When exceptional people lack ethics, empathy, remorse, and loyalty, we start to think of them as tragic losses–virtuosos that have gone bad. Often these top performers snake their way into an organization, initially looking look like the fulfillment of the company’s wishes. Certainly, they can represent a dream come true–right up until they turn intoRead more
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At the end of the Vietnam War a considerable strain of skepticism, aimed at national and Air Force leadership, ran through the fighter force. Some pilots concluded that the leadership did not care about them. Less than five years after the war ended, disgruntled pilots voted with their feet as they walked into commercial airlineRead more
Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis–the central crisis of Kennedy’s presidency–and perhaps of the entire cold war. In an attempt to establish a Soviet nuclear presence just ninety miles off the coast of Florida, Khrushchev sent Russian ships carrying nuclear warheads to Cuba. Emboldened by Kennedy’s failure at the Bay ofRead more
People have begun to bat the words “egalitarian” and “elite” as if they were conversational shuttlecocks. At some time, perhaps during the 1960s, the emotional meanings of these words overshadowed their earliest meanings. “The elite” originally referred to the most carefully selected members of a group, and egalitarian doctrines maintained that all humans are equalRead more
We don’t ordinarily remember Ulysses S. Grant as someone who cowered easily. After all, under Grant’s leadership the Union Army defeated the Confederate military, effectively ending the Civil War with the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s army at Appomattox. That hard-won victory came at a price, however, when Grant faced formidable adversaries like Lieutenant GeneralRead more
