Leadership Insights for Defense Professionals

Flying close air support missions in combat taught me the critical importance of empowering a team to make decisions and take action. On each mission, the flight lead was entrusted with the authority to: 🛩 Make Independent Decisions: In critical moments, the flight lead had the power to assess the situation and make decisions on the spot. 🛩 Act with Confidence: We didn’t always know what challenges we would face, but we fully understood the rules of engagement and our commander’s intent. This clarity empowered us to act with confidence and decisiveness. 🛩 Execute the Mission: Leadership trusted us to do our job well without needing to radio back for permission. We were empowered to make time-critical decisions, which was essential for mission success. As leaders, it’s also our responsibility to empower our teams: ➡ Encourage Preparation: Challenge your team to show up prepared every day. Ensure your team has the training and resources they need. ➡ Trust Their Judgment: When we empower our team members to make decisions, we foster confidence and independence. This means encouraging their ideas, supporting their choices, and sometimes letting them solve their own problems, even if we see a different path. ➡ Allow Room for Mistakes: Empowerment includes giving your team the space to make mistakes and learn from them. This builds resilience and trust within the team. Empowering a team takes courage. It means releasing control, but it also expedites decision-making and frees up the leader to focus on the bigger picture. #leadership #leadershipdevelopment #FlyingInTheFaceOfFear

After spending nearly two decades in the Army National Guard, climbing from SOC Analyst to VP of Information Security, and now working with DHS, leading a cyber intelligence and insider threat team—I've learned some crucial things about leadership. If you are a leader... It's not about you. It never was. It never will be. It never should be. I've seen dozens of people chase leadership roles for all the wrong reasons. The title. The "power." The validation. The escape from technical work. And at one point, this was me. Who doesn't want to feel important? But when you finally get there unprepared, reality hits hard. The first time a team member suffers a family tragedy. When someone shows up distracted because their child is sick or they're facing a personal crisis. When your star performer is burning out but won't admit it. When executives demand impossible results that would break your team. These moments reveal what leadership truly means. How you handle these situations shows your team who you really are as a leader—often in stark contrast to how you might see yourself. Outstanding leadership isn't born from authority or technical prowess—it's forged in vulnerability. It's having the courage to say "I don't know" or "I screwed up" before asking others to do the same. It's creating environments where people feel safe bringing their whole selves to work. There's a balance to strike, but expecting people to behave like robots inevitably leads to turnover, broken trust, and operational failure. If my experience has taught me anything, it's that leadership means bearing responsibility for supporting your fellow humans, who have entire lives beyond the workplace. It's providing cover when things get chaotic and ensuring your team knows you have their back—even during the bad times, even when they make mistakes. The Army has a saying for this: "One Team, One Fight." Sounds cheesy, but it makes sense when you break it down. My strongest teams weren't built on having the smartest people or the most advanced tools. While helpful, even underrated teams can overcome tremendous challenges when built on deep trust—the kind that only forms when your team sees you as human and knows they're valued as humans first, employees second. If you're aspiring to leadership, ask yourself honestly: Are you ready to put others before yourself? Can you absorb blame and distribute credit? Will you make unpopular decisions to protect your people? Because that's the work. Not the corner office. Not the decision-making authority. Not the salary. The real reward isn't what leadership gives to you—it's what it allows you to give others: the opportunity to remove obstacles, develop talent, and create space where people can do their best work while having lives worth living. If that calls to you—this messy, human-centered approach to building teams—then leadership might be your path. But if you're just looking for the next career step, there are easier ways to climb.

I’ve just finished reading “The Lessons of History” by Will & Ariel Durant published for the first time in 1968. It’s amazing how their insights into human civilization remain profoundly relevant to modern security and risk management. Understanding history’s patterns offers invaluable guidance for navigating today’s complex threat landscape. Here are some key takeaways from their timeless work applicable to our field: 1. Enduring Challenges: History shows challenges reappear in new forms. In security, while attack methods evolve, underlying human motivations and systemic vulnerabilities often persist. Learning from past incidents helps us identify recurring patterns and build adaptable, resilient defenses. 2. The Human Element: The Durants emphasize human nature’s influence. This highlights the “human element” as both our greatest asset and vulnerability. Effective security requires understanding human behavior, fostering a strong security culture, and designing systems that account for human interaction. 3. Strategic Leadership: History’s pivotal moments often hinge on decisive leadership. For risk management, this reinforces the need for visionary leaders who champion security as a strategic enabler, making informed decisions to protect assets, people, and reputation. 4. Continuous Adaptation: No system is eternally perfect or invulnerable. This means complacency is our adversary. The threat landscape is dynamic; our defenses must continuously evolve. What’s “sufficient” today may not be tomorrow. Vigilance and agile strategies are paramount. 5. Power of Knowledge: Accumulating and disseminating knowledge drives progress. In security, this translates to prioritizing threat intelligence, ongoing research, and continuous education for our teams. An informed workforce is our most effective first line of defense. As the Durants noted, “History is, for the most part, the record of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.” Our role is to learn from those follies, anticipate crimes, and mitigate misfortunes. Understanding the past is an indispensable tool for building a more secure future. #Security #RiskManagement #Leadership #LessonsOfHistory #EnterpriseSecurity #Resilience #StrategicThinking

Psychological safety isn't about comfort. It's about courage. Too many leaders mistake silence for alignment. But when people don’t feel safe to speak up, you lose access to the very insights, innovations, and feedback that drive progress. Gen. Patton said, “If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” And yet in many organizations—especially the military—people do think differently. They just don’t feel safe saying so. This is the Emperor’s New Clothes in action: ⚠️ Everyone sees the problem.  ⚠️ No one says a word 🛑 Until it's too late. If you're in a position of leadership, ask yourself: 🔹 Do people feel safe disagreeing with me? 🔹 Can they bring me bad news without fear? 🔹 Do I reward candor—or punish it? Psychological safety isn’t a soft skill.  It’s a strategic advantage. And in the military, it’s a matter of mission success—or failure. Leaders: your posture sets the tone. If people don’t feel safe around you, they won’t bring their best. That’s not a culture problem.  That’s a leadership problem. #Leadership #PsychologicalSafety #MilitaryLeadership #Trust #CommandCulture #CoachBetty

If you don’t stand up for your people, you have no business leading them. Leadership means building real relationships, elevating voices in the room, and unlocking the unique talents of the people you lead. But first, it means defending your team. Recently, someone took a shot at my team. They sent a critical email, that was inaccurate, and they blasted it to a wide distribution list. Worse, they didn’t come to me first. That’s a mistake. I addressed it privately, gave him the chance to correct the situation. He refused. A few days later, our organizations had a meeting. I went through the email and highlighted all the inaccuracies. Then, I made it very clear, publicity, how I felt about that email and what it says about how they treat their stakeholders. It wasn’t pretty. But it was necessary. I tried to handle it behind closed doors. But if that doesn’t work, I’m always ready for a dust-up if that’s what it takes. Because priority number one is always my team. As a senior officer, I lead with professionalism and composure. I work hard to set the example in everything I do. But we have a saying in the military: Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Here are a few rules to live by: - If you’re unhappy about something, pick up the phone and call. - Address it in the smallest setting possible. - And speak directly to the team’s leadership. How do you handle it when someone takes a shot at your team? #Leadership #Team #Presence #Igotyourback

Sometimes we assume that we need to be someone else in order to lead well. Actually, the most successful leaders discover their own strengths -- and the strengths of others -- so they can leverage talent across the organization. General CQ Brown, Jr. is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer. On this week's Coaching for Leaders episode, General Brown and I discuss his role in leading one of the largest organizations in the world and how he uses his strengths in people development, high-level meetings, and problem-solving. Key points from our conversation: 1. If you are well below average at something, don’t spend time and effort trying to improve. Instead, partner with others who have it as a superpower. 2. Give people work that is aligned with their strengths. 3. Fight for feedback, especially in a top job. Find people who will give it to you straight. Listen well so they keep offering it. 4. Leverage your strengths in communication. For General Brown, using his engineering training to solve problems and using metaphors and analogies to create clarity. 5. Have the meeting after the meeting in the meeting. 6. Tell people where your strengths might get in the way. For General Brown, highlighting that silence which could appear intimidating is often him just listening and thinking. Our full transcript, audio, and notes are linked in the comments. What did General Brown share that you’ll use today? Comment below. #leadership #management The Joint Staff, United States Air Force, United States Department of Defense

The transition from military to corporate was tough. However, these 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 ① 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 ➜ Clearly communicate what success looks like, then trust your team’s judgment on execution. ↳ In corporate terms: Set clear expectations, empower execution. ② 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘁 ➜ Be visible and actively participate. → Never ask others to do what you wouldn’t. ↳ Corporate takeaway: Leaders who engage directly inspire trust and loyalty. ③ 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻-𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗨𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘆 ➜ Take action confidently even without all the information. → Adjust quickly as new details emerge. ↳ Key for corporate success: decisiveness and adaptability. ④ 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁, 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗔𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 ➜ Prioritize organizational goals, but never compromise on caring for your team’s welfare. ↳ Corporate takeaway: A valued team delivers better results every time. ⑤ 𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 ➜ Every setback in military training is a learning opportunity, not a punishment. ↳ Corporate culture thrives when failure fuels growth, not fear. —————————————- 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗱 𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝘂𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲. ♻️ Repost to empower more leaders. #LeadershipLessons #CorporateLeadership #MilitaryLeadership

🤯3 Great insights on leadership from my recent conversation with the Director of the U.S. Army Command Assessment Program’s (CAP), COL (R) Bob O'Brien. Bob shared a number of applicable points from the last handful of years he’s been heavily involved in developing this program and from his own personal leader development journey over 3 decades. Here were his top 3 “clues” to successful leadership for leaders that find themselves in VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) environments. 🔥Discipline 🔥Organization 🔥Self-Awareness One of the fascinating priorities in the Army’s CAP is a very intentional, very heavy emphasis on providing the leaders assessed w/both reflection time 🤔 & a lot of intentional feedback 📝. Sooo many applications to the civilian leadership space… 🙋🏻♂️How disciplined, organized & self-aware are you? (& the leaders in your organization?) 👉🏼How intentional are the leaders in your organization at reflecting? 👉🏼How much specific, intentional & consistent feedback does your organization provide their leaders? 👉🏼What impact would it make in both the leaders AND the organization? Ep. 479