Front-Line Leadership

Introduction

When I was growing up, most people did not look at me and think “Man, that kid is going places!” Except maybe to jail. Thankfully, some people saw potential in me and encouraged me to do better and to be better. They helped transform me from being one of the last people you would associate with the idea of leadership to someone who is now helping entire organizations successfully transform their leadership culture. In this book I want to share the lessons of how I grew my leadership skills and how you can grow yours, too. To take that journey together, let's go back and start at the beginning.

I grew up in a small town in rural Minnesota. And when I say “small town,” I mean no stop lights, no movie theater, no McDonalds. If you were driving through and blinked, you might miss the town altogether. I certainly was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth. By the time I was 12 years old, I had lived in seven different trailers/apartments/houses, often having to share a small room with my three brothers. It wasn't great, but it could have been worse. My mother and my stepfather both worked to provide for us, but they didn't make much money, and we often went without.

I enlisted in the active Army soon after high school, and this is where I cultivated my core leadership skills and behaviors. I went on to serve for nearly 7 years (6 years, 10 months, and 22 days, but who's counting?) as a paratrooper in the historic 173rd Airborne Brigade based out of Vicenza, Italy. ...