Thursday, May 1, 2008

Leadership Thursday

On this first iteration of Leadership Thursday I do have some exciting, albeit quite a change in things, news to throw out there: I have decided to stay in the Army. Some of you may or may not know, but I am currently an officer in the US Army and have been for 6 years now, and was planning on going to Corporate America come end of the summer. However, through a variety of events I've decided that my niche is in the Army and that I need to spend some more time here. In fact, I'll have plenty of leadership challenges in my future come September as I take command of a company. Our mission will be completely different from anything I've done thus far, and I'm excited about a new challenge. Challenges and I get along--they PUSH me out of my comfort zone and grow me. As I've made this decision I expected to get some "you must be crazy" comments, and instead it's been nothing but pats on the back, encouragement, and lots of "I'm glad you made this decision because I think you're a really good officer and we need you" and that is so encouraging and inspiring to me. Serving and leading Soldiers is a humbling thing. I am glad to have emerged from "1/4 Life Crisis" I apparently had and have inspiration again. So, I guess the leadership lesson learned here today is that there will be times when you struggle, but don't just let the struggle go on without engaging yourself in it, and don't be so proud as to choose the wrong path, even if you've already said you were going to do so. My changing my mind tested my pride some in that I don't like to say "I was wrong" in a major decision, but it is much much better to choose the right thing and fine peace than to go ahead and live the wrong thing. Pride goes before a fall...enough leaders in our world fall daily because of their pride, so let's learn from them and not go through that pain ourselves! Deal with the struggle, work through it, wrestle with it...that means you care...and in the end you will find the answer if you don't let pride keep you down!

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