Expeditionary Leadership: A strong leader in a nascent organization working in a dynamic and uncertain environment. Expeditionary leaders have strong vision and drive and are quick to acknowledge failure and adjust efforts to keep moving toward their goal. They make quick decisions and re-orient themselves to their goal in spite of what may seem insurmountable obstacles. They keep moving forward and, while they may fail, they do not quit.

The Builder: A strong leader in a nascent organization working in a more stable environment and building upon the foundations of the expeditionary leader. Building leaders are thoughtful decision makers striving to solidify and grow their organization and market share.

The Expansionist: The Expansionist leader works in a mature organization in a growing environment and looks for ways to expand the organization in the market place through partnerships and acquisitions. Expansionist leaders are thoughtful leaders looking to bridge establish organizations to new or growing market areas.

The Housekeeper: The Housekeeping leader works in a mature organization in a mature environment and focused on maintaining market share and shareholder returns on investment. Housekeeping leaders are usually careful decision makers, sometimes hesitant, and only looking to keep profit margins respectable.

None of these are mutually exclusive types, but individual personalities and styles tend to lend a person to one type or another.

As organizations mature, they start developing defined communication patterns based on technology and experience. Understand that our Industrial Age communication patterns are based on the most efficient ways to communicate with the technology available. Protocols and practices have grown up around that technology and in most cases have obscured the original need the communication was designed to meet.

Expeditionary leaders do not usually have the time to analyze most decisions and look for people who can #1) help with the decision making process with insight from their piece of the organization and operation, and #2) make decisions on their own that will move the organization toward the goal. Expeditionary organizations are usually made up of teams of expeditionary leaders.

The builders are the ones who begin defining the patterns of communication in an attempt to communicate efficiently and effectively. Both the expeditionary and the builders are leaders who lead and trust.

Lead and trust are verbs.

The expansionist and the housekeeper are more concerned with management as a means of command and control.

Admiral Grace Hopper once said, “You lead people, you manage things.”

In today’s dynamic, networked, global environment we have a leadership gap. Our traditional organizational hierarchy is challenged by the networked organizations that have emerged. The question, are leaders born or made? Is leadership a gift or a talent?

I believe as Gen. Stanley McCrystal does; leadership is a choice.

Watch this:

http://video.fastcompany.com/plugins/player.swf?v=6418af2ec1468&p=fc_social

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Twenty years ago today, after drinking my way through a couple of years at Kansas State and piddling around back in my hometown for nearly another, I arrived at NTC Great Lakes to begin Navy boot camp. I did return to Kansas State to finish my bachelor’s and added a master’s later, but I must say that, aside from my family, nothing has affected my life as deeply as my choice to join the Navy. Because of the Big Blue Mommy and her Big Green Sister (I’ve worn the Army uniform, too, as a reservist), I learned the skills which became my current career; visited three other continents; flew over a sinking Icelandic ship, hanging from monkey straps, while Air Force PJs slid down to save the crew; wrestled a Guatemalan goat while a veterinarian struggled to vaccinate it; drank Scotch with Navy SEALS from a RIB boat in Macrahanish Bay, with dolphins swimming all around us; watched the northern lights roll above me, while I lay in hot spring water, surrounded by snow; rode in a plane being shot at by an Afghan with a Chinese MANPAD; performed an impromptu rendition of the Beastie Boys’ “Paul Revere” with Polish and Spanish college kids on the streets of Nice, France; watched phosphorescent algae being churned up by the USS Abraham Lincoln, leaving a glowing comet trail in the darkness; sat backstage drinking free beer between Ice-T and Gwen Stefani at Endfest ’96; rode on the top of a van through a massive Herati political rally; drunkenly peed in the Danube with my temporary gang of Budapestians; ate Christmas Eve tamales at midnight with Guatemalan paratrooper students; danced with Filipino transvestites in Chitose, Japan; crossed the Arctic Circle; planted rose bushes in the name of my sons at Camp McGovern, Bosnia-Herzegovina; met some of the best men and women I will ever know (and some of the worst, too); ate rotten shark and washed it down with Brennivin, a thick black liguor the Icelanders (quite appropriately) refer to as svarti dauði (“black death”); ate goat in a room nicknamed the “Rick James Lounge” in Wazi Kwah, Afghanistan; stood on the very spot from which Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria; crashed a party for the US Soccer Team at the home of the American ambassador to Iceland; crossed the English Channel on a ferry filled with French people watching their nation win the World Cup; got invited to the White House to meet (or, at least, shake hands with) President Clinton; and, as the saying goes, so much more. And those are only the things I’ve done. I learned so much more.

When I joined the Navy, it was pretty much out of desperation. I clearly saw the path of my life stretching out before me and thought the Navy, at least, would change that. In the end, I served 13 years (give or take) and was planning on more before finding out my kidneys were deserting me and couldn’t accept my commission. Not everyone had the experiences I’ve had, not everyone left the service with marketable skills, not everyone enjoyed their time in the military and not everyone survived their enlistment or commissioning. Those who died weren’t lost because they failed or were weak or made mistakes, but disappeared as randomly as if they’d been rolling dice to see who would go. They just didn’t make it and it just as easily could have been me. I was lucky, I know that. So this is not a recommendation for military service. This is just, I guess, a commemoration of sorts.

Twenty years ago today, my life changed course, leading me to the place I am now, with two smart, handsome sons, an already precocious two-year-old daughter and my beautiful, inexplicably patient wife, Michelle. I would not be here today without the Navy and I likely would not have seen and done so many amazing things. Kurt Vonnegut wrote in “Deadeye Dick” that his main objection to life was that “It’s too easy, when alive, to make perfectly horrible mistakes.” I’ve made many, though the decisions that turned out to be mistakes seemed simple at the time. I hope you’ll forgive this rambling, self-indulgent wreck of a post, but, by God, it’s worth noting the good decisions sometimes too.

The language we use is indicative of the way we think. One of the strengths of the English language is its adaptability and its specificity. It is hard to tell by listening to most of us, but the English language is one of the most precise of languages. Which makes the changes in usage and thinking all the more telling.

It appears the most common spelling of the term for securing operations in a technologically networked environment is “cybersecurity.” I have an issue with this spelling, vice cyber security or even cyber-security. Cybersecurity as one word belies a thinking that it is a thing into and of itself, a discreet object, rather than a significant aspect of a much larger and more involved process.

At a recent AFCEA Bethesda Breakfast on Cyber Security I listened as the panelists told us about what they’ve accomplished during the past year, and what is on their agenda for the near future. What struck me as a common theme in this discussion was the reference to the reliance on individual members of the organizations to be a part of the solution. Yet, at no time did any of the panelists articulate a plan for training that workforce.

I have written, said, lectured, screamed, in the past that the greatest gap in cyber security today is the gap between the chair and the keyboard.

During the discussions and collaboration involved in developing the Dept. of Defenses Directive-type Memorandum 09-026 The Responsible and Effective Use of Internet-based Capabilities a uniformed military officer complained, “I hear all this talk of ‘Web 2.0’ and ‘Gov 2.0” but when am I going to get my USER 2.0?” My response was: “As soon as you train them.” Sadly, this has still not happened.

Technology is not the problem. Our failure to develop strategies, tactics, techniques, and procedures to adapt our organizations to the new reality is the problem.

Organizations must decide if their approach to cyber space is a fortress to defend or a field of maneuver. How you approach this environment will determine what resources you put toward the effort. If you believe in the fortress approach, your spending will be on firewalls, encryption, and technology that will be in the hands of a select few while the majority of your workforce will carry on with their day-to-day work usually finding ways to subvert your safeguards because your safeguards block their ability to accomplish their day-to-day work. After all, in his or her minds, someone else is responsible for the cyber security. They have never been asked to contribute other than to take the yearly Information Assurance and Operation Security online training which does very little for them except once a year remind them that it is someone else’s responsibility after I watch this video. In an employee’s mind, if it was so important they would give me better training.

Holistically, cyber space is the actions of human beings facilitated by the technological network. Nothing since hard-surfaced Roman roads have changed human behavior like the World Wide Web. Hard-surface Roman roads were a network technology, built by the government and laid out in public, which gave rise to developments that became the strength of what is now described as Western Civilization. Roman citizens were no longer reliant on subsistence farming. They began building communities at the intersections of the technology and purpose. They devised new was of living and diversifying their wealth. They began to live their lives differently.

In this Networked Age, people are finding they can now do things they have never been able to do before. They are finding ways to be more efficient and effective in the things they do. They have access to information in greater variety, greater quantity and at greater speeds than ever before in human history. They are changing the way they live their lives because of the technology that is now in the palm of their hands.

Do they care if their activity puts your system at risk? Yes, I’m sure they do. Or at least they would if they truly understood where the dangers are. Today, it’s someone else’s problem. The IT gatekeeper and engineer are the ones that keep watch and keep the walls strong. If your mental model is a fortress that must be defended.

I believe cyber space is a field of maneuver. Our adversaries and our children see it this way. In basic infantry training I learned team and squad movement tactics. It was each members responsibility to keep your eyes open and be watchful for obstacles and dangers and when one was spotted or even suspected, it was your responsibility to tell someone; a simple, yet very effective tactic. Why is cyber security not trained the same way? Why have we not established reporting systems within our organizations for members to report anomalies?

US-CERT has a central role in the network of cyber space today. An agency of the Dept. of Homeland Security, US-CERT’s web site is undergoing renovation to become more relevant, more user-friendly, and more valuable to US citizens in cyber space. The US Government is reaching out to citizens in cyber space through the National Institute of Science and Technology’s National Initiative on Cyber Education.  These are efforts to help citizens understand and report anomalies and bad behavior that lead to crime in cyber space.

Where are the organizational initiatives that will help train members of the organizations in learning to maneuver in cyber space? Where is our basic cyber infantry training? These are the people who are the edge of our organizations everyday. We need to train, organize, and equip them to better meet our collective needs in this Networked Age.

What I’ve learned about leadership has come from a long, winding, and sometimes torturous road. Leadership is about communication and decision-making; or judgement. Much I’ve learned first-hand, some by watching others. Something my Dad told me long ago comes to mind. I don’t think he was to first to say it, but he was the first to say it to me. “Good judgment comes from experience; and most experience comes from bad judgement.” I’m constantly honing my ability to learn. If I’m not learning, I’m not living; and many times that made the difference.

One of the things I find interesting is that this Networked Age is showing the fundamental lack of leadership skills by those currently in leadership positions in many organizations. While there are many aspects of good leadership, the skills I think that are essential are vision, communication, and fluid thinking. It is not enough to know how to navigate the road before you; you must also know where you are going and why. A good leader must have vision enough to recognize risk and threats and have courage enough to keep moving toward the goal while adjusting for setbacks and the unexpected.

Good leaders will use whatever technology is available to them to advance their mission. Today’s technological environment increases communication and decision-making when the technology is applied properly. Leadership is communication and decision-making. Decision-making is about observing the situation at hand, orienting yourself to the situation with your mission goal in mind, making a decision on that information and acting on that decision. Acting knowing that your action, your input, will change the dynamic and hopefully that change will be in your favor. If not, then recognizing the change and trajectory, deciding and acting again using what ever technology will enable you to gather information to make better decisions to move closer to your goal in a timely manner.

It is not about the amount of information, but the accuracy and timeliness of relevant information that makes the difference. Knowing what information is relevant and what is not is also a key skill of a leader. Understanding what are your key performance indicators, why they are your key performance indicators, and when to change them is critical. Technology can help if it supports a leader’s KPI and communication with and among the team.

Hangar Flight Alert!

(Hangar flying is a tradition where pilots sit around a hangar and tell stories about flying. For a young pilot this is a target rich learning environment.)

Back in late 1980′s and early 1990′s I was learning to fly airplanes and had the opportunity to look over and into the cockpit of the Soviet Sukhoi SU-27 “Flanker” fighter aircraft. It was sparse and relatively rudimentary especially compared to the US McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle which was parked in the hangar beside it. At the time both aircraft were the height of aeronautical achievement for their respective countries. I also met the first US Air Force Pilot to fly the Flanker. His normal aircraft was the Eagle. He said something to me that I find relevant to this conversation. He said, something to the effect: The SU-27 is an amazing aircraft. Its power and maneuverability are very close to the F-15. I would not want to be in a dog fight with any of these SU-27 pilots I’ve been flying with, they are very, very good. But as long as I can knock them out of the sky 4 miles before they can see me I won’t have to …

Technology that provides responsive communication and relevant, timely, and accurate information plus leadership that inspires the team to remain on task and on target enhances mission accomplishment.

Much I learned about leadership I learned in flight school and basic infantry school. While it is an honor and a privilege and sometimes fun to be in command (or pilot-in-command) not understanding the technology, the mission, the plan, or the controls when the unexpected arises can get you and others killed.

One of my flight instructors told me I had a natural affinity for flying. But I still needed to learn the controls. And just like flying, leadership is a responsibility that can be learned. But, just like flying, when you learn the controls and understand the responsibility, some choose not to continue. Others, while they may be maintaining level flight, do not fully understand the emergency procedures and are heading toward the crash; they just don’t realize it yet.

I do happen to know a little bit about intellectual and artistic property rights, copyright, and the piracy of such. My dad, Tim Holt (thanx Wikipedia) and grandad Jack Holt (again I thank you Wikipedia) were both movie actors from the early days of the motion picture industry. I receive no royalty from their work, however their work continues to enhance the fortune of Ted Turner and Warner Brothers. And good for them. Their work remains alive through cable and DVD and that means a lot to me for moral reasons not monetary. Those were the contracts of the time. The contracts adapted over time and I receive royalties from work I did over twenty years ago through the Screen Actors Guild.

The point I make is that SOPA and PIPA are not designed to address the problem. This problem actually concerns most every business and government entity in some form or fashion, worldwide. I have been saying for probably three years now, the issue is not adapting the Web for your business, it is adapting your business to the Web.

Following the logic of SOPA/PIPA automobile, airplane, boat, and road builders would be liable for prosecution because drug smugglers use their equipment. I understand how someone who warehouses digital material for unlimited distribution could be liable, Megaupload.com, but that also shows that the laws are already on the books. But should we arrest the guy laying asphalt because the guy that robbed the bank used his road for the getaway? I think not.

Now, my son Tim, who is a composer and a musician, would love nothing more than for people to find value in his work. Don’t we all? And as a starving grad student any consideration he will greatly appreciate, but stealing it is just not right. And that actually says more about us as a networked society than it does about the pirates or the industry. The transparency of the Networked Age is remarkable. Do you really want to be part of a society that condones stealing? I don’t. Do we need more law to correct those misguided? No. So what is the problem and who is responsible for solving it?

Again I say, we must stop working to adapt the Web to our business and start working to adapt our businesses to the Web. As the Screen Actors Guild did for actors in adapting the motion picture industry to a more fair economic model, it is for the digital media producers to develop ways to protect their investments. The banker doesn’t leave bags of money sitting on the sidewalk for the thief to steal. It is his responsibility to protect his, and others’, investment. Digital property requires digital protection. The technology is there, it is our tactics and procedures that have not kept pace.

Apple has a solution with its iTunes model and Absio has a solution with its Concert software. This is the innovation that creates new tactics and procedures to deal with the new problems of the new digital environment of the Networked Age.

Remember, quit trying to adapt the Web to your business and spend your resources adapting your business for the Web.

That’s what I’m thinking. Alex Howard has a thought provoking piece as does John Tarnoff and his point of value to the marketplace.

Your thoughts?

Ride, donate, or just pass this on to others. It doesn’t matter which. Get involved. Do something.

From my friend Rick Spearman:

Good stories start out with, “So there I was . . .”

So there I was . . . walking into the Pentagon one morning when this big Army NCO passed by me like a man on a mission. As he walked by, I saw the glint of titanium where pants and boots came together. Not in just one leg, but in both.

Being a naturally shy person, I stopped him and asked what happened to his legs. He explained he’d lost both his legs to a roadside bomb in Iraq. We talked a while longer about his work to recover and what he was doing now. I asked him the biggest difference he noticed between the legs the Good Lord had given him and the new ones, and he said, “Well Sir, I notice my feet don’t seem to get as cold.”

Nothing much to do after that but thank him for his service and watch in wonder has he walked away. I did have a passing thought, though, about how great it would be to give a little something back to a guy like that.

Shortly after that, I heard about the Face of America Bike Ride. Face of America is a 110-mile bike ride from Washington DC to Gettysburg, PA that provides the opportunity for able-bodied bike riders to spend time on the road with riders who have been wounded serving the country. This year’s ride is April 27-29, starting at the Pentagon and ending in the middle of Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania.

The ride, created by World T.E.A.M Sports in conjunction with the Walter Reed National Medical Center, gives participants a unique opportunity to honor America’s warfighters who have been wounded, as they set and achieve new goals. I got so much out of this experience last year that I want to make a yearly event out of participating with these great Americans and honoring their service and sacrifice.

This is where I ask you for your support. Last year, with the help of some very generous contributors, I was able to raise more than $3,500 for this great cause. Wounded veterans pay no fees to participate. The rest of us raise funds to support the event and pay all costs for the wounded warriors who ride. This year, I’m asking everyone I know to contribute to this effort by going to my website to make a contribution.

http://worldteamsports.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1001477&supId=348724884

If you don’t have access to the Internet or prefer to send a check payable to “Face of America Bike Ride,” please send to this address:

Face of America Bike Ride 2012
Attn: Rick Spearman
7003 Ferguson Drive
Fredericksburg, VA 22407

This is really much more than a bike ride. It’s an opportunity to share stories and build camaraderie with America’s wounded warriors. It’s a way to honor their service and celebrate the American spirit. I’d appreciate your contributions to this worthy cause and am available to answer any questions you might have at either rickspearman1742@gmail.com or 540-287-3256.

Thanks very much, Rick

Since 1987, our organization has created and organized inspiring events worldwide, including the AXA World Ride, Vietnam Challenge, Sea to Shining Sea cross-country rides, Soldiers to the Summit wounded warrior events and expeditions, the Coastal TEAM Challenge, the annual TEAM Challenge in Colorado and several Face of America rides.

World T.E.A.M Sports is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Support comes primarily from individual and corporate donations and sponsorships.

• Face of America DC Bike Ride 2012 – General Donation

  worldteamsports.kintera.org

Lessons in Leadership from a Janitor by Col James E Moschgat

Words don’t just describe things, they create things. We create things with words that motivate others to action, educate, and either contribute or detract from our community. By our words we create or destroy, which are you engaging in?

Chris Brogan posted Monday about our responsibility as media channels which makes a compelling argument to think before we speak, post, tweet, update our status. This is the same thing my Grandma used to tell me, sort of. Are you communicating for impact or just adding to the noise? Either is fine when you understand what effect you’re having on your community. Remember the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf?

Something that might help, and an issue I have with Chris’ post, is to understand we are not “consumers” of media. It’s not just Chris, but many, if not most, writers on the the subject of media view communication, information, and media as something that is consumed. It is the wrong philosophical model of what happens when people communicate. My ability to receive information does not inhibit your ability. We must learn to separate the act of communicating from the channel used.

Let’s walk through the process. First, an idea is generated. An idea doesn’t truly exist until it is communicated. The act of communicating gives the idea substance in the physical world. Writing the idea or telling the idea to someone now creates information. The information exists in the confines of the medium used to transmit it; spoken or written words. The act of communicating the idea transforms energy either for or against the idea in the form of human action. Information is the technical process, communication is the human process.

So, you see, we cannot simply “consume” communication, information, or media because the words we use will always create something new, be it good or ill, positive or negative.

Words change things.

For all the noise that surrounds the term “social media” most of us still don’t understand what all the “new media” means to us. I was on a panel a few weeks ago discussing the changes in attitudes and use cases for social media in government and through it all there is still this lack of understanding of the fundamental change that has occurred. I say again, it is not about the network, it is about people networking.

The article by Natalia Yefimova-Trilling points out we need to understand people networking. It is all about who you know. The power in social media is the fact that you may not know who you know until you need to know them. And they may not be who you think they are, but you won’t know until you know. It is the ability to connect to people you don’t know through the people you do. The power is in the networking.

Who do you know?

He has lived through the great upheavals of the 20th Century; the Great Depression, the Dustbowl, the Internet and yet still conducts his business with determined vision, a steady hand, and great concern for his employees and their production. This has allowed him to maximize the use of his own facilities and his reputation is such that he has the use of the property of others with few questions asked.

He treats his employees with great care. He sees that they have what they need, are well supplied and that their environment is as good as he can possibly make it. He’s always there to help, coax, and defend them when necessary and values their production no matter how small. Yet he has no tolerance for the unproductive.

As a young man, I would look forward to the summers when I could work for him. It was truly a rewarding and fun experience. Uncle Robert was a man of patience and timing when it came to his business. Now, understand that Uncle Robert never had more than one or two people working for him at any particular time except during the summers when he would have somewhere around fifteen of us kids, cousins all, scattered across his operation.

Yet his employees made him one of the most prosperous men in the community.

You see, Uncle Robert is a farmer. The employees I write of are not necessarily those individual people working for him, but the individual seeds and the individual plants that bring forth individual products.

He knows the proper time to plant and that once planted you have to have patience. You have to wait to see which individuals survive the process. When the first shoots spring forth is only one indication of the process. Some will come up later than others and still others simply will not survive the process. The life of the organization is just not in them.

Those that do survive he cultivates. He sees to their needs. He insures their environment is all that it can be for them to thrive and produce. He keeps track of their production process, makes sure they are well supplied and values each and every little thing they produce. He knows that individual production is the key to the overall harvest. He also know what his return will be, because he knows what he planted; he reaps what he sows. We all do.

Are you cultivating or curtailing?

Do you prune or do you prevent?

And if you don’t like what you’re reaping, change what you’re sowing.