Leadership: Texas Hold em Style

Using poker as analogy for leadership, Captain Andrew Harvey, CPD (ret.), Ed.D. and Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster, LAPD (ret.), MPA found the right mix of practical experience and academic credentials to write a definitive book for leaders. Working together, Harvey and Foster have written Leadership: Texas Hold em Style. Most often leaders find they are given a set of resources people, equipment, funds, experience and a mission. As Foster noted, You are dealt a certain hand. How you play that hand as a leader determines your success

More than a book: A fun and entertaining journey through leadership that includes an interactive website to supplement knowledge gained from the book.
Proven and Tested: Not an academic approach to leadership, but rather a road-tested guide that has been developed through 50-years of author experience.
High Impact: Through the use of perspective, reflection, and knowledge, provides information that turns leadership potential into leadership practice.
Ease of Application: Theory is reinforced with real-life experience, which results in accessible and practical tools leaders can put to use immediately.
High Road Approach: Personal character and ethical beliefs are woven into each leadership approach, so leaders do the right thing for the right reasons.
Uses Game of Poker: Rather than a dry approach that is all fact and no flavor, the game of poker is used as a lens through which to view leadership concepts.

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JCOC: Conference Participants Have Mixed Success on Flight Simulators

By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service

Nov. 9, 2007 - From the pilot's seat of a KC-130 air refueler, Mark Brainard carefully guided the craft over the ocean to the landing strip on the coast as his co-pilot coached him. "Pretty good," the co-pilot said of Brainard's approach. "Start grounding out, pulling back towards you a little bit."

Brainard, chief of staff for the governor of Delaware, is part of the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference, which landed here today on its fourth day of a week-long tour of military forces in U.S. Pacific Command.

As Brainard followed the co-pilot's guidance, an electronic voice reported the altitude -- 100, 50, 30 ... "All right, just hold that," his coach said.

That's when it all went wrong. Brainard dove too quickly, and if he had been flying a real plane, it would have been one rough landing.

"Woo hoo," his would-be passengers exclaimed from behind, and laughter broke out in the flight simulator. "Oh, oh, there went my lunch," one said.

"You shouldn't be yelling at the pilot like that," Brainard said and laughed as he slid from the seat. "You made me bounce in."

"That was actually a pretty good approach," the trainer pilot said.

"Everything was great until that sloppy end," Brainard said.

"I didn't say landing, I said approach," the trainer said and there was more laughter.

In addition to the refueler simulator, the participants seated themselves into the "cockpit" of an F-15 Eagle tactical fighter. Most met with similar success, crashing and burning as they attempted to fly the highly technical craft. Others were able to pull off barrel roles and lived to tell the story. But, they took it all in stride and exited the multi-million dollar simulators with a lot of laughter and another vivid reinforcement of the skills of the servicemembers they have met throughout their stops in Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines, and now Japan.

"I think everyone here knows in their own mind the sacrifice that the men and women provide for the country all over the world, but here we put a name and a face and so many human touches to understanding what's happening all over the globe," Brainard said. "This is just a little bit more of an exciting way to do that. This is an experiential way for us to understand what people are doing -- the expertise and professionalism and dedication and conscientious training that every single one of the men and women that we've met puts in their job every day."

Before the stop at the simulators, the group met with members of 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery, and saw firsthand the Army's technology behind shooting enemy missiles from the sky. Afterward, they sat in the grass and shared some field rations -- meals, ready to eat -- with the troops.

Some found opening the packages and preparing their lunch as confusing as they later did the simulators. Tony May, senior vice president and partner of Triad Strategies, in Harrisburg, Pa., said getting to his meal was a little difficult, despite what is supposed to be easy-open rip marks on the packages. "I can see why it is vermin proof. And you want to carry your Swiss army knife," he said.

Reviews of the meals were varied, but it was obvious that is was not the usual fare for this group of doctors, lawyers, educators and business leaders.

Brainard had the beef enchilada with refried beans and a molasses cookie. "I gave the candy to the kid who opened it up and heated it up for me, because I didn't know what the heck I was doing," he said.

May was more impressed with the Army's version of chili and macaroni. "I know for a fact that it tastes better than the ... canned version. The oatmeal cookie was as good as you can find in a supermarket," May said. "I can see why people find it a little odd, but it seems to be a good solution for the situation of being in the field."

Throughout the day, the group added more facts and figures on operational capabilities to their growing cache of military knowledge. They also met more troops and thanked each of them for their service. Some participants in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference have experience with particular branches of the military, but as they make their way through this trip, exposure to different branches, locations and capabilities rounds out and broadens their understanding of the Defense Department as a whole.
Brainard said this trip has been an opportunity for him to learn about the sacrifices of the many who serve in his state.

"My job back home is going 80 miles an hour on a number of different things, and very rarely do I have an opportunity to take a breath and learn and get a better understanding," he said. "With so many of our men and women in the Delaware Air and Army National Guard deployed all over the globe, it's a great way to learn not only what they're doing but what all the servicemen and women are doing around the world."

Brainard said he will take back "a real personal understanding" of the level of commitment that servicemembers bring to their jobs. "It's an unbelievable commitment and level of professionalism and dedication and a real love of country that they bring," he said. "Before we all left our hometowns we knew that, but until you see it and until you meet these folks, it's an extra level of learning that you wouldn't get back home."

May said he has been equally impressed with all of the services and said the level of discipline has impressed him most. "In general, most people say Marines are the toughest guys, and then you meet Marines, you meet guys who are in the Army, and you meet guys who are in the Coast Guard. They are all disciplined, and I'm impressed with the level of discipline and skill that everybody displayed. I'm impressed with their apparent readiness for a lot of conditions that I wouldn't have guessed were going to exist," May said.

"It's reassuring for the public to know that the Army and the other services all seem to be doing a great job," he said.

Pacific Command Hosts Joint Civilian Orientation Conference

By Fred W. Baker III
American Forces Press Service

Nov. 5, 2007 - About 40 civilians with little or no previous military experience gathered in this tropical paradise today to get their marching orders for a week-long expedition that will take them across the Defense Department's largest combatant command. There was little time for umbrella-donned drinks though. Participants of the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference had to prepare for a 2 a.m. wake-up to start what promises to be a very busy itinerary. Over the next week participants will fly to a handful of countries where they will see first-hand the efforts of servicemembers in each of the five services working in the U.S. Pacific Command.

The JCOC is a defense secretary sponsored program for U.S. leaders who want to broaden their knowledge of the military and national defense. JCOC is the oldest existing Pentagon outreach program. This is the 74th JCOC since it started in 1948.

"My hope for the participants is that we have a phenomenal experience in exploring the different cultures, but also that they get an understanding of both the strategic importance of the region and its increasing importance to international security," said Anne MacDonald, JCOC director.

MacDonald said the itinerary is built around providing the group the most basic understanding of what the U.S. military is doing "day-in and day-out in the field."

Because of security concerns in some of the regions in which the group will travel, itinerary details were not disclosed to participants until today. Specific sites visited can only be reported after each visit, conference officials said.

Geographically, PACOM is the largest combatant command, covering from the U.S. West Coast as far as Mongolia and China, and from Alaska south to Antarctica. Its area of responsibility covers more than half of the earth's surface – about 105 million square miles – and includes nearly 60 percent of the world's population. About 300,000 military members from all branches comprise the command.

During the week, participants will receive briefs on each of the services' roles within the command and view related training. Then they will roll up their sleeves and participate. The group will dine with servicemembers in the field, fire military weapons, jump in the cockpit of a fighter jet simulator, rappel down walls, drive a Coast Guard boat and become part of a simulated mass-casualty exercise. Officials want the trip to be as "hands-on" as possible, they said.

Trip planning starts about five months before the conference and includes hundreds of man-hours in preparation. Servicemembers from each of the services volunteer to serve as team leaders for the groups. A handful of other volunteers help round out the efforts.

David Evans, acting director of the Defense Department's Community Relations and Public Liaison office, said this type of conference is critical to giving community leaders an accurate picture of military life.

"The reason it's so important now is we have an entire generation that was not obligated to serve time in the military. They don't have a good idea of what the military is really about except what they see on T.V. So it is critical that we take these leaders out there to see what our military is doing day to day in forward deployed locations," Evans said.

Participants are nominated for the conference by senior military officials or alumni of the program and selected because of their influence. A conference fee paid by the participants covers their costs. This year's group includes doctors, government officials, businessmen and women and educators.

"What we're looking for is a good mix of business leaders, educators, centers of influence in metro areas -- places where there may not be a military installation and we think this might be something that will be worthwhile for them to experience," Evans said.

This is Coast Guard Lt. Sara Wallace's third JCOC to serve as a team leader. She has witnessed the enlightenment that happens as members of the group meet and talk with servicemembers and are able to see what they do in the field, Wallace said.

"By the end of the week the biggest change you see in the participants is just the awe, the wonderment. They can't say enough about the amount that each of the branches of service does. The amount of education they walk away with almost dumbfounds them," she said. And it's not the high-tech equipment that makes the biggest impression either, Wallace said.

"Usually it's just the (servicemembers) themselves. Every time someone goes on this trip they usually walk away impressed with the amount of responsibility that these young men and women are charged with and how much they have to handle," Wallace said.

The trip finishes back here Nov. 11 with a Veterans Day ceremony at the historic National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl. More than 44,000 U.S. war veterans and family members are buried in the 112-acre cemetery.