Leadership author and speaker
Leadership author and speaker
In any endeavor, teamwork is usually the key to success. Every organization functions as a team; we all need each other to be successful. Whether your company is 5 or 5,000, there are teams of people who have to work together to get the job done. It is a rare task that a person accomplishes […]
A culture of trust and respect means that people need to be allowed honest mistakes from time to time. “Allowed an honest mistake” doesn’t mean that there are no consequences for making that mistake; it means that there is a difference between a mistake and a crime. The main difference, of course, between the consequences […]
This week, I’m offering a “sneak peek” at the some of the original content my newsletter subscribers receive every month! New subscribers also receive a free electronic copy of Mickey’s Rules for Leaders, my simple guide to leading any team effectively! Sign up by clicking this link or on form in the sidebar at right! […]
Innovation in any large organization requires courage–courage from senior leaders right down to the front line worker. If done with courage and clear vision, then leaders can develop a true culture of innovation–a “startup mentality”–even in the public sector. Is it really possible to have a “startup” in a huge global enterprise? The answer is […]
Ultimately, leadership is both highly personal and highly situational. There are all sorts of teams and leaders, and the themes and truisms I lay out in this book are universal; each leader has to adapt their own style and personal ethos. I submit that the personal ethos is the first thing a serious leader should […]
When my son was very young, he would give me the same advice as I left for work every day: “Goodbye, Daddy, have a good day at work. Be sure to drink your water, eat your lunch, and make new friends.” I always thought his farewell each day was far more insightful than just a […]
As a military officer, I’ve served with some of the finest people I’ll ever know. Few of them were exactly like me, but all of us shared a common purpose to serve our country. It’s that shared purpose that unified a diverse group of people around a singular mission to fight for our country, our […]
Onboarding new employees is critical to the success of any organization. Without a deliberate and thoughtful onboarding process, new employees are set adrift in an organizational culture without any guide–and some will lose their way. Done correctly, a good onboarding process will imbue the new recruit with company values and energize them to find where […]
Aloha everyone! I am privileged to appear on The Civil Engineering podcast with leader, career coach, and former Air Force engineer Christian Knudson. Episode 19: Riding The Wave of Change As a Civil Engineer Leader – goes live today Wednesday Nov. 25 on iTunes at 6am EST. This weeks Civil Engineer podcast features Mickey Addison, career military officer, civil engineer, author […]
Readers…THANK YOU for your loyalty and for checking out my site! I’m in the process of migrating my site to a new host server, so there may be some disruption and funny looking posts over the next few days. Mahalo (Thanks) in advance for your patience and please keep coming back!
Ask any HR professional and they’ll tell you how recruiting quality people and then developing them is much more a cost-effective business model than constantly seeking the perfect match. When Tom Landry and Tex Schramm led the Dallas Cowboys, they rarely recruited players for a particular position. They went looking for the best athlete they […]
To really get to know a place and the people who live there, you have to actually go there.
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success. Henry Ford As a freshman engineering student, I remember vividly the day my professor announced we needed to know the answer before we performed the calculations.What in blazes does he mean? I thought to myself. Then he explained: if we don’t have […]
I’m proud to be an Airman…and among the reasons for that are because other Airmen gave me reason to be.
It’s time for some fatherly advice for the new freshmen!
For leadership to be authentic, we have to make decisions and take risks. The reason we’re hired into a position of leadership is to do just that; and if we’re too timid to use the authority our boss gives us then we’re not doing our jobs. In the military as in many professions, we strive […]
The entrepreneur’s passion and sense of mission is what drives them. Kathy Carroll, Founder of Lana’i Animal Rescue exemplifies that passion.
Tragedy is a part of the human experience: we can’t escape it and as leaders we get one chance to get that right. Whether that tragedy is the loss of a co-worker to an untimely death, a teammate with a life threatening disease, or the loss of an employee’s family member, leaders have to be […]
Maintaining the right “command culture” in your team is vital to high performance – and the foundation of ethical leadership