LEADER PREPARATION TRAINING PROGRAM 2025

This is my claim to leader preparation, not leader, but ready to lead.

I lean on the Fort Ord Leadership Academy when I need to tighten things up.

I’d like to thank the academy for the training?

Thank you, but during the supposed twenty-one hours of training we were all so sleep-deprived we could barely stay awake.

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When most people think of leadership, they think of CEO’s and military officers.

If they think of themselves in a leadership position, it’s usually at the top.

I’m an admiral, you’re a general.

I’m an executive, you’re chairman of the board.

Even if you’re a lowly staff worker in a company, once you leave the building you can be anybody.

I ran the desk for After Settlement Day Bond Corrections for EF Hutton in lower Manhattan, which meant picking up a piece of paper with the correct data, researching the trade, make corrections, and send the corrected paper back to the bond trader to relay to their customer.

This was pre-computer late ’70’s.

When I moved to Portland did I tell people I was a master of the universe? Noooo.

Did I tell them I made a million dollars and lost it on the stock market? Noooo.

Did I say anything about the embezzlement investigation on my floor after I left? Noooo, because I didn’t know about it.

 

Effective Leadership Goals

On one hand, leadership means giving an order, making an order, and expecting obedience.

‘Do what you’re told.’

That’s it. Do what you’re told.

A good leader doesn’t have to say, “Do what you’re told and shut-up.”

The shut-up part is implied, and everyone knows it . . . in the Army.

But this isn’t anything like the Army.

Take a history teacher in the classroom for example. They are the leader trying to engage students with their enthusiasm on the topics of the day.

It used to be hearing and reading about a king of a certain country waging war on a specific date against an adversary.

Then another king, another country, another war, without linking them together to show the era in greater detail, why countries were at war, and why they happened where they did.

Who were the people who made up the armies, and what did they gain?

Instead of diving into the lives of the regular people, students memorized the great men, historical places, and important dates, by rote and repeated them on the test.

 

From a discontinued blog:

 

Well, once upon a time, in the year 1841, a man called Thomas Carlyle came up with the ‘Great Man’ theory which was based on two main assumptions:

1) Leaders were born to lead, they can’t be made.

2) Leaders arise in times of need (heroes).

The research was based on the study of people who were considered ‘leaders’ already; mainly males (the idea of a woman being a leader was unthinkable) who were often from the aristocracy (not many lower class citizens had the chance to lead). 

As a result, it was thought that ‘leadership’ was linked to the idea of ‘breeding’ and that the leadership ‘gene’ was passed on from parents to offspring.

 

The Leadership Gene

Anyone who shows a certificate, or endorsement, of leadership has one thing to prove:

Can they lead?

Take this for example:

A local business started out in shared space on a lease with a building owner.

Someone new came onboard and convinced the owner they could make more money with another business if they evicted the one sharing the space.

The evicted business teamed up with someone else and leased a different space.

The new partner suffered a few setbacks and drifted into being a liability after years of being an asset.

So the local business had to relocate by leasing a new space, which turned into leasing all the space in the new building and recruiting other professionals to join. Which they did.

They all enjoyed harmony for years, especially after a new office manager came in and gave them all a boost in money with their streamlined efficiency.

The local business person who had the main lease asked the others to kick in to give the office manager a raise.

They declined and the manager left the disrespect for greener pastures. So did the person with the main lease, leaving the others to manage on their own.

This time they leased space in a desirable location and seemed set for another long haul.

Except the owner unexpectedly died one weekend and the building went up for sale.

Two short moves later the local business person rebounded with an even more desirable location, called their team to make it even prettier, and opened the latest and greatest iteration for their continuing work.

It all adds up to forty-four years of small business experience navigating the ups and downs of the economy and changing times.

 

When It Feels Like The End

Craftsman is knowing how to work.

Art is knowing when to stop.

Like the answer to any other how question, knowing how to work is the result of someone teaching or programming you to do things a certain way.

And like the answer to any other when question, knowing when to stop is the result of you using your own judgment to assess the situation you are in.

 

That’s all from a forbes.com article.

I like it quite a bit because it addresses culture without scaring anyone into thinking ‘oh, so fancy.’

You learn how to do the work from a teacher.

Start here, go there, finish when you cross the line.

Once you do it often enough you can start and finish in different places for better results.

Someone gets advice to be more selfish?

Someone falls off the wagon?

A group of people forget how to count?

Someone drops dead?

All of it can be demoralizing; it can also be a call to action.

“Have you faced adversity and thrived?”

 

 

PS: Johnny Cash says keep the ends out for the tie that binds instead of giving up and walking away.

Your inner-leadership training expects a good effort.

PSS: When you feel like walking off, remember why you started, and keep walking the line, keep leading the way.

Do it well enough and you may eligible for a BoomerPdx Certificate Of Training.

You want one, don’t you?