 2018 Ultimate Summer Reading List
With summer vacations quickly approaching I reached out to a group of successful leaders, authors, journalists, and podcast hosts for book recommendations. I asked them to suggest a book and why they picked it. The books on this list range from...
Will Machines Change War as We Know It?
I recently had the pleasure of reading a copy of Paul Scharre’s Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War and it quickly became the book I recommend to any leader wishing to understand the complexity...
The Right Read Can Make You a Better Leader
From ARMY Magazine, Vol. 68, No. 4, April 2018. Copyright © 2018 by the Association of the U.S. Army and reprinted by permission of ARMY Magazine. Reading for professional growth is an important practice for military leaders. However, there can be...
Three Books You Should Read Before Company Command
For most officers, company command ranks in the top ten of their professional highlights reel. It’s a rewarding, yet humbling position for those who experience it. Over the course of 12 to 36 months, command provides captains with the authorities...
Learning is a Team Sport: An Interview With General Dempsey and Ori Brafman
Back in the fall, I read an advanced copy of Radical Inclusion: What the Post-9/11 World Should Have Taught Us About Leadership, and couldn’t put it down. In 173 pages, General Dempsey and Ori Brafman challenged me to become a better...
The Picture of Captain Dorian Gray
By Micah Ables There’s a portrait hidden in the closet of every company commander – one that bears every unspeakable thing they have to see, hear, and carry. To every young commander or first sergeant who’s seen more than any one person...
On Getting Humbled
By Joe Byerly The words escaped my mouth before my brain could catch up. I saw my commander lean back in his seat, eyes narrowing. His chair creaked like a spring under pressure—until it snapped forward. Then came the ass-chewing. My face...
What Three Hobbits Teach Us About Friendship, Virtue, and the Company We Keep
by Jay Carmody Since J.R.R. Tolkien first published The Lord of the Rings trilogy nearly 70 years ago, authors and fans have published a wealth of articles exploring Tolkien’s characters and universe. One topic worth revisiting for military leaders...
Why We PT (Together), and Why You Should Too
by Garrett M. Searle In 2014, Admiral William McRaven, then Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, made a famous speech at a commencement ceremony for his alma mater, the University of Texas. The thesis of his address was the importance of...
Power Without Preparation
By: Joe Byerly Have you ever watched a baking show and thought, I could do that? Or seen a YouTube clip of someone playing a popular song on guitar and thought, How hard can it be? Or listened to a podcast and said, I could make one of those? Then...
Telling the Story: Using Narrative to Synchronize Operations
By Rich Groen In tactical operations, effective communication remains one of the most underappreciated yet crucial competencies for field-grade leaders. At the upper echelons of operational and strategic planning, one of the most enduring...
Timeliness Over Perfection: The Critical Balance in Fast-Moving Operational Environments
By Caleb D. King III Have you ever found yourself delaying reporting something up the chain of command because the information was not perfect or pretty? How much time did you spend perfecting the information before other decision-makers could...
The Day Lightning Chose Me
By Kyle McCarter Not everyone gets the chance to grow their lore, legend, or earn a cool scar. But I was blessed with such a day in the summer of 2005. It was a regular, hot, humid, and rainy day in Florida. I was stationed at Camp James E. Rudder,...
Friction’s Impact on Warfighting: Time is Readiness
By: James Boyd, Adyton CEO and Co-founder Time is readiness. I’ve seen firsthand how we tend to operate as if time is a free and limitless resource. It is neither. Whether it’s making soldiers stand around waiting to be released or...
Beware of Time Pollution!
By Joe Byerly As a younger Army officer, I used to see a week or two of empty space on the calendar before a major exercise and think: “Perfect! I’ll schedule some training or professional development for the team.” But as...
Editorial Responsibility within the PME Network
By Nick Alexander Opportunities for intellectual growth within the profession of arms seem limitless. With the advent of social media, the growth of #miltwitter, and the plethora of international profession of arms blogs, it has never been easier...
Meet Them Where They Are, As You Are: Being Present and Engaged in the Information Age
By Thomas “Doug” Meyer, Founder of The Company Leader “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.” These immortal words of Obi-Wan Kenobi, spoken a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, referred to the city of Mos Aisley. But...
Social Media: Senior Leaders Need to Get on the Bus
By General Robert B. “Abe” Abrams The emergence of social media over the last decade has impacted just about every facet of life, reshaping the ways in which we interact, socialize, and communicate. Digital natives – like my 24-year old...
4 Irresistible Army Influencers Set to “Seduce” AUSA Audiences
By Megan Jantos If you’ve spent any time on social media you will find that there are people who instantly attract your attention. You could be quickly scrolling through your digital platform of choice and when you see their posts you can’t help...
On Writing: Look Out! There be Sea Monsters!
By Joe Byerly A few years ago, I wrote a post encouraging military leaders to write for professional publications and online professional outlets. I confidently argued, though only anecdotally, that there were no sea monsters and leaders could...
Advice on Writing and Editing
By Jason Criss Howk Over the last decade, I was privileged to publish my ramblings in many different outlets from scholarly journals to slick mass media periodicals—large and small, paid and unpaid, known and unknown. On top of that, in the age of...
How to Write a Blog Post
By Joe Byerly Since launching From the Green Notebook in 2013, I’ve had a lot of conversations with other military professionals who want to write, but feel they are unable to get words down on paper. A blank page is a tough obstacle for many...
The 7 Unwritten Rules of Email
By: Dave Chace and Joe Byerly In the military, we receive training or a manual on every piece of equipment and program we use except for one very important one: Email. Although it’s our least preferred method of communication, it’s one of the...
The Do’s and Don’ts of Letters of Introduction
By Scott Shaw and Chad Foster Writing letters of introduction to your future battalion or brigade commanders has been a staple of the basic and career course since we were lieutenants and captains (and before our time as well). This time-honored...
#AUSADigital: The Next Wave of Digital Leader Development
A decade ago the only place to go for leader development in the military was your local bookstore or one of the handful of professional journals. We had online professional forums, but accessing them wasn’t always easy. Then blogs came along. And...
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