Mullen Delivers Pep Talk to Air Force Falcon Football Team

By John J. Kruzel

American Forces Press Service

Dec. 31, 2009 - Doing his best Knute Rockne impression, the nation's top military officer yesterday delivered a pep talk here to members of the U.S. Air Force Academy's Falcons football team ahead of their bowl game today against the University of Houston. College football prognosticators of the matchup, which pits Air Force's No. 1 passing defense against Houston's top-ranked passing offense, give Houston a slight edge. But Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Air Force footballers to consider their achievements thus far.

"You are an exclusive group that gets to go to college, go to a bowl game and represent your institution [and country] as you will tomorrow. You are an extraordinarily capable and motivated group," Mullen said during dinner with the Air Force squad.

As the team digested their beef sirloin, salmon filet and potato dinner at the Omni Hotel, Mullen touched on themes of national service that extend beyond the Falcons' season and the world of sports in general.

The Chairman shared an anecdote about meeting a former Falcon's center who had planned to conclude his Air Force service after his stint at the academy and once his mandatory service obligation was complete. But that player, now an Air Force captain who Mullen met during his recent trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, decided to take another look at the military as a career, he said.

"He said, 'I got commissioned, and it's probably something I'm going to do for a career,'" Mullen said, recalling his conversation with the young airman in Afghanistan. He added that it's not uncommon for troops to attend a service academy for one reason, and then remain in the military for another.

Mullen himself was one such case. "I actually made the decision to go to the service academy without a long-term vision," the admiral said of his decision to attend the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. "Initially I was only going to be there two years ... of course, it worked out a little differently."

Falcons' Head Coach Troy Calhoun, a 1989 graduate of the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colo., thanked Mullen for making an appearance before the team.

"Admiral, thank you for taking time out to get with our guys," Calhoun said. "More than anything else, we're grateful for your tremendous leadership."

As a token of thanks for his appearance at today's Armed Forces Bowl game, where the Air Force team will play a rematch of last year's defeat at the hands of Houston, Falcons' defensive lineman Ben Garland shared the team spirit with Mullen.

"From all of us on the Air Force Falcons, as a token of our appreciation, we wanted to give you this for coming to talk to us," said Garland, a hulking nose tackle, who gave Mullen a hat featuring the Falcons' logo, which the admiral donned to the pleasure of the players.

"Good luck!" Mullen said. "Go kill 'em tomorrow."

Mullen also passed out coins featuring his Chairman's logo as team members swarmed him, shaking hands.

The admiral identified the team's 15 seniors, expressing praise for their leadership.

"The team gets here because it's well led," Mullen said. "It's not just coaching; a lot of that has to do with leadership 'within the wing.'”

Leadership Success Tenet #131 By Andres Agostini

As of Dec/27/2009 - NEW

Leadership Success Tenet # 131 – This Leader archetype, in a delicate mission, requires discernment, intellect, and sound judgment.

Leadership Success Tenet # 130 By Andres Agostini

As of Dec/27/2009 - NEW

Leadership Success Tenet # 130 – This Leader archetype is formed only through constant care and you must not depart from this policy.

Leadership Success Tenet # 129 By Andres Agostini

As of Dec/27/2009 - NEW

Leadership Success Tenet # 129 – This Leader archetype blends severity, justice, and mildness, thus rendering only a good effect.

By (c) Copyright 2009 Andres Agostini -- All Rights Reserved

Leadership Success Tenet # 128 By Andres Agostini

As of Dec/27/2009 - NEW

Leadership Success Tenet # 128 – This Leader archetype marches rapidly and vigorously without any “but,” “if,” or “because.”

By (c) Copyright 2009 Andres Agostini -- All Rights Reserved

Leadership Success Tenet # 127 By Andres Agostini

As of Dec/27/2009 - NEW

Leadership Success Tenet # 127 – This Leader archetype is slow in deliberation and quick in execution.

By (c) Copyright 2009 Andres Agostini -- All Rights Reserved

Blind Officer Completes Course

By Kristin Molinaro
Special to American Forces Press Service

Dec. 24, 2009 - The first blind student to attend the Maneuver Captain's Career Course here graduated with his class Dec. 15 in a ceremony attended by family and friends. The 20-week course prepares captains for company commands and serving as staff officers at battalion and brigade level. "When I came here, I was kind of skeptical of how I would be received, being the blind guy," Army Capt. Ivan Castro said. "I thank my cadre and classmates for their support. I learned a lot from my peers, and I hope I taught them something. We all have a cross to carry. You have to pick up the pieces and move on."

Castro, who's served in the Army for 21 years, was injured during offensive operations in Yusifiyah, Iraq, Sept. 2, 2006, while deployed with the 82nd Airborne Division. Shrapnel from an 82 mm mortar that landed five feet from his position on a rooftop struck Castro, a sniper reconnaissance platoon leader, and several others. The mortar killed two soldiers in his platoon and left him blind. Castro also suffered a bilateral aneurysm, collapsed lung, pulmonary embolism, bone fractures and a nicked artery.

"Without command, without reservation, without hesitation, my guys jumped into action," said Castro, crediting his soldiers with saving his life. "If it wasn't for the training my guys received, I wouldn't be here right now."

Castro spent six weeks on life support in an induced coma. Rehabilitation at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., helped him to adjust to life without sight, and within a year, he was running the Marine Corps Marathon. It was a "grueling" process, said his wife, Evelyn.

After completing his rehabilitation, Castro returned to work as the executive officer for the 7th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, N.C.

"One of your classmates is here today because his fellow warriors refused to cut him away like a bad parachute or let him fall behind," said Army Brig. Gen. Michael Repass, commanding general of the U.S. Army Special Forces Command, speaking to the graduates. "Our soldiers will go into the jaws of hell if they believe we aren't going to leave them behind.

"That faith has to stick with our soldiers if they are wounded or otherwise incapacitated. We leaders cannot put them on the sidelines and walk away from them. I remain encouraged by the obvious courage ... of Ivan Castro."

Throughout his life-changing transition, Castro insisted he not be treated differently, said Army Lt. Col. Fredrick Dummar, who worked with Castro at the 7th Special Forces Group and attended his MCCC graduation.

"It was critical for him to attend MCCC," said Dummar, commander of the U.S. Army Special Operations Recruiting Battalion. "You can't stay on active duty as a captain without it. It would've been not only a fight to keep him on active duty with his injuries, but also to keep him on active duty without attending a mandatory school."

Dummar said because Castro was a Special Forces soldier and wanted to remain on active duty, his case was reviewed.

"We saw what his potential still was instead of what he can't do," Dummar said. "He may not be able to do every job in the Army, but by doing the job he can do, he's freeing up someone who can see to be doing something else."

To keep up in classes, Castro said he used a voice recorder and computer screen-reading software. Castro enlisted his roommate, Army Capt. Gerard Torres, as a running buddy to ensure he kept on the track during physical training.

Torres, who attended the Infantry Officer Basic Course with Castro in 2005, said Castro has been an inspiration to him.

"We've laughed so hard and hated each other like brothers," Torres said. "The things he's taught me since the time I've known him are invaluable. Sometimes you sit there and start feeling bad for yourself, and then you look over, and there's Ivan, running 20 miles."

In the coming weeks, Castro will report to his new assignment as the operations officer for the U.S. Special Operations Recruiting Battalion.

(Kristin Molinaro writes for The Bayonet, the post newspaper at Fort Benning, Ga.)

American Heroes Blogging

We publish six blogs.  They are increasingly visible and offer a good opportunity if expanding your blogging/social media presence would assist you in your endeavors. The blogs and stats are listed below. Each blog is fed via RSS to a twitter account at www.twitter.com/policeofficer, and from there is additionally aggregating and fed as “American Heroes News” on: http://www.americanheroespress.com/,
 http://www.americanheroesradio.com/, http://www.police-writers.com/, http://www.military-writers.com/ and http://www.firefighter-writers.com/.

As a co-author, a 3-4 sentence “byline” with links to your website, book, etc. is completely appropriate. If any of the categories fit your book, business or product, and you interested in becoming a co-author, send an email to editor@police-writers.com, iindicate which blog and one or two sentences on how your expertise, book, or business fits the category.

If you would like to publish the total feed on your website, send me an email and I will send you the html code.

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Virginia Tech Coach Tries to Inspire Troops

By Gary Sheftick
Special to American Forces Press Service

Dec. 23, 2009 - Over the next couple of weeks, units in Afghanistan and Iraq will receive team-dynamics DVDs featuring Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer.

The shipment is being timed to coincide with college football bowl games for impact,

said Col. Richard Todd Dombroski, who spearheads the project.

The video is the first of a planned series that will be sent to troops overseas as part of a larger, though informal, partnership between the military and college football teams, Dombroski said. He outlined a growing relationship with schools such as Dartmouth, the University of Washington and Georgia Tech that includes testing helmet sensors, balance sensors and sharing other information on concussions.

Dombroski serves as surgeon for the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, known in military circles as JIEDDO, and serves as a consult surgeon to Army Operations, G3, and the Rapid Equipping Force. As such, he said he is constantly searching for any edge that could help troops survive IED explosions.

Along with better helmets, armor and equipment, intangibles such as resilience and team spirit could help give troops an edge, he said. That's where the videotapes featuring NCAA coaches like Beamer come in.

JIEDDO director Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz opens the first 5-minute video and introduces Beamer.

"Although we have deployed many sensors to defeat IEDs, the best sensor is still you - the alert, focused and Army strong soldier," Metz tells soldiers in the video.

"Staying focused is hard work and similar to the task of an elite athlete," he continues. "This is why we have asked several NCAA coaches to discuss team dynamics and resilience with you."

Over the past 28 years as a college football head coach, Beamer has posted 24 winning seasons. He has led the Virginia Tech Hokies to bowl games for the past 16 consecutive years.

This year, with a record of 9-3, the Hokies go to the Chick-fil-A Bowl to play Tennessee on New Year's Eve.

The secret to winning is not so much talent as it is a positive attitude and team spirit, Beamer tells the soldiers in the video.

For example, Beamer tells the story of a team he coached in 2003 that had exceptional talent, including several first-round draft picks. But the players just couldn't win the big games at the end of the season. Their chemistry just wasn't right, he said, explaining that some of the players didn't even like each other.

The following year, many of the players had less experience and talent, but because they believed in each other and forged team spirit, they went on to win the ACC championship.

"The chemistry of this whole thing is so important," Beamer says in the video.

Beamer also reveals a technique for establishing positive attitude. One coach recorded positive plays - like good blocks and tackles -- during game day and then played back the positive plays during the next practice.

"The team started thinking more positive," Beamer says in his message to troops, "and they started playing more positive."

The other two keys for winning that he shares with soldiers are:

- Take one task at a time. "Instead of let's go win a war, let's do what it takes daily, hourly."

- Be consistent in daily actions. Balance the highs and lows and keep steady.

Dombroski said he has plans to distribute messages from other NCAA coaches as well, but he's still coordinating the details.

"War's not a football game," Dombroski said, "but there are some similar issues." Those issues include team dynamics, plays, fast action and reaction on contact, he said.

The partnership between JIEDDO and Virginia Tech began because Dombroski knew the team doctor, Dr. Gunnar Brolinson. He also knows some of the doctors for other teams, and said that has opened up doors for sharing information and partnering.

"This is all gratis," Dombroski said, explaining that the informal partnerships involve no contracts or money exchanging hands. He said it's mostly a "patriotic" thing on the behalf of the football teams.

The partnership with NCAA teams also is a two-way street, Dombroski said.

For instance, the Army has shared with Virginia Tech the same balance plate used by West Point athletics. After an athlete takes a hard hit, he is placed on the plate to measure balance problems.

Team doctors and Army doctors have many meetings to exchange ideas and information throughout the year," Dombroski said.

(Gary Sheftick writes for the Army News Service.)

Challenge Academy to honor 101 graduates, scholarship winners

December 16, 2009: One hundred and one cadets from 40 counties will graduate from the Wisconsin National Guard Challenge Academy in a noon ceremony Saturday, Dec. 19 at Mauston High School. The Challenge Academy re-shapes the lives of at-risk 16-to-18-year-olds. It uses a structured, military-style environment and state-certified teachers and counselors to build cadets’ academic abilities, character, self-confidence, and personal discipline.

After graduating from the 22-week residential phase of academy training, cadets are paired with hometown mentors who offer guidance and encouragement in pursuing their new direction in life.

U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (3rd District) is expected to address graduates along with their parents, relatives, mentors, and friends on hand to celebrate their success.

Four cadets who graduated in December 2008 will receive $1,000 scholarships to the colleges of their choice from the National Guard Youth Foundation. They are Tamara Campbell, Waunakee; Justin Maldonado, Elkhorn; Kostyantyn Pavlenko, Niagra; and Steven Swenson, Stoughton. Maldonado is pursuing a criminal justice degree at Gateway Technical College, while Pavlenko is studying for a culinary arts degree at Le Cordon Bleu College in Minnesota. Swenson and Campbell are attending Madison Area Technical College for degrees in criminal justice and cardiology, respectively.

Twenty-nine states offer similar programs nationwide. More than 85,185 teens have successfully completed National Guard youth programs since 1993. More than 87 percent of cadets who finish the program receive their high school equivalency diploma (HSED), and more than 80 percent stay out of trouble with the law.

The Challenge Academy will begin its next class Jan. 14, 2010. Applications are available for future classes by contacting the Challenge Academy at (608) 269-4605.

PEC visits TEC to explore collaboration opportunities

By Master Sgt. Mavi Smith
The I.G. Brown Air National Guard Training and Education Center

(12/8/09) -- Leadership from The Lavern E. Weber National Guard Bureau Professional Education Center (PEC) visited The I.G. Brown Air National Guard Training and Education Center here to explore opportunities for collaboration between the two training centers, Dec. 8. The PEC is the Army National Guard's version of the Training and Education Center. It is located at Camp Joseph T. Robinson in North Little Rock, Ark., on a sprawling 75-acre campus consisting of 25 buildings. It has a staff of about 420 military and civilian contractor personnel who provide instruction to over 20,000 members of the military each year. They also manage a conference center and host over 5,000 conferees annually.

"The Army Guard has such an established program with the PEC," said Col. Richard B. Howard, commander of the Training and Education Center. "So, sharing ideas with the PEC folks today on how we might be able to develop ourselves to reach and match the vision of the chief of the National Guard Bureau (for the Training and Education Center) to expand to meet the needs of the Air National Guard and the total force... is going to help us get there."

PEC's leadership spent the day on a whirlwind tour to learn more about the Training and Education Center and McGhee Tyson ANGB. Their visit was in reciprocation of a visit made to the PEC by members of the Training and Education Center and the 134th Air Refueling Wing (ARW) in April.

"TEC is really amazing," said Army Col. John M. Frost, commandant of the PEC. "The main thing we wanted to do is try and learn from each other's organizations and see where there might be some opportunities for us to partner together to make both organizations even better and stronger."

While at the Training and Education Center, PEC leadership received Informative briefings from Howard and the center's Enlisted Professional Military Education, Transformative Education, and TEC TV branches. Air Force Col. Timothy T. Dearing, commander of the 134th ARW, also joined the group and provided an overview of the missions accomplished at McGhee Tyson ANGB and his commitment to the Training and Education Center.

The PEC leadership also toured the campus and visited the classrooms of the 130 students attending Satellite NCO Academy Class 10-2.

"I thought it was wonderful," said Army Maj. Sean Gavan, chief of operations for the PEC. "I enjoyed the opportunity to not only see the classrooms here at TEC and how you're structured but to visit with some of the TEC students."

During the visit, lessons learned were shared; training, planning and registration issues were discussed; and similarities between the organizations were explored. While the missions of the two organizations are different, many of the participants expressed synergies for collaboration.

"One of the synergies I see is in conference capabilities," said Frost. "And I also think there will be opportunities to do leadership training at either location that is applicable to both services."

"I actually find between the Army and the Air Guard training methodologies and the resourcing, we are very much similar," said Gavan. "I look forward to seeing how we can expand our capabilities for the Army and the Air Guard together as we look toward the future."

LEADERSHIP SUCCESS TENETS (#1 THROUGH #126)

Updated compilation as of Dec/12/2009

LEADERSHIP SUCCESS TENETS (#1 THROUGH #126) BY © COPYRIGHT 2009 ANDRES AGOSTINI –ALL RIGHTS RESERVED – At www.AgostiniWorks.blogspot.com, www.CyberCV.blogspot.com, www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=408933, www.linkedin.com/in/AndresAgostini, www.twitter.com/SciCar, www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=%22andres+agostini%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

# 1 – This Leader Is An Actionable Statesman.
# 2 – This Leader is thoroughly moral and ethical in deed and spontaneously projected example.
# 3 – This Leader is happily located and navigating through Century 21.
# 4 – This Leader is, by far, focused on solid and increasing education and perpetual mind expansion, chiefly those acquired by solving truly complex problems systematically.
# 5 – Self-Pedagogue forever. Teaches to self-tech to his / her crew for Life.
# 6 – Leads, Co-Leads, Follows, Co-Follows, Plans, Co-Plans, Invents, Re-Invents, Co-Invents, Co-Reinvents, Executes, Co-Executes, Builds, Co-Builds, Envisions, Co-Envisions, Paves and Co-Paves Never-Thought-Of Pathways.
# 7 – Intuitive, Counterintuitive, and seamlessly blends both of the above without paralyzing in the analysis.
# 8 – Takes all – encompassing curiosity as it is operated in real time – beyond known and unknown extremes.
# 9 – Makes every mistake – own or that of the competitor – into his / her won victory.
# 10 – Doesn’t care how fluid and amorphous the limits, contexts and the dynamics of his / her blurred theater of operations are.
# 11 – Can strategize and prevail through many operational frameworks at once without getting bewildered.
# 12 – Challenges every assumption, doctrine and dogma ruthlessly and relentlessly, beginning with his / her own ones.
# 13 – Learns something practical, meaningful, and decisively productive and significant every day.
# 14 – Heightens crew’s sense of urgency and of focus.
# 15 – Re-adapts and re-invents resiliently and effortlessly regardless of whatever constraints and increasing pressures stemming from the frame of reference.
# 16 – Operates multidimensionally and cross-functionally.
# 17 – Constantly and boldly sets pre-conditions to maximize the likelihood of his / her triumphs.
# 18 – Always selects and develops his / her leadership constituency.
# 19 – Creates and applies his / her own – along with that of the team – body of knowledge.
# 20 – Does never ever institute “best practices,” but UNIQUE, premium-graded approaches.
# 21 – Carries on much swifter that “life cycles” intrinsic to products, services, challenges, and complex problem solving.
# 22 – Does not get concerned about his / her adversaries since the uniqueness and ever-upgrading quality of tactics, strategies and stratagems as applied.
# 23 – Harmonizes issues immediately. Yes, he fights against adversities and their proponents. But, at the end, this LEADER is a peace maker.
# 24 – His / her leadership is always (and robustly so) linked to concrete and unambiguous objective and goals.
# 25 – Always updates his methods, approaches, techniques, tactics, strategies, especially using those that are extraneous to so-called and already disrupted (published or unpublished) “history.” (Which one, that wrote by winners or that stated by losers or that always failing to have sufficient objectivity?)
# 26 – Continuously learns lessons – and improves those – both from incurred mistakes and from captured successes.
# 27 – Extracts information and knowledge – to be shared and brainstormed with the crew in advance – out of everything done, thought, as well as to be executed regardless of the incumbent.
# 28 – Wins only based on merit, principle, legitimacy and lawfulness.
# 29 – Strategizes the granularity of detail of everything. There is no such a thing as a leader that is not a strategist and a consummated visionary. Fringe, “terra incognita” and fuzzy-logic zones are highly stimulating to his / her starving intellect.
# 30 – Embraces leading-edge (even weird) science and its stemming technological derivatives immediately.
# 31 – Enjoys phenomena and prevails as he / she navigates through said phenomena.
# 32 – Is never commonsensical and always pervasively challenging long-held assumptions as he / she institutes the most unorthodox and exuberant novel practices (lavishly so).
# 33 – De-tools, tools, re-tools the amplification of the individual and collective intelligence within his / her crew.
# 34 – Instills how to operate autonomously and jointly – in pursuit of the same goals and objectives – to his / her followers and co-leaders.
# 35 – Learns from his / her mistakes, but empathizes to learn also from the mistakes of others.
# 36 – Fluidly shares experience and practical knowledge across every incumbent in the crew.
# 37 – Only thinks and performs à la unthinkable thinking.
# 38 – Disrupt the boundaries of unthinkable thinking, always going progressively more beyond such boundaries.
# 39 – Transforms new problems and old problems into actionable breakthrough opportunities.
# 40 – In his / her case and exercising this type of leadership, strongly and coherently insists on and applies three aspects: CIVILITY, CIVILITY, CIVILITY!
# 41 – Before chaos, he / she instills more and more chaos – of greater magnitude, scale and speed – to level off and outsmart the frame of reference targeted.
# 42 – Drives OPS with directness and / or indirectness, as well as with the loose/control hybridization mode.
# 43 – Shares of defined values as they get collegially upgraded for Life.
# 44 – Elicits conceptions of practiced futures to deal with and countermeasure way in advance.
# 45 – Fuses technology innovation with business strategy as a tool for competitive advantage.
# 46 – Conceives early and distinguishes it and exploits it strategic surprises attributable to competitors.
# 47 – Ascertains that there is not a single stone left unturned.
# 48 – Short-circuits to shortcut.
# 49 – Possesses innate ideas – in addition as those incubated by the crew – positioning himself / herself in the tabula rasa’s antipodes.
# 50 – Determined to support his / her fellow crew members even beyond his own skin.
# 51 – Is more willing to openly share fact-and-figure information regarding their interests, constraints, and priorities as they have earned each other’s trust.
# 52 – Invests in trust building prior to, during, and after their commando operations (regardless of the business enterprise or not theater of operations).
# 53 – Does not simply leverage trust when it is present; he / she builds trust when is absent.
# 54 – Is a poker-faced strategic visionary raising the ante and raising the scale of the latter as he / she modulates the timing and “landing” of the calculated risks waged.
# 55 – Alleviates fear and builds trust.
# 56 – Builds so many “strategic surprises” in his mind lab way in advance – in eternity overriding the most bizarre dreamed-of (and practiced) futures with the foresight and far-sight perspectives – in a way utterly impossible to be caught off guard by so-called in-the-ground reality (that is, nothing more than partially controlled hallucinations).
# 57 – Demolishes all forms of mediocrity, especially lying and manipulating within his amorphous and versatile crew, enabling the rogue ruling of the omni-mode optimum.
# 58 – Communicates pointblank as he / she elicits the content with clarity, respect, cordially and, above of all, an upped sense of urgency. Treasures reasoned fury for competitors, adversaries, and industrial spies, as well as in transmutation of weaknesses into stern strategic advantages over his / her contrarians.
# 59 – While focusing on several specific matters to tackle and their rules of engagement, he / she never loses sites of the contexts targeted by the other member of his crew. This LEADER has the clearest mentality that everything is related to everything else.
# 60 – Thinks “big picture” and wholly to operate comprehensively and multifacetedly to state the very minimum.
# 61– However the primordial leader and the emboldened sprits de corps across the board within his / her crew, he / she unambiguously honors, respects and institutional rewards the highest hierarchies, as well as those under his / her watch.
# 62 – He / she, as well as the entirety of the crew, thinks in already practiced futures to in-source his / her individual and collective mind(s) with zillion actionable options from the originated one to out-strategize adversaries and ascertain indisputable prevailing.
# 63 – He views as scientists reportedly tell us as the horses see in real life, so that this holistic view and systemic and systematic engagement in the theater of operations – tremendously propelled by fore-sighting -- offers this Leader a lucid second nature in dealing with globality and the elements of the system (embedded in his blurring and flowingly blurring context) from the amplest perspective of that prepared mind that not only is capturing the uniqueness, the subtleties, and interrelationships of the challenge to be resolve (on the doubles) as they are posed by the theater of operations.
# 64 – When an action is to happen is not that bad and when the minds, spirits, and souls of these leaders and co-leaders are not counting with the greatest and most updated competitive intelligence (and, sometimes, rampant intelligentsia), this Leader, as per the medical maxim, engages into “first do no harm,” thereby awaiting for the soonest and best timing to besiege and conquer (WITH HONOR) the theater of operations.
# 65 – This Leader does not have only a passion, but he / she has an extremely well passion that does not allow said person to lose composure, aim, an strategic blueprint to shock and awe, via overbearing number of angles, the adversary to be turned in defeat by the collective unleashing of energy unload on to them for the ultimate domination.
# 66 – Establishes a great human-to-‘computational power’ intelligence close-loop feedback via artificial intelligence to access to and swiftly operate on the numerical and narrative data received between the terrain sustained gains and the ultimate goal to be captured within maximum control.
# 67 – Secures so many Pyrrhic and ‘ignored flank’ victories to improve his / her abilities – and that of the crew – while bringing about a dramatic but yet subtle and decisive breakthrough, very much to his / her advantage and that of humankind.
# 68 – When the leader approaches any important mission, he / she enters the process with the goal of looking for areas in which strategic value can be created.
# 69 – Helps disputant crew members to reach harmony thoroughly, not dwelling on the past but improving the perspective of his persona and that of the crew toward the immediate future.
# 70 – This leader fails so recurrently that, that in the final analysis, he / she affluently prevails. This worships his mistakes as sacrosanct learning devices that he, in the treasured futures, wins easily, independently of precarious terrains.
# 71 – Is forever building up – via transparency, accountability and responsibility – trust among his / her fellow co-leaders. In those critical missions, say of law enforcement, first responders and the military, the maximum on-site responsible one exercises a climate of distention and courtesy among his crew members. There is here a difficult balancing act – that is never a daring issue for the wise leader – is to offer support and friendliness without disrupting the limits between the professional life and personal one. Intimacy exchanges between the crew members of the same team will gravely compromise the integrity of the incumbents and their mission-critical responsibilities. The members incurred in such situation must be immediately relocated.
# 72 – Possesses clarity of thought and great depth and scope in contrarian’s judgment, as he / she avidly ponders above and beyond wholly.
# 73 – He / she grows mentally and intellectually in the midst of complexity, chaos, and anarchy, transforming the cited three factor in the tools to secure his triumph early.
# 74 – This Leader becomes responsible for assuming costs, losses, liabilities, behaviors, as well as outcomes.
# 75 – This Leader does not retaliate; he / she just prevails.
# 76 – This Leader’s mentality is ruled by his / her own should-self facet and never by his / her want / self one. In doing so, this Leader maximizes the long-term benefits.
# 77 – This Leader is always encouraging and supporting legitimate justice seeking.
# 78 – This Leader is much more of an asset than a hindrance in interacting with the members of his / her crew.
# 79 – This Leader is both robust, resilient and carries on non-linearly.
# 80 – This Leader is an over-communicator.
# 81 – This Leader is the hidden persuader to the greatest causes that transforms the World from a tiny bit of an annoying place into a better place, though interesting and educational in extremis.
# 82 – This Leader is more flexible, competent, industrious, diligent, trustworthy, rational, honest, fair, cooperative, and compassionate than his / her opponents.
# 83 – In succeeding, this Leader does not denigrate his / her opponents. He / she treat adversaries with highest decorum.
# 84 – This Leader radiant reasoning is analogically instituted.
# 85 – This Leader uses the insider’s lens, but much more emphatically utilizes the outsider’s lens.
# 86 – This Leader makes more with less.
# 87 – This Leader always operates better, when in the “battlefield,” the theater of operations has many sub-systems in and beyond ‘fringe’ status.
# 88 – This Leader is engaged in “real time” calibrating mode, quantitatively and qualitatively, the information, data, and arguments that you hear from them.
# 89 – This Leader cross-checks everything in its entirety.
# 90 – This Leader chooses and updates and upgrades his / her own appropriate measure of success.
# 91 – In his / her pondering and discerning processes, this Leader emphasizes – to the self and crew member fellows – the need to understand the other side’s perspective in advance and in continuum.
# 92 – This Leader discovers the hidden interests, priorities, constraints, patterns, and subtle ploys of the other side, allowing him / her to create strategic value more efficaciously.
# 93 – This Leader finds ways to overcome not only the reasonable objections of others, but also their close-mindedness.
# 94 – This Leader reserves consistency between their attempts and actions.
# 95 – This Leader, in order to protect the self, must make a judicious and salient effort to anticipate and mitigate powerful effects from strategies enforced.
# 96 – In each situation, this Leader provides his / her crew with strategies for seeing and uncovering more clearly the information that falls in your blind spot.
# 97 – This Leader thinks through the decision rulings, constraints, strategies, resource pressures, and politics of the other side.
# 98 – For this Leader, the other side information advantage is never in his / her blind spot.
# 99 – This Leader’s First Nature is to wholly trustworthy and never wholly trusting.
# 100 – This Leader is afraid neither the future nor the past but make a mark on the moment.
# 101 – This Leader resists the obvious to embrace the newness of ignored flanks.
# 102 – This Leader does not look through the mirror but every window.
# 103 – This Leader build bridges between failures and sustainable successes.
# 104 – This Leader’s greatest action is to pause to engender cross-pollinated perspectives from pondering, discernment, and actionable reflections.
# 105 – The only stasis this Leader knows is the order tendered by chaotic measures that institute and restore harmony.
# 106 – This Leader is the host of his / her co-leaders (Hostmanship).
# 107 – This Leader generates a lot of ideas and plans; looks for good ideas, not just his / her own but those of the crew.
# 108 – This Leader never abandons the power of saying what he / she believes and believing and executing what he / she says.
# 109 – This Leader operates based on that a good working relationship will work even better when all work on it together (esprit de corps).
# 110 – This Leader knows, that in engaging in a major initiative, the first moments are apt to be the most lively and decisive.
# 111 – While co-leaders are occupied with training, this Leader must set the tone for all of his / her consistency.
# 112 – This Leader takes care of his / her co-leader and look after him / her in detail.
# 113 – This Leader listens to his / her co-leaders’ complaints, inspects their tools and equipment, and satisfies himself / herself that co-leaders do not lack anything.
# 114 – This Leader demonstrates that takes his / her responsibilities seriously and devotes himself / herself completely to the co-leader, which in turn inspires the co-leader’s confidence.
# 115 – Before committing to any serious enterprise, this Leader and respective co-leaders perform frequent “drill evolutions” exercises.
# 116– In dealing with real-life business undertakings and struggling with competitor, maneuvers, strategies and tactics exceptionally mastered by this Leader knowing that the least hesitation could compromise the entire integrity of his / her crew and corresponding objectives and goals.
# 117 – This Leader makes his / her co-leaders acquaint with tactical skills. This Leader explains the THEORY to his / her co-leaders in a way that theory and practice become co-leader’s second nature.
# 118 – Under this type of Leadership good leaders, good cares, good organization, good instruction (theoretical and practical), and good discipline can provide good co-leaders regardless of the challenge they compete against.
# 119 – For this Leader the bottomline is: The real objective of having a LEADERSHIP is to provide for desired relevant outcomes. For this Leader preparation is not only based on the organization of the LEADERSHIP TEAM but the indispensability of said organization is, by far, much more all-encompassing and strategically decisive.
# 120 – This Leader believes that secrecy, discipline, morale and competitive intelligence are instrumental to his / her many successes in business, management and organizational transformation.
# 121 – This Leader knows that “quiet” historic times around the world offer some type of “acceptable” bureaucratic environment. This Leader also knows that he / she must turn the environment fluidly “lean and mean,” especially when every facet of the world order is by each 24 hours disrupting every historic precedent known.
# 122 – This Leader is aware of the strategy and of the damage that could result from a false sense of economizing the granularity of details pertaining to the depth and scope and nature of said strategy.
# 123 – This Leader and Co-Leaders posses the controlling influence of tactics, formation, and of the drill evolution of own team but also of the competitor’s crew.
# 124 – This Leader is strong, adroit, shrewd, skillfully adaptable, tough-minded and resilient, as well as morally and ethically indefatigable.
# 125 – This Leader knows that not only speed assures its success, but order, cohesion, congruency, maneuvering, and the effective use of resources.
# 126 – In a delicate mission, this Leader always requires discernment, intellect, and sound judgment.

ANDRES ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENETS

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 26 - (metaphoric ideas for updated management practitioners)
Don’t worry about being surprised by the unexpected. Just carry on expecting the unexpected, regardless of the implicated chaos. Create instability as the essence of your strategy. Keep in mind: a more volatile external environment requires a less stable internal world. Seek out substitutes and opportunities to increase productivity by measuring the mass used in your business today, and getting it to decrease every year. Respond with more rapid and varied adaptation.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 27 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Conduct thousands of tests of products, prices, features, packages, marketing channels, credit policies, account management, customer service, collections, and retention. Make informed but subjective judgments. Push ahead before the competition could catch up. Seize the opportunity—even when not really prepared.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 28 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Empower talented people. Accelerate talented people very quickly, because that’s where you get the value. Place bets on future values. Cross boundaries, change jobs, and form new teams to meet evolving needs. Align with the business. Use good economic judgment. Be flexible. And be empathetic to your colleagues.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 29 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
It’s okay to break the rules in the right way. Going around doing randomly disconnected things. Develop all the peripheral relationships you need to be effective organizationally. Manage the connections rather than the structure. Also know how to hybridize.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 30 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Reach out to others with corresponding roles across the organization to learn and share ideas. Move around and support your colleagues when needed. Enable innovation by bringing DIVERSE elements together. Without these kinds of connections, DIVERSITY has little inherent value.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 31 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Empower others and yourself by the whole chaotic percolation of ideas at the bottom of the organization. Bear in mind: Empirical evidence, based on small tests, always carried the day. Attract very bright people with initial proof of concept, then plug them into your organizational structure.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 32 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Maintain common interfaces and cross-functional capabilities that allow work to flow and value chains to talk to each other. Harvest the idea, then propagate it wildly before the mimicry of competition sets in.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 33 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Employ diversification to spread their risks. Be willing to take the risk of shaping the future according to your own design. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, but don put all your eggs in one basket. Beware of this: Discontinuities, irregularities, and volatilities seem to be proliferating. Remember: Without risks, life poses no mystery.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 34 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Seed, select, amplify, and destabilize the situation are the two management ideas for accelerated evolution. Don’t expect a perfect feedback system in a volatile environment. Don’t be excellent at doing; be excellent at changing, too.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 35 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Explore the extremes, where nonlinear effects kick in. Sometimes, the extremes contain pleasant, nonlinear surprises. Imagine things that engender loyalty towards your organization. Through experimentation with detailed measurements and discipline and logical analysis, you find profitable innovations.
 
ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 36 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Test things at the bottom of the organization that lead to big insights. Test, experiment, measure, and optimize. Institute hard-core analytic optimization. Architect your entire infrastructure to operate in real time. Let your account-management programs to be driven by experimentation.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 37 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Dream up programs that might be of value to customers, and then test them. A successful test often triggers other behaviors, and you should follow these with more new offers. Shift to roll-out, because ah of a sudden your competition get a preponderance of one product of my organization that they’ve never seen before.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 38 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Have a free flow of resources to where the value is. Rather than penalizing people who fail, praise them for their commitment and intentions. Reinforce the tolerance of risk and failure. Revise your best practices. Observe, orient, decide, act. First to fight now means first to learn.
 
ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 39 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Fly great distances, meet new people, and encounter new ideas. Have a freedom of thought, the passion for experimentation, and the desire to imagine your future. Believe in not commonly believed opinions.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 40 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
It’s about getting more from less. That’s the true road to wealth. Focus on changes, challenges, and opportunities. Earn more while spending less. Reach a higher level of output. Pursue profit maximization. Remain competitive. Adapt to revolutionary innovations in technology and business efficiency the soonest. Craft value creating relationships. Establish guidelines, offer insight, and provide inspiration. Identify, analyze, and maximize your learning opportunities.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 42 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Evaluate, identify, select, negotiate, manage, turn around, govern, implement, anticipate, and ensure success. Generate immediate cost savings. Realize a cash infusion from the sale of assets. Relieve the burden of staffing.
 
ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 43 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Be freer to direct your attention to the more strategic aspects of your job. Keep your logic compelling.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 44 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Destabilize in order to live closer to the edge of chaos. This means being agile enough to change as the environment does, but not so fluid as to lose its defining structure. Walk the walk as well as talking the talk of the Adaptive Enterprise.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 45 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
A lesson: The word adaptation describes the interaction between an organism and its environment.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 46 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
TO BEAR IN MIND! But one thing an evolutionary and ecological perspective tells us for sure: If several major forces are at work, they will not progress in separate straight lines —they will interact chaotically, creating unforeseen changes.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 47 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Be willing to adapt very quickly, to pounce on an opportunity when you see it, to change the organization, to think about new developments, and to be always very open to any change in any direction.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 48 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
You have to be the equivalent of selective forces in nature, which calls for a willingness to let people in the organization to explore, to flourish and develop.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 49 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Separate to promote independence, selfish thinking, and local solutions. Learn from each other’s mistakes and successes, and you’ll get better and be able to operate at a much more accelerated pace, based upon the knowledge that has been transferred.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 50 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Get your organization into a massive amount of knowledge and experience that creates a great breeding stock for subsequent ventures.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 51 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Explore continually evolving technology and applications, while also creating different units to exploit commercial opportunities not always closely related to the founding capabilities.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 52 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Replenish customers on demand. Take the client as an agent, and create an agent-based point of view.
 
ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 77 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Seek the hidden. De-learn the learned. Make the covert overt. Implement ipso facto.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 78 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
De-peril your risks. Empower your financial risks to work for you. Hire them; get resigned from your bricks-and-mortars (a future not plausible).
 
ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 79 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Plan, lead, and manage.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 80 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Understand your business depth today. Develop better ways to service your enterprise in the future.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 81 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Before “outsourcing,” NOW ‘Worldwide Sourcing’ or ‘Competitive Sourcing’.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 82 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Have fewer staff and run a lean operation. Favor those who leverage third-party relationships that don’t tie up capital and consume resources.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 83 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Strategically enhance your organization’s core competencies. Address any outstanding issue with your employees, unions, and the community. Find the lowest total cost or best value.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 84 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Recognize impact on internal operations. Capture the big picture.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 85 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Track benefits, realize quick wins, and motivate critical stakeholders to remain committed.
 
ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 86 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Early anticipation of changes can drastically reduce the time and cost of addressing them. Seek the quick win (that long forgotten in an ignored —but mission-critical— flank).

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 87 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Research assiduously which of the available external market capabilities fit best with your strategic objectives.
 
ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 88 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Articulate these management principles more precisely, implement them more systematically, and rely less on the intuition of a few gifted leaders. Don’t write strategy, GROW IT. Don’t think in terms of maximizing your share of the market but of maximizing your share of experience. Build an innovation laboratory capable of creating a steady stream of the new ideas to stay ahead of the competition.

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 89 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Differentiate or die. Be mindful that improvisation is too important to be left to the fortuitous. Consider that life is sustainable through the unperceived and those universal laws that are unknown to us. Continuity is over-dead; it hasn’t yet reincarnated. History will be reshaped by the sudden and sharp change, namely “frenzy volatility.”

ANDRES AGOSTINI SUCCESS TENET # 90 - (METAPHORIC IDEAS FOR UPDATED MANAGEMENT PRACTITIONERS)
Launch your employees with confidence into a somewhat chaotic environment, knowing that they will direct themselves toward optimal performance to success. Instill in the staff a loose, self-organizing culture—in search of new opportunities. Motivate and develop others to learn to change to prevail. Sharing ideas, “…an eye is not an eye because you see it; an eye is an eye because it sees you…” —Antonio Machado. Nonetheless, as per The Panchatantra: “Knowledge is the true organ of sight, not the eyes.”

PS_1: Some people asked me where I get my ideas from. I have been involved with some of the most demanding and capricious clients, employers, allies, business owners and scholars. It is not always fun, but I usually get hired when a noted institution needs a near-impossible situation to be turned around into a fully possible one. Among my direct clients, there has been GE, Toyota, Mitsubishi, World Bank, GMAC, TNT Delivery Express, PackMail, and PDVSA (CITGO’s parent company) and its operations in the Western Hemisphere, also leading executives of General Electric (GE) and Abbott Laboratories. Through joint ventures and other forms of alliances, my clients (and organizations I have worked extensively with) are MAPFRE, STATOIL, TOTAL (TOTAL FINA), CONOCO, Philips Petroleum, and British Petroleum (BP). There are, within my professional career, some 30 years of deep thinking, pondering, researching, managing, consulting, analyzing, strategizing, empirical experimenting / testing, complex-problems solving, as well as surveying and privately interviewing world-class business owners, entrepreneurs, managers, thinkers, and people committed to determined creativity and innovation, seeking to instill value to the world. I do overwhelming studying, researching and experimenting, learning from mistakes and positive findings early. I have the “luck” to have been mentored lavishly by parents, master-degree students, senior professors, researchers, Ph.D.s, post-doctoral doctors, and applied scientists, among many other representatives of prominent corporations and institutions into sophisticated technocracy. I have and always will have the greatest respect for science and applied scientists. To the extent that I habitually undertake any initiative with the standard scientific method (rigor with vigor and accuracy), keeping my mind always open and updated (as much as possible) through a detailed, all-encompassing vista of challenges and efforts. In addition and for a number of years, I have been developing and instituting my own methodology to developmental thinking, holistic thinking, and systemic/systematic/Gestalt, insightful discernment based on the systems methodology, systems methodology as it is utilized by eminent exact-science practitioners. I am also into professional development, mentoring, and teaching. It is worth remembering that I teach to learn. On the Web – among other occupations and skills – I am into extensive blogging and writing. This so that I learn a bit more every time.

PS_2: All terms hereof pertains to the grandiose Shakespearean lingua franca. Others systems, not as enriched as the latter, are ineffectual and inconsequential and not as delightful a sophisticated to communicate complex thoughts unambiguously.

PS_3: All quotations not otherwise cited are from the interviews conducted by the author or personal communications sent to the author.

By © Copyright 2009 Andres Agostini (Andy)
Ich Bin Singularitarian, High-Tech / Mind Expansionist Visionary and Method Developer/Proprietor of: "Transformative And Integrative Risk Management" (with the applied omniscience perspective), Blitzkrieg, Organizational Strategist, TransLeadership / Preter-Leadership Innovist, Patternist, Iconoclastic Mind Expansionist, Applied Omniscience Activist, so forth.