Leadership Lessons from West Point

Chapter 3. YOU MUST LEAD YOURSELF FIRST

Greg Hastings

Each of the three stories here that span my recent leadership journey, from my freshman to senior years at West Point, takes place at a different level of responsibility, and each has helped me become a more effective leader as I head out into the Army. These stories, the ones I have grown from, are typical and serve as a window into the world of leadership development that is the U.S. Military Academy.

Take Responsibility for Your Own Actions

I learned my first lesson about leadership while still a freshman at the Academy, happy and proud of where I was but also miserable most of the time—by design. West Point first-year students are called plebes, from the Latin word plebeian, referring to the ...